A travel report by Dr. Ulrich Jantsch

In August 2007 I have been on the island Ukerewe in the southern part of Lake Victoria and I visited the former palace of the king and Kitereza's village Kagunguli. The palace of Ruhumbika, the last Chief of Ukerewe looks like a Sleeping Beauty. The white walls decayed, the roof damaged. Creaky, a door in the rear part of the building is opened for us.

Inside, there are still the old big drums of the King and the King's wooden throne in a dark corner of the palace. - Nobody seems to be interested in the past!

Our taxi driver, very interested to learn some English from me, shrugs his shoulders when I ask him for Kitereza. Thus, I ask him to drive us to Kangunguli, the poet's home village, no more than ten kilometres distant from the capital Nasio.

At least in the Parish of Kagunguli next to the old church, Kiteraza's name was known. Quickly, Mr. Albinus Kirugara was sent for who led us to the graves of the last King Ruhumbika and Aniceti Kitereza. On Ukerewe this is an honour for an old friend of the deceased. Kirugara told us, he had taken care for the old man when he was sick. He always admired him for his extraordinary language skills.

While we are talking, he leads us to Sostenes Kakwaya, the nephew of Kitereza. The old man is sitting in a white suit in front of his house - probably someone has informed him about our arrival. In an adjoining building he shows us a poster of an exhibition about Kitereza from the 1980s. Later, he gets a book - the Kiswahili first edition of the novel whose front page was written by Kitereza himself.

I ask him to read us a part of the book. For a long while he is browsing in the yellowed pages, then he stops at the point, where Bugonoka gives birth to their long looked-for son Ntulanalwo - a key point in the book. With a slightly shaky voice, but clearly and precisely, he starts reading. It is a moment of decent ceremony.  - The words of the forgotten poet, I think. But isn't it written already in the Bible, that the prophet finds nowhere less reckoning than in his homeland? Here it is really the case.

After Sostenes Kakwaya served us with some self-picked oranges from his garden, he raises to show us the venue, where Kiteraza has lived. There his house had been. He points to some banana bushes next to a big mango tree. From the house nothing is left. Bygone and forgotten - like the poet himself. The mango tree and a high palm tree are the last physical witnesses of Kitereza's era.

On the way back accross the island Ukerewe, I see it as a green paradise compared to the dry soil of the mainland around Mwanza. The amount of rain was always a lot higher on Ukerewe. At the time of Kitereza the tree population must have been even bigger. I become aware of the fact, that the culture, described by Kitereza in his novel, was flourishing in this a living space where nothing desiderated.

While driving back to Nansio, I have learned quite a lot of news in Kiswahili from our taxi driver. And he knows now, who Kitereza was and what he has achieved to prevent the culture of Ukerewe from being buried in oblivion. He might offer future visitors from Europe a trip to Kagunguli. - He even asked me to send him an exemplar of the novel's english version. Not without a slight satisfaction, I explained him that quite a number of the novel was sold in Europe and the USA.

A student from the University of Mwanza, whom I get to know later during the crossing from Ukerewe, had also not yet heard about his countryman and regional writer. His field of study: the history of Tanzania and Kiswahili!


Aniceti Kitereza

... lived from 1896 to 1981 on the island Ukerewe in the southern part of Lake Victoria.

He was working as for the mission as deacon and interpreter in the village Kagunguli. Among others he translated the Bible in his mother tongue. He collected proverbs and narratives and documented the history of the royal dynasties.

1945 he finished the work on his large novel "Myombekere and Bugonoka, Ntulanalwo and Buhliwali" in his mother tongue "Kikerewe". In this family saga he consigned all his knowledge and thoughts about the old times for the coming generations.

1997 his novel was translated from Kiswahili into German by Prof. Möhlig and was published under the titel: "Die Kinder der Regenmacher" and "Der Schlangentöter" from P. Hammer Verlag.

2002 the original text was translated from Kikerewe into English by Gabriel Ruhumbika, a nephew of the author. (ISBN 9976686382). This version can be ordered at African Books Collective Ltd., Oxford (website: www.africanbookscollective.com).

Some impressions of our visit on Ukerewe you can find in our gallery.
If you have further questions on the visit and Aniceti Kitereza's work, don't hesitate to contact Dr. Jantsch.