Lilian Mbaga

Lilian Mbaga, born 1991, addresses gender inequality in Tanzania in her writing. Her first book, Tabasamu la Uchungu (Smile of bitterness, 2014), recounts a girl’s trauma from rape. Her second novel Hatinafsi (Selfishness, 2018) deals with a widow’s harassment and dispossession by her in-laws. Given the difficult Tanzanian publishing environment, Mbaga has self-published her books. Hatinafsi came to prominence by promotion through the new writers’ association UWARIDI of which Mbaga is a member. In 2021, she also participated in a very successful collaborative online novel about sextortion by five writers of the association. - Center for the Art of Translation