Euphrase Kezilahabi’s Kaptula la Marx as a site of cold war contestation and communitas making

Abstract

This article analyzes Euphrase Kezilahabi’s Kiswahili play Kaptula la Marx, examining its explicit engagement with Cold War politics, ideologies, and aesthetics. Kezilahabi blends the satirical and revolutionary, making the play a site for Cold War contestations and community-building. It is a work of postcolonial disillusionment but also a call to arms. By focusing on the portrayal of the African dictator, particularly his ill-fitting clothes as symbols of power, Kezilahabi satirizes and undermines the dictator’s authority. The play’s rich Cold War references reveal Kezilahabi’s global visions, addressing African politics’ entanglement in the global Cold War and a growing North/South divide. Additionally, the play draws on radical theater traditions, featuring a revolutionary leader figure and interactive elements with the audience that inspire oppressed groups to unite for change.

Keywords:

• Kiswahili literature
• theater
• Cold War
• Euphrase Kezilahabi

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Masangu Matondo and Derek Gideon for introducing me to the works of Euphrase Kezilahabi. I am also grateful for the valuable feedback from the two anonymous reviewers and Alexander Fyfe. Special thanks to Nafisa Awadh who proofread my English translations for the Kiswahili original.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 On utopian potential, also see Buck-Morss, which both Armillas-Tiseyra and Popescu cite and engage.

2 Duncan Yoon’s discussion of Ousmane Sembène’s novel Le Denier de L’empire as Cold War creolization serves as a good comparative example for Kezilahabi’s rich synthesis of different modes of narratives, aesthetics, and affective registers in Kaptula la Marx; see Yoon, “Creolization.” .

3 On the definition of theater of the absurd, see Hartnoll.

4 On burlesque, also see Hartnoll.

5 The Kiswahili language garnered much attention across different Cold War blocs. On Kiswahili education in the Eastern bloc see Zhao; Gromov, “Swahili Literature”; on Kiswahili language in Pan-Africanist and Black nationalist movements, see Markle; Bedasse; and Robinson.

6 On Kezilahabi’s experimental fictions and how they reflect his philosophies as a critique of Western epistemologies, see Coughlin; Rettová; Arenberg, Ulimi Huiba; and Gromov, “Visions.” These experimental fictions belong to what is called the “Swahili new novels.”.

7 For example, in his poetry collection Kichomi (1974), the poem “Kuchambua Mchele” [Sorting the Rice] is a more explicit critique of the Ujamaa movement, whereas “Dhamiri Yangu” [Consciousness] and “Kisu Mkononi” [Knife in Hand] reflect his metaphysical ruminations.

8 All translations from Kaptula are my own.

9 See Yoon, “Figuring Africa,” on Maoism’s influence on African literature, also see Yoon, “South African Imaginary” and China.

10 On quest narrative as a trope in African literature, see Arenberg, Ulimi Huiba.

11 On how participatory theater breaks down the fourth wall to encourage audiences’ critical awareness, see Quinlan and Duggleby.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Qiyu Chen

Qiyu Chen is a dual-title PhD candidate in the Department of Comparative Literature and in the Department of African Studies at Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests include modern African literature, Cold War literary studies, Africa-China literary relations, and Black Internationalism.