KINJEKETILE
by Ebrahim Hussein
About the Play
Kinjeketile is
a play written by Ebrahim Hussein, a Tanzanian author. He first wrote the
play in Swahili, and it was also first performed in Swahili. You will read an
English translation of the play that was done by the author.
The play tells the story of
the Maji-Maji rebellion in 1904-05 that was led by Kinjeketile Ngwale in what
was at the time called Southern Tanganyika.
The play, Kinjeketile (1969), written
in Swahili is considered “a landmark of
Tanzanian theater.”
The play soon became one of the standard subjects for Kiswahili exams in
Tanzania and Kenya. By 1981, it had already been reprinted six times.
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| Ebrahim Hussein |
We have TWO ANALYSIS about the Play
Analysis 1 and Analysis 2
ANALYSIS 1
The Plot
The play deals with the ‘Maji Maji’ revolt of the
late 19th and early twenty centuries in the then Tanzania. The ‘Maji
Maji’ revolt in the play text explores the German colonial suppression and
exploitation of the people of Tanzania and the result of the people’s revolts
against their oppressors. The play exposes the deplorable state of affairs in
Tanzania, Rufiji region as meted on the people by their colonial masters. The
play clearly tells the audience about the state of desperation, exploitation
despair and famine which the colonialists had brought as a result.
The situation brings to the mind of Africans hatred
and deep feelings of indignation against the Germans. As these inhumane
conditions are carried out against Africans, Africans too have their common
problems which are the lack of unity and solidarity among themselves. This
attempt to uniting in one accord is hampered by the constant bickering,
jealousies, an accusation of cowardice and womanliness among themselves.
As the issue of disunity raises among the people,
Kinjeketile, a spiritual intellectual comes to brighten the hopes and
expectations of the people. Kinjeketile is as poor as other Africans, what set
him apart are his solitude and mysticism. After dwelling in the pool of Rufiji
River for a long period of reflection, Kinjeketile is occupied by the spirit-
Hongo who lives in the pool. In his dependency, he declares that “with the
Maji, we will unite and we will be one body… when we are one body, when we are
united, we will be free. The red earth will be destroyed; he will be kicked out
of our country. Hear me, this is the water given to us. This is the water of
life. And this is the whisk of power. He who partakes of this water, no harm
will befall him.”
Water (Maji) is used here symbolically as a
necessity for the need of unity among the tribes of the region as well as a
means for assuming people of safety against German bullets. This arouses the
people to unite with the burning enthusiasm, emotions and enthusiasm and await
the final word from Kinjeketile to commence the war of liberation. But
Kinjeketile also prophesies that if they conquer the Germans, they will become the
children of Seyyid Said, the Sultan of Zanzibar. This means that after the
freedom of the people from the colonial rule of the Germans, they will become
the children of Seyyid Said, meaning the replacement of obvious colonialism by
domestic colonialism. This is disturbing, confusing as well as contradicting.
This baffles Kinjeketile that he finds it difficult to give the people the
‘word’ to start the war of emancipation against the Germans. In an outraged
sense of betrayal and treachery from the power that possessed him, Kinjeketile
declines his message and insists that people must fight with reason. The attack
turns out to be a national suicide for the people as the Germans repel the
attack with terrible losses.
Kinjeketile is captured and tortured by the German
soldiers to force him to renounce the power of the water even though he,
himself doubts the authenticity of the water (Maji) prophecy. He used the Maji
to unite the divided people and instill a spirit of resistance in them. But
having done that, he then secularizes the myth by grounding it on the bedrock
of practical military realities. It then remained for him to articulate albeit
in the tragic recognition. The inevitable transcendence of the myth as an
irreversible process of struggle and history.
Kinjeketile has therefore become a tragic hero who
is driven and tied to the fate that is guided by powers larger than he can
bear. All the same, he chooses not to lose faith and hope in the millennial
signal he has given his people despite the paradoxical nature of his Maji
prophecy. This has been neatly captured in a dramatic form by Ebrahim Hussein. KINJEKETILE therefore is a legend that deals with the
historical struggle of the Tanzanian people of East Africa for their
independence from the German.
ISSUES OF CONCERN (THEMES)
This historical event has been used by the
playwright to address issues of tribalism, poverty, neo colonialism, and misuse
of religion, exploitation, superstition and the stereotyped role of the woman
in the African societies. These forces have continued to eat into the nerves of
the socio-economic and political institutions. To the Wamatumbi, ‘Maji’ is a
symbol of unity and infallibility. To the larger society ‘Maji’ would symbolize
a redemptive force to dechain us from the bondage of servitude brought about by
the aforementioned forces.
In Kinjeketile, tribalism
becomes a stepping stone for the German rule. As Kinjeketile puts it, they are
a small, constricted, isolated band of people. (P.5) he therefore advises the
Tanganyikans to abandon their tribal differences and unite for their common
goal. To him unity is an emancipatory tool for a collective bargain for
freedom. We see that disunity had made the communities go to war against the
German while disorganized. They do not want to unite for they consider each
other cowards. They fail to take Kitunda’s instructions seriously because he is
Mmatumbi the tribe considered as women. One can look at the disaster that
befalls Tanganyikans in the light of the Rwandan genocide. Thousands and
thousands of Rwandese lost their lives because of the tribal acrimonies. The
Tutsi and the Hutu tribes of Rwanda became hostile to each other and let
weapons sort out their differences. Kinjeketile is therefore used by Hussein to
show how deadly the ethnic affinities can be used to people’s undoing.
Secondly Hussein shows the root cause of tribalism
and negative ethnicity. People have no time to work on their farms because they
spend long hours toiling in Kinoo’s, (the white man) farm with lukewarm pay
that goes to paying poll tax and hut tax. The size of the farm keeps on
increasing by day hence the work of these people. That means that they do not
have time to work on their farms at home. Kinoo’s farm is increasing because he
keeps grabbing the Africans land hence denying the labourers the king source of
wealth, land. The expected result can then be seen. The Africans become so poor
that they cannot afford food for their daily consumption and Bi. Bobali’s child
dies after consuming poisonous roots.
Poverty has reduced some people to traitors, according to
Kitunda when he argues and justifiable so that,
‘…we are a hungry people, and hunger drives us to
betray one another’ p.5
Poverty as portrayed by Hussein is a reflection of
what happens in our contemporary society. Our leaders grab large tracts of land
such that one person is said to own land equal to a whole province of the
country while millions of others are squatters on unproductive plots of land.
In Kinjeketile, Hussein explores the theme
of neo colonialism. In physical reality the colonial masters have left African
countries, but psychologically they are controlling their activities from
abroad. Africa is held captive to its own freedom. This is the kind of freedom
that Kinjeketile refuses to be party to when he argues that it will be sheer
futility to drive out the Germans and let in Seyyid Said to control our bodies
and spirits. He doubts the good will in Hongo’s words when he says that they
will be strong and drive out the red soil and then become the children of
Seyyid Said. Kinjeketile is emphatic that the Tanganyikans cannot be
strengthened by use of some dubious aid from outside’ (p.29). The playwright
then is arguing that we can only rely on ourselves to solve our own problems
instead of relying on some imaginary aid. Africa, this light, can be understood
to have enough resources to solve its own problems without begging from
outside.
Religion or misuse of it is
another of the large issues that can be found in this text. Since the Wazaramo
believe in Kolelo and the Maji brought by Kinjeketile is from Hongo the god of
the Wamatumbi, then the Wazaramo’s cannot fight believing in the water. In fact
they cannot join the Wamatumbi’s in fighting the red soil. What this tells us
is that the religion in this society is a tool of disunity used to divide the
people for it binds them against co operation even if it is for a common good.
It takes Kinjeketile to persuade the two sides into believing that god is only
one and is referred to using different names by different people. To the
Wamatumbi he is hongo while to the Wazaramo he is kolelo. Religions have been
causes of a lot of conflicts in our contemporary Africa. In parts of Nigeria
and even Kenya, christians and moslems keep fighting and burning churches and
mosques in the name of defending their different religious interests.
The subtheme of superstition is also
explored under this theme of religion. Wamatumbi belief that Hongo, a spirit
who lives in water, has given Kinjeketile Maji which when drank makes one
bullet proof. They all drink he water and blindly troop to wards the Germans
big gun assured of their infallibity. They become so disillusioned when they
realize that they are not at all protected by the water for the bullets still
kill them. They turn and blame Kinjeketile despite him having warned them
against impatience.
Exploitation of the Africans by the white man
is another theme. He brings this issue to the fore when he presents the
peasants as having to work for Kinoo the white oppressor without any pay. He
keeps grabbing their land while his brothers in oppression the administrators
demand that these peasants pay poll tax among other taxes.
This falls squarely in line with what happens in
our present societies where workers are subjected to all sorts of taxations while
they earn very little. Such workers are overworked to sustain the few
bourgeoisies who know nothing but to demand for increase in their pay,
allowances and increase in anything that enters their pockets.
Related to the exploitation is the issue of brutality.
The peasants and their families are treated with less regard to their human
rights. They are overworked, they are mercilessly beaten when they try to
resist, their daughters are raped for cheap pleasure and god knows what other
brutality is inflicted upon this people. Due to this forced hard labour, the
men cannot rise to the occasion and satisfy the sexual needs of their wives for
after the days work at the Kinoo’s they are tired and so needs enough rest. One
of the women is in agony because her husband, ‘…immediately flings himself on
the bed and sleeps like a log.’ Pg11.
The Askari shamelessly grabs Chausiku from her
hapless and helpless parents and takes her to the Nyapara who rapes her. Such a
young unripe and innocent girl is introduced to sex through rape. To add an
insult to an injury, her mother is fully aware that the brutes are raping her
but she cannot help because she is weak and her husband has been beaten to
unconsciousness. Kitunda seems to be absorbing the brunt of this brutality more
than any body else. He is again beaten to unconsciousness when he protests
against being beaten while on the farm. Perhaps the climax of brutality comes
when the white man’s gun mauls thousands and thousands of the freedom fighters
leading to the arrest of Kitunda and Kinjeketile who we are told are again
whipped to unconsciousness.
Oppression is also another issue which can
be discussed in the light of the above arguments on brutality.
CHARACTERIZATION
The play has about twenty six characters that one
can see their roles as being divided in three i.e. the oppressor, the sell outs
and the oppressed. It is because of this oppression that the oppressed reject
and dare the oppressor to a war.
The main representatives of the oppressed are
Kinjeketile, Kitunda and their families. The sell outs include the Mnyapara and
the Askari while the oppressors are represented by Kinoo who we actually don’t
meet on stage but whose presence is heavily felt.
Kinjeketile
He is a Mmatumbi seer who keeps preparing
traditional medicine in the house. We first meet him when he opens his house
and dances in a trance to river Rufiji as if powerful forces are pulling him
there. Being a seer his services include relaying messages from the gods of
Mmatumbi to the living people and the means of getting this message is by
meditating and disappearing into the river for some time. This is seen when he
comes from the river with a message of water that will enable the Tanganyika’s
fight the Red soil. This message with all its inadequacies he says comes from
Hongo.
But being a wise and patient man, Kinjeketile
understands the need for unity amongst the people facing the German in battle
because he realizes that the message is dubitable. On the other hand he refuses
to denounce that Maji is a lie because so far it has withstood the test as the
best unifying factor. Kinjeketile’s argument is that if what the Tanganyikans
need is unity and the water provides that unity, then it cannot be a lie. He
knows the power of his word and that is why he cannot denounce Maji
‘…the moment I say that people in the north south
east and west will stop fighting. They will fall into hopeless despair. They’ll
give up’ ( p.53.)
In his confrontation with Kitunda who is all eager
to blow the war trumpet he tells him, ‘Give me time to think. Have the patience
to wait.’
He understands that the people need to learn the
ways of the white man and train men in military skills before they face him in
war.
‘ …we must learn how to fight, how to use guns. We
must be soldiers.’ P.18.
His responsibility as a leader is seen when he
commissions Kitunda to train an army in skills that will enable them win. But
above all he preaches the need for unity and self reliance in this war. He
knows the power of strength from within that can only be acquired by unity when
says,
‘…we will be strong: but not by being strengthened
by some dubious aid from outside. We will be strong because this strength comes
from us- our own strength. With this we will fight and we will win. Have
patience.’ Pp28-29
Kinjeketile also shows the power of religion in a
desperate situation. He makes the people believe in the power of Maji because
they are convinced it is a bullet proof aid from their spirits. . Thus they
believe that what comes from the gods cannot be wrong and so if the mediator
between them and the gods says that they unite and fight as one, they cannot
object. They seem to be ready to go to war even without the weapons because
their gods have willed that no German bullet will penetrate them. Religion thus
becomes the opium of the masses. Politicians and church leaders in our
contemporary society use the religion to enrich themselves as can be seen in
Mulwa’s Redemption. The arch swindlers gather the poor people who
are urged to contribute generously and receive blessings in return. When
Kitunda kneels to touch Kinjeketile’s garment, the people blindly follow suit.
The theme of revenge or the quest for it by Kitunda
is highlighted by Kinjeketile. He admonishes Kitunda not to go to war to
revenge the atrocities that have been inflicted on him especially when he is
beaten on the farm as well as when his daughter is raped.
Kitunda
He is a Mmatumbi who like the rest is forced to
work on Kinoo farm. His wife tells us that he and others work so hard yet their
wives lack food in the house to offer them.
‘…our men work a lot….when my husband comes from
the plantation, I have no food to give him.’
We meet him coming from the farm with the rest of
the men. He has been beaten thoroughly in the course of the day by the
Mnyapala. He is cursing and swearing to his attacker.
Kitunda is a keen and observant character. He
knows that for the people to fight the white man they have to be armed with
weapons similar to his. That is why he advises the people to steal guns from
the askaris and seize them if need be and do every thing to see that they have
got guns. Due to his keenness he prescribes the key factor of their betrayal is
hunger because the sell outs want to fend themselves without undergoing as much
suffering.
Kitunda plays a leadership role in the text. The
responsibility to build and train an army falls on him and he does it with a
fair amount of success as he tells us;
‘…day by day we are growing stronger. Yesterday and
the day before yesterday and today our brothers have come to join us. Soon we
will be ready….’
He is a pragmatic leader who can work with people
from different tribes and with varied behaviour; some civil others resistant.
This is evident for he bonds a Mrufiji with Mngoni, Mzaramo with Mmakonde and
others. In case of anything going wrong any where he is charged with the
dynamics of coming up with a solution and effecting that solution in practice.
A case in point is when Kinjeketile disappears and he is at the forefront in
the organization of a search party.
In himself, Kitunda is a realistic man although we
see him naïve at first. When Kinjeketile possessed with Hongo announces that he
has Maji, it is Kitunda who first trusts him allowing others to blindly trust
the Maji. Later on when he realizes that the Maji does not work he urges the
people to go on fighting regardless of the water. A war has been started and it
must be seen to its logical conclusion so he reasons.
Kitunda helps reveal to Kinjeketile that the forces
that inspired him might be wrong. Through their conversation, he questions the
source of Maji and the motivation to go to war.
‘….how do you that it was Hongo and not another
spirit? If this is Hongo, then why does he say that we will be the children of
Seyyid said after winning the war? (P.28.)
As we have seen earlier Kitunda has personal
reasons for taking part in the war. His daughter is dragged away to be raped by
the askari’s yet he cannot defend her. Through this incident, we can clearly
see the oppression of the people as being physical and psychological as well.
The raped lady is traumatized together with her defenseless father and this
then makes the people to rise up in arms and say enough is enough.
Bi. Kitunda
We meet her at first a very inquisitive lady,
sending her daughter to the Kinjeketile’s to spy what they are cooking in these
lean times. She had also spied on Kinjeketile when he had mysteriously
disappeared down the river in the middle of the night. This observation makes
her conclude that Kinjeketile is up to something. This then acts as
foreshadowing of the events that later unfold.
She critically surveys nature and comes up with
startling comments on the prevailing conditions. She observes that Bi. Bobali’s
child must have died of poison after consuming poisonous roots and that if men
do not work, then there is going to be famine. In deed it comes to pass.
Like her husband, she tries to rescue her daughter
from the hands of the askaris but she is beaten and shoved over. Torn between
her daughter who is beyond rescue and her husband who has passed out after
being beaten, she opts for her husband and tries to resuscitate him. She abuses
the men around and calls them ‘women’ and ‘yes men’ who cannot rise to defend
their own. In a way then she charges these men who later own take part in the
war.
Through her we know that the men in this society
are almost incapacitated and fear protecting their women folk from sexual abuse
by agents of the colonialists.
Chausiku
She is a young virgin girl brutally assaulted
sexually by the human dogs in the form of the askaris, the agents of doom. This
poignant incident gives her father the bitter ness that propels him to war.
Her meeting with the snake at the Kinjeketile is a
bad omen both to the society in general and to her in particular and we see it
happening later own. There is blood bath and she is sexually molested.
She represents the thousands of girls who were
defiled by the callous ambassadors of the oppressors (Askaris) or even the
oppressors themselves during colonialism in Africa. Her presentation can be
equated to that of the character, the Bitch in Austin Bukenya’s A People’s
Bachelor. The Bitch was sexually assaulted by the colonial governor at a
tender age and this affected her to the extent that she lost interest in sex
hence simply doing it for fun.
Askari
He represents the self proclaimed henchmen of the
white oppressor. His tasks of duty as a collaborator include beating his fellow
Africans on Kinoo’s farm when they stand up to stretch themselves (they are
supposed to work without getting tired), soliciting cheap pleasure from women
and in return exempting their relatives from the days work among other inhuman
activities. He beats Kitunda on the farm and he accompanies the mnyapale to
Kitunda’s to take Chausiku for defilement.
Summarily then, his work is to bootlick the master
and in turn make sure that the other Africans do the same if not better than
him. The sad part of his collaboration and all the injustice he does to his own
people is that he gains nothing from it. Neither his situation nor his status
in the society does improve. In fact he becomes an enemy of the people.
He is a representative of the social misfits in the
society who should be done away with just the way a dentist uproots a stinking
tooth from a mouth.
ANALYSIS 2
THEMES
- THEME OF UNITY
The play stands on the theme of unity to regain
independence. Kinjeketile uses the magic myth to unite divided people and
instill in them the spirit of resistance against the Germans so as to press
home their independence.
- THEME OF COLONIZATION AND EXPLOITATION
There are the economic exploitation and oppression
through taxation and forced cheap labour by the Germans. Bibi Kinjeketile’s
conversation with Bibi Kitunda vividly captures this:
“… Our men work a lot, but they get nothing, we
don’t even have food in the house … Anyway, some of these roots are poisonous.
Bibi Bobali’s son died from eating some”. There is brutality of the Germans and
their minions and henchmen, the Askaris and the Overseers; whippings and the
rape of African women and girls.
- THE QUEST FOR FREEDOM
Due to the difficult situation in Africa from the
Germans, the natives cannot endure and continue with the situation, therefore
they make the move to get their independence from their oppressors and they
determine to use any means to achieve their aim.
- THEME OF WAR
As a result of getting their freedom from the
German colonial masters, the natives see that the means of acquiring their
freedom are to attack the colonial masters but the Germans do not take it easy
with them, they fight back and this results to war which claims the lives of
many Africans.
SETTINGS
Historically, the play is set in Tanzania. The
major setting in the play is Tanganyika, other settings include Kinjeketile’s
compound, the path to the river where the two women discuss the issues on the
ground, and the place used for the battle. Banana plantation is also there.
CHARACTERIZATION
- KINJEKETILE
Kinjeketile is the major character of the play. He
is as poor as the rest of the people, his life is as miserable, he does not
belong to the vested class. What sets him apart are his isolation and
spiritualism. He sees visions and acts strangely to the utmost surprise
of his neighbours. The turning point in the eventual collective destiny
of Kinjeketile and the people comes when, before the very eyes of the people,
Kinjeketile is dragged in the state of trance by unseen forces into the water.
When Kinjeketile fails to surface for a whole day, his wife and Kitunda, the
man who will become his closest aide and leader of the people’s army, pronounce
him drowned. He is used by the spirit of the water – Hongo to unite the divided
tribes. Kinjeketile becomes a tragic hero and executed by the colonial masters
after the war. All the same, he chooses not to lose faith and hope in the
millennial signal he has given his people despite the paradoxical nature of his
Maji prophecy.
- KITUNDA
Kitunda is another major character in the play. He
is the closest aide to Kinjeketile. He is made the leader of the people’s army.
He led the people to the war. He speaks for Kinjeketile to the people who
cannot wait for Kinjeketile to pronounce the ‘go-ahead’ before they proceed to
the war. He tries to remind them of the rule that will guide their success in
the war i.e. UNITY.
- BIBI KINJEKETILE
Bibi Kinjeketile is a wife to Kinjeketile. The
playwright uses her to explain the conditions of the natives in the hand of
their colonial masters. She reveals the state of hunger, oppression, injustice
and other inhumane acts of the imperialists. She is a friend and neighbour to
Bibi Kitunda.
- BIBI KITUNDA
Bibi Kitunda is a wife to Kitunda. She is Bibi
Kinjeketile’s neighbour. She confirmed Bibi Kinjeketile’s description of
situations of the people in the hands of the imperialists, adding that the men,
after hard, unpaid labour, they will be too tired to eat before they go to bed.