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Mashetani
''Mashetani'' (Devils) is a play written in 1971 in Swahili by Tanzanian playwright Ebrahim Hussein. It has four acts and takes place in Tanzania shortly after the country's independence. The plot centers around the relationship of the characters Juma and Kitaru. ''Mashetani'' has some absurdist elements, including a play within the play and a dream sequence. In the stage directions, Hussein also added descriptions that give the play a more abstract, surreal expression. In Swahili, '' shetani'' (singular) is the word for an East African spirit. These spirits are mostly malevolent and appear as distorted figures. The play was translated to English by Joshua Williams (Oxford University Press: 2021. Plot Act 1 Act one opens on Juma and Kitaru out for a walk. They stop in front of a baobab tree and begin a performance of 'The Devil and Man'. Juma plays the Devil and Kitaru, the man. The rest of the act is performed with the added layer of the Devil (Juma) and Kitaru (Man), unti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ebrahim Hussein
Ebrahim Hussein (born 1943 in Lindi, Tanganyika Territory) is a Tanzanian playwright and poet. His first play, ''Kinjeketile'' (1969), written in Swahili, and based on the life of Kinjikitile Ngwale, a leader of the Maji Maji Rebellion, is considered "a landmark of Tanzanian theatre". Hussein's work stands in a literary tradition expressed in the national language Swahili following the country's independence from the United Kingdom in 1961. Since his works, with the exception of ''Kinjeketile '' and another play, have not been translated, his work has not become well-known outside of East Africa. Works and importance for Swahili theatre Hussein was born into a family of Arab descent in Lindi, a town of the Swahili coast on the Indian Ocean in 1943. He was educated at the Aga Khan Secondary School in Dar es Salaam and at the University College Dar es Salam of the former University of Eastern Africa, where he studied French literature and theatre arts. Hussein's work stands in a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swahili Language
Swahili, also known as as it is referred to endonym and exonym, in the Swahili language, is a Bantu languages, Bantu language originally spoken by the Swahili people, who are found primarily in Tanzania, Kenya, and Mozambique (along the East African coast and adjacent littoral islands). Estimates of the number of Swahili speakers, including both native and second-language speakers, vary widely. They generally range from 150 million to 200 million; with most of its native speakers residing in Tanzania and Kenya. Swahili has a significant number of loanwords from other languages, mainly Arabic, as well as from Portuguese language, Portuguese, English language, English and German language, German. Around 40% of Swahili vocabulary consists of Arabic loanwords, including the name of the language ( , a plural adjectival form of an Arabic word meaning 'of the coasts'). The loanwords date from the era of contact between Arab slave trade, Arab traders and the Northeast Bantu languages, B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tanzania
Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to the south; Zambia to the southwest; and Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. According to a 2024 estimate, Tanzania has a population of around 67.5 million, making it the most populous country located entirely south of the equator. Many important hominid fossils have been found in Tanzania. In the Stone and Bronze Age, prehistoric migrations into Tanzania included South Cushitic languages, Southern Cushitic speakers similar to modern day Iraqw people who moved south from present-day Ethiopia; Eastern Cushitic people who moved into Tanzania from north of Lake Turkana about 2,000 and 4,000 years ago; and the Southern Nilotic languages, Southern Nilotes, including the Datooga people, Datoog, who originated fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Absurdist Fiction
Absurdist fiction is a genre of novels, Play (theatre), plays, poems, films, or other media that focuses on the experiences of characters in situations where they cannot find any inherent Meaning of life, purpose in life, most often represented by ultimately meaningless actions and events that call into question the certainty of existential concepts such as truth or value. In some cases, it may overlap with literary nonsense. The absurdist genre of literature arose in the 1950s and 1960s, first predominantly in France and Germany, prompted by post-war disillusionment. Absurdist fiction is a reaction against the surge in Romanticism in Paris in the 1830s, the collapse of religious tradition in Germany, and the societal and philosophical revolution led by the expressions of Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche. Common elements in absurdist fiction include satire, dark humor, incongruity, the abasement of reason, and controversy regarding the philosophical condition of being " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shetani
Shetani (the word is both singular and plural in English, the plural in Swahili is ''mashetani'') are spirits of East African mythology and popular belief. Mostly malevolent, and found in many different forms and different types with different powers, shetani are a popular subject of carved artwork, especially by the Makonde people of Tanzania, Mozambique, and Kenya. Physically, shetani of various types appear as distorted human and animal figures. There is a contemporary East African shetani cult, and reports of sightings of individual shetani are cyclical, with Popo Bawa panics having occurred in 1995 in Zanzibar and 2007 in Dar es Salaam. The influential Makonde artist George Lilanga (1934–2005) gained world renown with his shetani sculptures and paintings. Samaki Likankoa, master carver in Tanzania was the foremost originator of the shetani style in the early 1950s. Mohamed Peera, an Indian art curator was a major patron and influence to many makonde carvers such as Sama ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arusha Declaration
The Arusha Declaration () and TANU’s Policy on Socialism and Self Reliance (1967), referred to as the Arusha Declaration, is known as Tanzania’s most prominent political statement of African Socialism, ‘ Ujamaa’, or brotherhood (Kaitilla, 2007). The Arusha declaration is divided into five parts: The TANU “Creed”; The Policy of Socialism; The Policy of Self Reliance; the TANU Membership; and the Arusha Resolution. Background In December 1966, Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere toured through half of the country, urging unity to pursue national goals of self-reliance and socialism. On February 5, 1967, in the town of Arusha, Nyerere issued the Arusha Declaration. It provided the overall ideological framing of Ujamaa and an approach to Tanzania's national development focusing on collective hard work, agrarian transformation, and anti-colonialism. Contents Creed Part one of the Arusha Declaration, The TANU “Creed”, outlines the principles of socialism a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tanganyika African National Union
The Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) was the principal political party in the struggle for sovereignty in the East African state of Tanganyika (now Tanzania). The party was formed from the Tanganyika African Association by Julius Nyerere in July 1954 when he was teaching at St. Francis' College (which is now known as Pugu High School). From 1964 the party was called the Tanzania African National Union. In January 1977 the TANU merged with the ruling party in Zanzibar, the Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP), to form the current Revolutionary State Party or Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM). The policy of TANU was to build and maintain a socialist state aiming towards economic self-sufficiency and to eradicate corruption and exploitation, with the major means of production and exchange under the control of the peasants and workers (Ujamaa Ujamaa ( in Swahili language, Swahili) was a Socialism, socialist ideology that formed the basis of Julius Nyerere's social and economic Economic devel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zanzibar
Zanzibar is a Tanzanian archipelago off the coast of East Africa. It is located in the Indian Ocean, and consists of many small Island, islands and two large ones: Unguja (the main island, referred to informally as Zanzibar) and Pemba Island. The capital is Zanzibar City, located on the island of Unguja. Its historic centre, Stone Town, is a World Heritage Site. Zanzibar is also a Autonomous administrative divisions, semi-autonomous region that united with Tanganyika (1961–1964), Tanganyika in 1964, and formed the present-day Tanzania, United Republic of Tanzania. The archipelago's main Industry (economics), industries are spices, raffia palm, raffia, and tourism. The main spices produced are clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, coconut, and black pepper. The Zanzibar Archipelago, together with Tanzania's Mafia Island, are sometimes referred to locally as the "Spice Islands". Tourism in Zanzibar is a more recent activity, driven by government promotion that caused an increase from 19,000 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abeid Karume
Abeid Amani Karume (4 August 1905 – 7 April 1972) was a Tanzanian politician and statesman who served as the first President of Zanzibar and the first Vice President of Tanzania from 1964 to 1972. He obtained the title of president as a result of a revolution which led to the deposing of Jamshid bin Abdullah, the last reigning Sultan of Zanzibar, in . Three months later, Zanzibar united with Tanganyika and formed Tanzania, and Karume became the first Vice President of Tanzania with Julius Nyerere (the then president of Tanganyika) as president of the new unified country. He was the father of Zanzibar's sixth president, Amani Abeid Karume. Early life and career Abeid Karume was born on August 4, 1905. However, his birthplace is disputed with reports stating that he was born in Nyasaland (present-day Malawi), while others stated that he was allegedly born in the village of Mwera in Zanzibar. Nevertheless, Karume had little formal education and worked as a seaman bef ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Afro-Shirazi Party
The Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) was an African nationalist and socialist Zanzibari political party formed between the mostly Shirazi Shiraz Party and the mostly African Afro Party. In the 1963 Zanzibari general election, the ASP claimed 13 seats and the majority of votes cast, yet the election ended up favouring the Zanzibar Nationalist Party and Zanzibar and Pemba People's Party alliance who collectively claimed 18 seats. Unsatisfied with such unfair representation in parliament, the ASP, headed by Abeid Karume, collaborated with the Umma Party to begin the Zanzibar Revolution on 12 January 1964. The revolution overthrew the Sultanate of Zanzibar The Sultanate of Zanzibar (, ), also known as the Zanzibar Sultanate, was an East African Muslim state controlled by the Sultan of Zanzibar, in place between 1856 and 1964. The Sultanate's territories varied over time, and after a period of de ... and established the People's Republic of Zanzibar, ruled by Abeid Karume. F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julius Nyerere
Julius Kambarage Nyerere (; 13 April 1922 – 14 October 1999) was a Tanzanian politician, anti-colonial activist, and political theorist. He governed Tanganyika (1961–1964), Tanganyika as prime minister from 1961 to 1962 and then as president from 1962 to 1964, after which he led its successor state, Tanzania, as president from 1964 to 1985. He was a founding member and chair of the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) party and of its successor, Chama Cha Mapinduzi, from 1954 to 1990. Ideologically an African nationalism, African nationalist and African socialism, African socialist, he promoted a political philosophy known as Ujamaa. Born in Butiama, Mara Region, Mara, then in the British colony of Tanganyika, Nyerere was the son of a Zanaki people, Zanaki chief. After completing his schooling, he studied at Makerere College in Uganda and then Edinburgh University in Scotland. In 1952 he returned to Tanganyika, married, and worked as a school teacher. In 1954, he helpe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
