Theatre
Kinjeketile
Ebrahim Hussein · 1969
Synopsis
In 1905, in southern Tanganyika under German rule, where the peasants are forced to grow cash crops, Kinjeketile, a man possessed by a spirit, announces a sacred water that would turn the Germans' bullets into water, and his message unites against the colonizer peoples long divided. But as the fighters press him to give the signal, the prophet begins to doubt what he himself has brought into being.
Context
The play takes as its hero a real figure, Kinjikitile Ngwale, who set off the revolt, whose suppression by the Germans caused between seventy-five thousand and three hundred thousand deaths, largely through famine. Written in Swahili in a Tanzania that had just made it its national language, it appeared in 1969 from a university publisher, and its first production was staged by an East German academic who was then a visiting professor. The word maji, water, gave the revolt its name, and it is on the strength and illusion of this belief that the play reflects.
Who it is for
A short play in Swahili, translated into English by the author. A few points of reference on the Maji Maji rebellion help.
Prizes and reception
It counts among the most studied Swahili plays in East Africa, and histories of this literature cite it at the head of modern theatre.