Archives of Popular Swahili is an electronic archive of spoken and written Popular Swahili texts. Popular varieties of Swahili are used as the primary medium or vehicle of Central-African popular culture. At the same time, Popular varieties of Swahili and the texts produced in them are among the most conspicuous materializations of this culture.

APS wants to preserve and document Popular Swahili texts with the aim of promoting the study and appreciation of non-Standard vernacular varieties of Swahili and their role in African culture and society.

APS will publish text materials that have remained unpublished or are otherwise hard to get. Such materials may include, for instance, private documents, such as letters, autobiographies, lyrics, religious tracts, out of print text collections, locally produced books, journals and magazines, or transcripts of field recordings. If you know of materials that may be included in APS, please do not hesitate to contact us by e-mail or regular mail.

Listed here are all published volumes of APS. Each text, or corpus of texts, is published as a separate volume.

You may also want to have a look at an annotated bibliography of Popular Swahili texts in books and articles.

If you have problems printing or saving LPCA web pages, please read How to save and print LPCA web pages.

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