Muhammed Said Abdulla or Abdullah (25 April 1918 – March 1991), was a Tanzanian Swahili

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

who is often credited as a pioneer of Swahili popular literature.

Life

Muhammed Said Abdulla was born in historic Makunduchi,

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. ...

to a Muslim family in modern day

Kusini District Kusini District (''Wilaya ya Kusini'' in Swahili language, Swahili) is one of two administrative districts of Unguja South Region of Tanzania. The district has a water border to the east, south and west by the Indian Ocean. Kati District borders ...

Unguja South Region Unguja South Region, Zanzibar South Region or South Zanzibar Region (''Mkoa wa Unguja Kusini'' in Swahili) is one of the 31 regions of Tanzania. The region covers an area of . The region is comparable in size to the combined land area of the nat ...

. He received his secondary education at a missionary school, and after graduating in 1938, began working for the state Civil Health Department as an inspector. While there he served as editor for the Department of Agriculture's ''Swahili Bulletin.'' Abdulla went into journalism and in 1948, he became

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...

of the newspaper ''Zanzibari''. He later became

assistant editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, and ...

of ''Al-Falaq'', ''Afrika Kwetu'', and ''Al Mahda''. From 1958 to his retirement in 1968, he served as editor of the agricultural magazine ''Mkulima''. In 1958, his

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent ...

work ''Mzimu wa Watu wa Kale'' (Shrine of the Ancestors) won top honors at the Swahili Story-Writing Competition held by the East African Literature Bureau; in 1960, the work was published as a novel. The novel was noted for breaking away from

folktale Oral literature, orature, or folk literature is a genre of literature that is spoken or sung in contrast to that which is written, though much oral literature has been transcribed. There is no standard definition, as anthropologists have used va ...

traditions that were popular in Swahili literature at the time. ''Mzimu wa Watu wa Kale'' marked the first appearance of Bwana Msa, a

detective A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads the ...

character that features in most of his subsequent works. The plots of Abdulla's later novels became progressively more and more complex and sophisticated. These plots usually involved a protagonist who must battle ignorance and superstition in order to resolve the conflict.

Works

* ''Shrine of the Ancestors'' (Mzimu wa Watu wa Kale), 1960 * ''The Well of Giningi'' (Kisima cha Giningi), 1968 * ''In the World There Are People'' (Duniani Kuna Watu), 1973 * ''The Secret of the Zero'' (Siri ya Sifuri), 1974 * ''One Wife, Three Husbands'' (Mke Mmoja Waume Watatu), 1975 * ''The Devil's Child is Taken Care of'' (Mwana wa Yungi Hulewa), 1976 * ''Bwana Msa's Mistake'' (Kosa la Bwana Msa), 1984

Awards

* Swahili Story-writing Contest (1957–8) ''Mzimu wa Watu wa Kale''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abdulla, Muhammed Said 1918 births 1991 deaths Zanzibari writers Tanzanian novelists Swahili-language writers 20th-century novelists