The stages of development of the main traditional Swahili poetic genres of tendi and mashairi, starting from the period of their formation and ending with the current state are discussed in the article. On the example of the most significant works of classics and modernity, the formal and stylistic features of the studied genres are analyzed, the question is raised about their continuity and innovative techniques in the context of non-literary factors. The conclusion is made about the development of genres within the framework of a change in the types of artistic consciousness, which manifests itself as the East African society establishes and develops — from awareness of one’s own national identity to an ever-greater inclusion in the global literary process. The last stage of the destruction of tradition, the rejection of the traditional form for today, was expressed in the phenomenon of the transformation of the form of the Old Swahili verse, which is demonstrated in the article on the example of the most prominent representatives of the so-called modernist poetry in Swahili. It is concluded in the article on the role of the author, whose figure manifests itself in different ways at each of the stages of development of Swahili poetry: from controversial authorship at the stage of formation of literature to pronounced features that characterize the specific unique authorial style at the later stages of the development of the studied poetry.