Sonic figures of heroism and the 1891 Hehe–German war in Mulokozi’s novel Ngome ya Mianzi

ABSTRACT

Shortly after the 1884–85 Berlin Conference, Germany invaded and fought a number of wars with Tanganyika’s local chiefdoms in order to subject these territories to its colonial rule. In 1891 the Hehe people, who dwelt in Iringa region in the southern part of today’s Tanzania, fought to resist the invading German troops and succeeded in killing the German commander, Emil von Zelewski. Using both fictional and historical persons, events and locations, a 1991 Kiswahili novel by Tanzanian writer Mugyabuso Mulokozi, Ngome ya Mianzi (Bamboo Fortress), retells the story of the first battle between the German troops and the Hehe, fought at Lugalo. This article examines the ways this novel uses musical figures, including songs, dances, sounds of musical instruments and sounds of birds and insects as semiotic resources to narrate the story, create its characters and shape various events.

KEYWORDS:

• Music and literature
• musical figures
• Swahili literature
• Tanzanian literature
• Mugyabuso M. Mulokozi

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Born in 1950 in Bukoba, Kagera and educated at the University of Dar es Salaam where he has served as professor of Kiswahili and literary studies for over 30 years, Mugyabuso M. Mulokozi is a renowned poet, playwright and novelist and a prominent scholar of Kiswahili literature.

2. Given the multiplicity of meanings of the word ngoma in Tanzania the phrase ngoma za vita can also be translated variously as drums used during the war, dances organized and performed in a ritual conducted before or after going to war, or singing and dancing done after the war to celebrate victory. My translation here is motivated by the context in which the phrase is used in the story.

3. The novel is written in Kiswahili. All English translations throughout this article are mine. Note also that during the historical time of the novel the Hehe spoke Hehe not Kiswahili. The author evokes the Hehe way of speaking by altering some Swahili words: e.g. muganga instead of mganga.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Imani Sanga

Imani Sanga is professor of music in the Department of Creative Arts at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He has published widely on popular music, church music, aesthetics, postcolonial theory, African musicology and gender. He is also a composer and a choral conductor. Currently, he is working on a book project concerning the use of musical figures in Tanzanian Swahili literature.