Ida Hadjivayanis is an academic at SOAS University of London where she lectures on Swahili studies. She has translated Dhulma (2025) and Peponi (2022), the Swahili translations of Theft (2025) and Paradise (1994) respectively by the Nobel laureate, Abdulrazak Gurnah. Ida’s academic publications explore Swahili literary translations, norms of translating prose in Swahili and translocality of Swahili speakers in diaspora. She has collaborated with Salha Hamdani on a memoir : Salama binti Rubeya : Memories from the Swahili Coast / Salama binti Rubeya: Simulizi kutoka Mwambao wa Bahari ya Hindi. The books offer a lived perspective of those who are often excluded from historical narratives, showcasing how the everyday person was impacted by historical forces. Ida has also translated Alisi ndani ya nchi ya Ajabu (2015) and Poems for the Penniless (2019), a collaboration with the Tanzanian academic, Issa Shivji. Her extensive public speaking engagements explore various themes including the reality of multi-lingualism in Africa, decolonisation in translations, the unequal encounters on the Indian Ocean and the place of Swahili as a global lingua-franca. Ida Hadjivayanis is the co-founder of the annual SOAS Baraza Swahili Conference