His Life
Born in 1918 in Makunduchi, Eastern Zanzibar, Muhammad Said Abdulla is a writer often credited as the pioneer of Swahili popular literature. He was more successful in blending Eastern African lore with Western influences which he came into contact with while receiving his eduaction in a missionary school.
He completed his secondary education in 1938, then worked for the Civil health department and was the editor of the Swahili Bulletin in the department of agriculture in Zanzibar.
Abdulla went into journalism and in 1948 became editor of the newspaper Zanzibari, later becoming assistant editor of Al-Falaq, Afrika Kwetu and Al-Mahda. From 1958 to his retirement in 1968, he served as editor for the agricultural magazine Mkulima. He had a wife and two kids. He was a renown activist and agitator in the liberation of Zanzibar from Tanganyika, for which there were many plots to kill him. Which is the main cause for his entire family being murdered in the revolution of 1964. He died in 1991.
His Writing
Abdulla began writing on the occasion of East African Literary Competition of 1957-1958 by the East African Literary Bureau, when his manuscript Mzimu wa Watu wa Kale won first Prize. A detective story, the first in a series following the titular Bwana Msa, a Zanzibari Sherlock Holmes type and his Watson-like Najum, and a recurring policeman, Spekta Sefu. The author dwells on gory details such like those of a certain Bwana Ali, who was found in a graveyard with his head chopped off. This sort of macabre atmosphere is intensified in the second novelette, Kisima cha Giningi, 1969, in which the richest woman in the village is murdered by her greedy uncle.
The story of Duniani Kuna Watu(1973) is set in 1961, before the revolution put an end to the hegemony of wealthy Arab land owners. It revolves around the gental heiress Selume and her father’s driver Saleh, who discover after their secret wedding that they’re siblings. In Siri ya Sifuri (1974), the plot features another young heiress, Mwanatenga, ward to the rich Wasiwasi Malifedha, under the influence of a certain Hafifu Mfuko. The incest motif returns in his other novel Mwana wa Yungi Hulewa(1976). Our protagonists are the illegitimate children of an Arab princess and a rich Goan, growing up in poverty not suspecting that they are siblings. In his last novel, Kosa la Bwana Msa, his famous detective comes back investigating a case of bigamy. It’s a sentimental story with some suspence rather than a real thriller.
Another notable work is his story Mke Wangu published in the volume Kinwa Jumba La Maneno in 1977 by various authors about a rich and spoiled young man from town who wanted to marry a girl from a village so he could mould her into a character that fits his whim. To his dismay, he found out the girl, despite being from a village is an intelligent young woman with a strong personality who would not allow herself to be manipulated.
The memory of the past takes a central role in all these works. Crime and other mysteries the plot builds are derived from the tangled relationships that unite the various characters in the story. The setting for all of them is pre-revolutionary Zanzibar among immensely rich people; greed and revenge being the most powerful motive for the crimes committed.
With each new work, Abdulla’s work developed in complexity and sophistication of plot. His use of the Swahili language was admired throughout East Africa. His works were reprinted several times and widely used as school texts.