Utenzi wa Vita vya Maji-Maji [Epic of the Maji-Maji war]

Utenzi wa Vita vya Maji-Maji [Epic of the Maji-Maji war]

With the conquest of East African peoples by Germany in Tanganyika and by the British in Kenya, the realities of colonial politics led to further secularization and, along with it, indigenization of thematic material in utenzi poetry. Utenzi wa Vita vya Maji-Maji written by a Sufi scholar from Lindi a few years after the Maji-Maji rebellion occurred (1905-1907) in inland Tanganyika, brings these virulent and tragic realities to the attention of the contemporary reader. Written in the utenzi tradition, the author chronicles the war from an African point of view in a lengthy poem of 334 stanzas.

At left is the map showing the area of conflict of the Maji-Maji rebellion, p. [6].

Call Number: PL8704.J35 U84 1957

Jamaliddini, Abdul Karim, Historical introduction by Bates, Margaret , translated by W. H. Whiteley.

East African Swahili Committee. Journal, no. 27, June, 1957, suppl.