LONDON GIVES POST ACHIEVEMENT AWARD TO SHAABAN ROBERT

Shaaban Robert's grand-daughter, Amina Wazir, collects award for her genius grand-dad from  Mr Frederick Sumaye. On the right, seated is His Excellency High Commissioner of Tanzania, Hon. Peter Kallaghe.   

 Pic by Jestina George

The writer Shaaban Robert, who died aged 53, in June 1962 was a very  “popular read” during the 1960s and early 1970s. Somewhere along the line, he was almost forgotten. Early 1990s, the newly launched Mkuki na Nyota revived this eminent Kiswahili genius, and thanks to the hard work of its founder Walter Bgoya,   many of Shaaban Robert’s masterpieces are readily available in bookshops across East Africa today.  For those unfamiliar with the author, I would recommend “Maisha Yangu Na Baada ya Miaka Hamsini” (My Life After 50).  The book sums most of the Tanga born thinker’s qualities:  essays, personal recollections, poetry, thoughts on life, racism in Tanganyika of the 1930s and 1940s, TANU and Nyerere, duty to society, role of writers, etc.

Kusadikika, his most famous novel which is said to have partially inspired late President Nyerere's Ujamaa  policies.

BACKWARDNESS, POVERTY, LAZINESS AND LACK OF READING...

Are you sentimental?
Are you one of those people who grieve about the good old days? This would be measured in terms of age. The older you are, the bitter and bigger the sentiment. What about if you are eighteen years old, or twenty five? Maybe eighty. Or approaching sixty like me? I am not one of those people who think past times were better - because life has always been the same; same old problems and joys, governments in crisis and doom mongers predicting end of life. So I won’t weep over history. It’s like shedding crocodile tears.

Sunset on waters of the west Tanzania. Pic by Revo Meza...

According to myths, the idiom, shedding crocodile tears, means the crafty, dangerous reptiles weep in order to trick their victims...  Idioms are the salt and sugar of any given language. I think the fantastic great past is nothing more than crocodile tears for what is going on in the present.  Having washed my hands, let us rock and rewind the clock for a few seconds and picture 1960s and 1970s Tanzania.

Reading was very fashionable.

As a teenager around 1967 to 1975 it was common for us to have a novel in the pocket and compete and show off what you have been reading. Back then we wiped off a lot of novels.