KIELEZO CHA INSHA, African Treasury Series no. 13, edited by D.T. Cole (formerly C.M. Doke)

113pp., paperback, New Edition, Wits University Press, Johannesburg, (1954) 2024

ISBN: 9781776149131

Introduction in Kiswahili and English by M.M. Mulokozi.

The earliest guide to essay writing in Kiswahili.

Shabaan Robert (1909-1962) was born at Tanga in what was then German East Africa, later Tanganyika, into a Muslim family. He served in government as a clerk until 1959, when he set up a private publishing company known as Tanga Art and Literature to publish his own books. He wrote poetry and didactic tales, as well as an autobiography, Maisha yangu (1949; “My Life”), and a biography, Maisha ya Siti Binti Saad, mwimbaji wa Unguja (1958; “Life of Siti Binti Saad, Poetess of Zanzibar”). His essays were collected in Insha ya mashairi (1959; “Essays and Poems”) and the first volume of his complete works, Diwani ya Shaaban, was published in 1966.

Mugyabuso M Mulokozi is Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Kiswahili Studies, University of Dar es Salaam.