by M G Vassanji
After I have surrendered this material, which overtook my life for these past months, I will go out and take a walk along Uhuru Street, and perhaps even stroll into the mnada, the bustling discount market where it all began, where Feroz, my former student, recognized me and stopped to give me a lift, and later put an Englishman’s diary into my hands. Some shopping may be in order, now. At the end of a recent letter, Sona invited me to visit Canada and the U.S.A., where he says many of my former students will be eager to see me. A fare has been offered, and I have gratefully accepted the invitation. A holiday abroad at this time will not go amiss.
When I return to Dar it will be to this same apartment, thanks to Feroz, and — more important — to a new position which, after much effort, he has finally found for me. It is that of a part-time teacher at a new private school that has emerged to meet the recent growing demands to reinstate the rigorous standards we had once in education. The headmaster of this school is from Kenya, and he has already given me a tour of the place. I must confess, rather unfairly I started comparing: the grounds of this school are not even a fifth of those of the old Boyschool. But it is a new generation of pupils I will teach, boys and girls of mixed race, bright, with fresh hopes and promise, whose up-to-date experiences and outlooks are bound to challenge and rejuvenate even this old teacher. I don’t know the full story behind the job, what strings were pulled, and I will not speculate at this point. I have told the headmaster I will take a month off, to go abroad, before returning to take up my duties. The new job, I expect, will allow me to undertake some projects that I have recently promised myself to pursue.
But I must stop now, the man has arrived for the package.
Pius Fernandes
12 August, 1988
Dar es Salaam
SELECTED GLOSSARY
The symbols* and† following definitions indicate Swahili and Indian words respectively. These words, especially the Swahili, may have origins in Arabic.
askari — a policeman, guard, or watchman*
avatar — an incarnation†
ayurvedic — herbal; using ancient Indian medicinal traditions and methods†
baazi — a bean curry*
bagala — a boat*
bao — a board game*
baraza — a public meeting*
bhajan — a devotional hymn†
bhang — a drug†
biriyani — a rich, spicy Indian rice dish†
buibui — a thin black veil for women*
bunduki — gun*
bwana — used as title, equivalent of “Mr.”; used to address someone, as in “sir”*
carom — an Indian game for two or four, played on a square board, using black and white discs†
channa — chickpea curry†
dandia — a traditional stick-dance†
dhol — a kind of drum†
dhoti — loincloth†
dhow — a lateen-rigged boat or small ship
djinn — a kind of spirit; a jinnee†,*
dudu — insect*
duka — a shop*
Eid — a Muslim festival
eti — a word used to draw attention, as in “I say”*
feldkompanie — German army unit
fisi — hyena*
garba — a traditional Indian dance†
gharry — hand-drawn tram
gopi — cow-girl lover(s) of the god Krishna, with the union being sexual-mystical†
gyan — hymn†
hadith — Muslim text relating Prophet Mohamed’s life and deeds
halud — a kind of scent†,*
Hamisi — Thursday*
heller — a unit of money introduced by the Germans
houri — a beautiful woman promised in the Muslim Paradise
hutu-tutu — a territorial game involving two teams, often played on picnics†
Jambo — a greeting*
jiv — a soul†
jumba — a house; corruption of “nyumba”*
Juma — Friday†,*
kalima — the Muslim creed that begins “There is no God but Allah”
Kamba — an African people
kanzu — a cotton smock, frequently white*
Kaunda suit — a kind of suit popularized by President Kaunda of Zambia
khanga — colourful printed cloth with a catchy line of text on it*
kiboko — a whip*
kikapu — a basket*
kikoi — a kind of cloth, with a border*
kofia — cloth cap, hand-embroidered*
Kundalini — a spiritual force†
Layl-tul-qadr — a Muslim festival
maago — a proposal of marriage†
maalim — an exorcist; a learned man†,†
maandazi — a sweet fried bread*
maghrab — dusk†
Maji-Maji uprising — a revolt by Africans against the Germans in 1905; from maji*, meaning “water”
mandap — a large ceremonial tent†
Marhaba — a greeting*
matata — a bother, fuss, or hubbub*
mbuyu — baobab tree*
Mfalme — King
mganga — healer; doctor*
Mira Bai — a famous Indian female mystic of medieval times†
mnada — market*
mshairi — poet*
mukhi — a spiritual and temporal leader of a Shamsi community, whose duties are performed voluntarily†
Mwafrica — (meaning “The African”); a Tanzanian progovernment newspaper of the 1960s and 1970s
mwalimu — a teacher; a respectful title for President Nyerere, a teacher by profession*
mzee — old man; used as form of respectful address*
mzungu — a white man*
namasté — a greeting involving joining one’s hands in front†
ngalawa — a dugout boat*
nikaa — religious text read at a Muslim wedding
nyanyi — baboon*
pachedi — a woman’s head-cover†
paisa — an Indian unit of money, smaller than a rupee†
pandit — a Hindu learned man†
pilau — an Indian fried rice dish†
pili-pili bizari — chillies and spice*
pita-piti — a picnic game†
pombé — an alcoholic drink*
Ramadhan — a sacred month in the Muslim calendar; observed with fasting in daylight hours
rasa — an Indian folk dance similar to a garba†
shaaytan — spirit†
shamba period — a school period allocated for cultivation
shetani — spirits*
Shikamoo — a greeting*
simba — lion†
sirdar — a person of high political or military rank†
Sufi — Muslim mystical order or sect, or a person belonging to one
tabalchi — a tabla player†
tabla — a drum†
tambi — vermicelli*
tawith — a charm containing Quran inscriptions†
toto — servant boy; a corruption of mtoto*, meaning “child”
ugali — a preparation of maize flour, to eat with stew*
vitumbua (pl.) — sweet fried bread*
wazee (pl.) — elders*
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book is a work of fiction. The town of Kikono, its ADC, and the other characters are all fictitious. Only the historical backdrop and geographical settings are real, though even here the purist may find some liberties taken.
I would like to thank the Rhodes House Library, Oxford, and the Imperial War Museum Library, London, for their open and generous facilities; and in particular I wish to acknowledge a debt here to the Librarian and the Assistant Librarian of Rhodes House for clarifying certain matters in relation to the bwanas of this book. This is also a good place to thank Begum and Pyarali for a dusty ride to Taveta; and the various folks in Tanga who welcomed a weary, curious, and unknown traveller one dawn, with a taxi driver who had been forced to
foot it; and Zahir Dhalla for introductions. As well, Caroline Avens and others at Heinemann in Oxford have been generous with their hospitality.
I must thank various friends for their support — Arun Mukher-jee, Issa Shivji, Walter Bugoya, Fatma Aloo, and Francis Imbuga.
The Canada Council has been generous.
And so have Nurjehan and Anil, in their own way, with their encouragement and their patience even when it was difficult.
Finally I must thank Alex Schultz for sensitively and thoroughly reading the manuscript. And of course Ellen Seligman, who probed every secret in the book — patient, thorough, and persistent; the debt is enormous.
Excerpts titled “Governor’s Memoranda for PCs and DCs” in Chapter 2 have been taken from “Confidential Memoranda for Provincial Commissioners and District Commissioners,” dated 1910, signed by Governor E. P. C. Girouard; excerpts from the Quran are from the translation of Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall (Mentor Book); and those from Romeo and Juliet in Chapter 19 are from the Alexander Text (Collins, 1951).
The epigraph on this page is from the translation of the Ruba’iyat by Peter Avery and John Heath Stubbs (Penguin, 1981); the one on this page by Sir Thomas Browne is taken from the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (1979); the riddle on this page is from the book Swahili Tales by Edward Steere (Society for Promotion of Christian Knowledge, 1933) and modified by me; the epigraphs on this page are my own renderings of a well-known Swahili proverb and an Ismaili ginan; the quote on this page is from a movie poster for Gilda; and the one from Auden on this page is from “You” in Selected Poetry of W. H. Auden (Vintage, 1971). And finally, the line from the Anarkali song in Chapter 18 and Miscellany (iv) is my own rendering.
M.G. Vassanji was born in Kenya and raised in Tanzania. Before coming to Canada in 1978, he attended M.I.T., and later was writer-in-residence at the University of Iowa in their prestigious International Writing Program. Vassanji’s fiction to date comprises five novels and two books of short stories: The Gunny Sack (1989), which won a Regional Commonwealth Writers’ Prize; No New Land (1991); Uhuru Street (short stories, 1992); The Book of Secrets (1994), a national bestseller and the winner of the inaugural Giller Prize; Amriika (1999); The In-Between World of Vikram Lall (2003), which won The Giller Prize; and, most recently, When She Was Queen (short stories, 2005).
Vassanji was awarded the Harbourfront Festival Prize in 1994, in recognition of his achievement in and contribution to the world of letters, and was in that same year chosen as one of twelve Canadians on Maclean’s Honour Roll.
M.G. Vassanji lives in Toronto.