Analysis of the play Kinjekitile

 
THE PLOT
The play deals with the ‘Maji Maji’ revolt of the late 19th and early twenty
centuries in the then Tanzania. The ‘Maji Maji’ revolt in the play text explores
the German colonial suppression and exploitation of the people of Tanzania and
the result of the people’s revolts against their oppressors. The play exposes the
deplorable state of affairs in Tanzania, Rufiji region as meted on the people by
their colonial masters. The play clearly tells the audience about the state of
desperation, exploitation despair and famine which the colonialists had brought
as a result.
The situation brings to the mind of Africans hatred and deep feelings of
indignation against the Germans. As these inhumane conditions are carried out
against Africans, Africans too have their common problems which are the lack
of unity and solidarity among themselves. This attempt to uniting in one accord
is hampered by the constant bickering, jealousies, an accusation of cowardice
and womanliness among themselves.
As the issue of disunity raises among the people, Kinjeketile, a spiritual
intellectual comes to brighten the hopes and expectations of the people.
Kinjeketile is as poor as other Africans, what set him apart are his solitude and
mysticism. After dwelling in the pool of Rufiji River for a long period of
reflection, Kinjeketile is occupied by the spirit- Hongo who lives in the pool. In
his dependency, he declares that “with the Maji, we will unite and we will be
one body… when we are one body, when we are united, we will be free. The
red earth will be destroyed; he will be kicked out of our country. Hear me, this
is the water given to us. This is the water of life. And this is the whisk of power.
He who partakes of this water, no harm will befall him.”
Water (Maji) is used here symbolically as a necessity for the need of unity
among the tribes of the region as well as a means for assuming people of safety
against German bullets. This arouses the people to unite with the burning
enthusiasm, emotions and enthusiasm and await the final word from Kinjeketile
to commence the war of liberation. But Kinjeketile also prophesies that if they
conquer the Germans, they will become the children of Seyyid Said, the Sultan
of Zanzibar. This means that after the freedom of the people from the colonial
rule of the Germans, they will become the children of Seyyid Said, meaning the
replacement of obvious colonialism by domestic colonialism. This is disturbing,
confusing as well as contradicting. This baffles Kinjeketile that he finds it
difficult to give the people the ‘word’ to start the war of emancipation against
the Germans. In an outraged sense of betrayal and treachery from the power that
possessed him, Kinjeketile declines his message and insists that people must
fight with reason. The attack turns out to be a national suicide for the people as
the Germans repel the attack with terrible losses.
Kinjeketile is captured and tortured by the German soldiers to force him to
renounce the power of the water even though he, himself doubts the authenticity
of the water (Maji) prophecy. He used the Maji to unite the divided people and
instill a spirit of resistance in them. But having done that, he then secularizes the
myth by grounding it on the bedrock of practical military realities. It then
remained for him to articulate albeit in the tragic recognition. The inevitable
transcendence of the myth as an irreversible process of struggle and history.
Kinjeketile has therefore become a tragic hero who is driven and tied to the fate
that is guided by powers larger than he can bear. All the same, he chooses not to
lose faith and hope in the millennial signal he has given his people despite the
paradoxical nature of his Maji prophecy. This has been neatly captured in a
dramatic form by Ebrahim Hussein. KINJEKETILEtherefore is a legend that
deals with the historical struggle of the Tanzanian people of East Africa for
their independence from the German.
 
THEMES

 THEME OF UNITY

The play stands on the theme of unity to regain independence. Kinjeketile uses
the magic myth to unite divided people and instill in them the spirit of resistance
against the Germans so as to press home their independence.

 THEME OF COLONIZATION AND EXPLOITATION

There are the economic exploitation and oppression through taxation and forced
cheap labour by the Germans. Bibi Kinjeketile’s conversation with Bibi Kitunda
vividly captures this:
“… Our men work a lot, but they get nothing, we don’t even have food in the
house … Anyway, some of these roots are poisonous. Bibi Bobali’s son died
from eating some”. There is brutality of the Germans and their minions and
henchmen, the Askaris and the Overseers; whippings and the rape of African
women and girls.

 THE QUEST FOR FREEDOM

Due to the difficult situation in Africa from the Germans, the natives cannot
endure and continue with the situation, therefore they make the move to get
their independence from their oppressors and they determine to use any means
to achieve their aim.

 THEME OF WAR

As a result of getting their freedom from the German colonial masters, the
natives see that the means of acquiring their freedom are to attack the colonial
masters but the Germans do not take it easy with them, they fight back and this
results to war which claims the lives of many Africans.
 
SETTINGS
Historically, the play is set in Tanzania. The major setting in the play is
Tanganyika, other settings include Kinjeketile’s compound, the path to the river
where the two women discuss the issues on the ground, and the place used for
the battle. Banana plantation is also there.
 

CHARACTERIZATION

 KINJEKETILE

Kinjeketile is the major character of the play. He is as poor as the rest of the
people, his life is as miserable, he does not belong to the vested class.  What
sets him apart are his isolation and spiritualism.  He sees visions and acts
strangely to the utmost surprise of his neighbours.  The turning point in the
eventual collective destiny of Kinjeketile and the people comes when, before
the very eyes of the people, Kinjeketile is dragged in the state of trance by
unseen forces into the water. When Kinjeketile fails to surface for a whole day,
his wife and Kitunda, the man who will become his closest aide and leader of
the people’s army, pronounce him drowned. He is used by the spirit of the water
– Hongo to unite the divided tribes. Kinjeketile becomes a tragic hero and
executed by the colonial masters after the war. All the same, he chooses not to
lose faith and hope in the millennial signal he has given his people despite the
paradoxical nature of his Maji prophecy.

 KITUNDA

Kitunda is another major character in the play. He is the closest aide to

Kinjeketile. He is made the leader of the people’s army. He led the people to the
war. He speaks for Kinjeketile to the people who cannot wait for Kinjeketile to
pronounce the ‘go-ahead’ before they proceed to the war. He tries to remind
them of the rule that will guide their success in the war i.e. UNITY.
  BIBI KINJEKETILE

Bibi Kinjeketile is a wife to Kinjeketile. The playwright uses her to explain the
conditions of the natives in the hand of their colonial masters. She reveals the
state of hunger, oppression, injustice and other inhumane acts of the
imperialists. She is a friend and neighbour to Bibi Kitunda.

 BIBI KITUNDA

Bibi Kitunda is a wife to Kitunda. She is Bibi Kinjeketile’s neighbour. She

confirmed Bibi Kinjeketile’s description of situations of the people in the hands
of the imperialists, adding that the men, after hard, unpaid labour, they will be
too tired to eat before they go to bed.