{{Short description|Swahili poet}} {{Infobox person | name = Mwana Kupona binti Msham | birth_place = [[Pate Island]] | death_date = c. 1865 | occupation = Poet | years_active = 19th century | known_for = ''Utendi wa Mwana Kupona'' | spouse = Bwana Mataka | children = 2 }} '''Mwana Kupona binti Msham''' (born on [[Pate Island]], died c. 1865) was a [[Swahili people|Swahili]] poet of the 19th century, author of a poem called '''''Utendi wa Mwana Kupona''''' ("The Book of Mwana Kupona"), which is one of the most well-known works of early [[Swahili literature]].
Relatively little is known about her life. Her grandson Muhammed bin Abdalla<ref>[http://www.swahilimanuscripts.soas.ac.uk/perl/Project/showSwahiliItem.pl?ref=MS%2053508c MS 53508c], manuscript, Hitchens Collection</ref> reported in the 1930s that Mwana Kupona was born on Pate Island, and that she was the last wife of [[sheikh]] [[Bwana Mataka]], ruler of [[Siyu|Siu]] (or Siyu), with whom she had two children. Mataka died in 1856; two years later, Mwana Kupona wrote her famous poem, dedicated to her 14-year-old daughter Mwana Heshima. Mwana Kupona died around 1865 of uterine [[hemorrhaging]].
==''Utendi wa Mwana Kupona''== The poem dates to about 1858 (year 1275 of the [[Islamic calendar]]), and is centered on the teachings and advice of Mwana Kupona to her daughter, concerning [[marriage]] and wifely duties.<ref>Extracted in [[Margaret Busby]] (ed.), ''[[Daughters of Africa]]'', Cape: 1992, pp. 67–69.</ref> Despite the seemingly secular subject, the book is prominently [[religion|religious]] and even [[mysticism|mystical]], and it has been compared to the [[Bible|Biblical]] ''[[Book of Proverbs]]''. A few lines of the poem are dedicated to the author herself:
{| cellpadding="5" | :'''Swahili:''' || :'''Translation:''' |- | :''Mwenye kutunga nudhumu'' :''Ni gharibu mwenye hamu'' :''Na ubora wa ithimu'' :''Rabbi tamghufiria'' :''Ina lake mufahamu'' :''Ni mtaraji karimu'' :''Mwana Kupona Mshamu'' :''Pate alikozaliwa'' :''Tarikhiye kwa yakini'' :''Ni alifu wa miyateni'' :''Hamsa wa sabini'' || :The author of this work :is a sorrowful widow :her worst sin :The Lord will forgive :Know her name :she is Reliant-of-the-Provider :Mwana Kupona Mshamu :born in Pate. :The date in reality :Is one thousand two hundred :Seventy-five. |}
==References in culture== * The [[Kenya]]n writer and Swahili literature scholar [[Kitula King'ei]] published in 2000 a [[children's book]] entitled ''Mwana Kupona: Poetess from Lamu'', based on the work and life of Mwana Kupona.
==See also== * [[Swahili literature]]
==Notes== <references/>
==References== * Kitula King'ei, [http://www.folklore.ee/Folklore/vol16/swahili.pdf "Aspects of Autobiography in the Classical Swahili Poetry: Problems of Identity of Authorship"], ''Folklore'', vol. 16, 2001.
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[[Category:Swahili-language writers]] [[Category:1860s deaths]] [[Category:Year of death uncertain]] [[Category:Year of birth unknown]] [[Category:People from Lamu Archipelago]] [[Category:19th-century Kenyan women writers]] [[Category:19th-century Kenyan writers]] [[Category:Scholars of precolonial East Africa]]