Abdilatif Abdalla (born 1946 in

Mombasa Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital status in 1907. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is ...

) is a Kenyan writer and political activist. He was imprisoned for his support of the

Kenya People's Union The Kenya People's Union (KPU) was a socialist political party in Kenya led by Oginga Odinga. The party was banned in 1969. History Formation In March 1966 a left-wing faction of the governing Kenya African National Union (KANU) instigated ...

, and began writing poetry in

solitary confinement Solitary confinement (also shortened to solitary) is a form of imprisonment in which an incarcerated person lives in a single Prison cell, cell with little or no contact with other people. It is a punitive tool used within the prison system to ...

. A collection of poems from this time were published as a book titled ''Sauti ya Dhiki'' (1973), which was awarded the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature.

Early life

Abdilatif Abdalla was born in

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

, in 1946, where he was brought up by his grandfather Ahmad Basheikh bin Hussein. Abdalla attended school in Faza, before undertaking further studies at the British Tutorial College. He began his political involvement after working for the Mombasa City Council as an assistant

accountant An accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy. Accountants who have demonstrated competency through their professional associations' certification exams are certified to use titles such as Chartered Accountant, Chartered Certif ...

, writing the pamphlet ''Kenya Twendapi?'' (Eng: ''Kenya, Where Are We Headed'') in support of the

in 1968.

Political imprisonment and writing

When the Kenyan Government of

Jomo Kenyatta Jomo Kenyatta (22 August 1978) was a Kenyan anti-colonial activist and politician who governed Kenya as its Prime Minister from 1963 to 1964 and then as its first President from 1964 to his death in 1978. He played a significant role in the ...

conducted a crackdown on KPU activists, Abdalla was imprisoned for conspiracy between 1969 and 1972. He was at first held in Kamiti Prison, and later i
Shimo la Tewa Prison
where he was kept in solitary confinement. It was while imprisoned that he wrote the poems that would be collected in the 1973 work ''Sauti ya Dhiki'', whose title translates to "Voice of Agony". These were written in the Mombasa version of the

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 Af ...

and published by his older brother Sheikh Abdilahi Nassir. He later explained that writing the poems in solitary confinement had kept him sane. After he was awarded the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature for ''Sauti ya Dhiki'' in 1974, he moved in exile to

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 t ...

. While there he worked as a senior researcher on Swahili at the

University of Dar es Salaam The University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) (Swahili: ''Chuo Kikuu cha Dar es Salaam'') is a public university located in Ubungo District, Dar es Salaam Region, Tanzania. It was established in 1961 as an affiliate college of the University of London. ...

and collaborated editing a Swahili dictionary. In 1979, he moved to London and worked for

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Swahili department, later editing the news magazine ''Africa Events''. Abdalla's only

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

poem was published in 1988, entitled ''Peace, Love and Unity for Whom?''. This was in response to an attempt by

Daniel arap Moi Daniel Toroitich arap Moi ( ; 2 September 1924 – 4 February 2020) was a Kenyan politician who served as the second president of Kenya from 1978 to 2002. He is the country's longest-serving president to date. Moi previously served as the thi ...

's government to bribe Abdalla into no longer working with

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (; born James Ngugi; 5January 193828May 2025) was a Kenyan author and academic, who has been described as East Africa's leading novelist and an important figure in modern African literature. Ngũgĩ wrote primarily in Eng ...

. Abdalla has since taught Swahili at

Leipzig University Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

Works

*''Utenzi wa maisha ya Adamu na Hawaa'' (1971) *''Sauti ya Dhiki'' (1973)

Notes

References

* *

External links

Interview MP3Ann Biersteker interviews Abdilatif Abdalla (Africa Past & Present, Nov. 2014)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abdalla, Abdilatif 1946 births Living people Kenyan writers Kenyan male writers Kenyan politicians People from Mombasa Swahili-language writers People associated with SOAS University of London Academic staff of Leipzig University Academic staff of the University of Dar es Salaam BBC people