Novel
Kasri ya Mwinyi Fuad
Not translated into English
Shafi Adam Shafi · 1978
Synopsis
In Zanzibar, in the last years of the sultanate, Kijakazi, born into a family of slaves, is the most faithful servant of the lord Malik and then of his son Fuad. While the masters live like princes on the proceeds of the clove trees, their servants know only bullying and exhausting labour, and the palace of Mwinyi Fuad becomes the stage of an old order that holds together only through habit and fear.
Context
The novel appeared in 1978 in Dar es Salaam, from Tanzania Publishing House. It portrays the feudal society of Zanzibar on the eve of the 1964 revolution, and places responsibility for each person's fate, master and servant alike, on the system more than on individual characters. The French translation by Jean-Pierre Richard appeared from Karthala in 1986 and was reissued in 2000 in a paperback series; a German version followed in 1997.
Who it is for
A short novel written in Swahili. The context of Zanzibar before 1964 sheds light on the whole story of the book.
Prizes and reception
Translated into French as early as 1986 and then into German, it is regarded as the most widely read novel in the Swahili language.