Beating the Drum on One Side: Confusing the People on Both Sides

FaizaFoxy said:

"Though these collections of short stories are declared to be purely fictional, it is evident that they derive from reality. Many characters either bear strong resemblances to, or are composites of, real persons from those days. And, the tales mostly relate to the Ismailia community in Dar es Salaam, from which both authors originate. These varied stories essentially reflect the angst and aspirations of a racial minority in a nation burdened with the toxic legacy of colonialism. Hitherto, it had led an isolated and relatively privileged existence. Now, with the nation seeking a brighter future for all its citizens, it finds itself in an existential bind."


Sir Hirji, thank you for admitting again that all your stories are "declared to be purely fictional".

On the other side, none of Mohamed Said's history is declared to be so.

Kudos.

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FaizaFoxy said:

"Only at the age of 13, two years after Independence in 1961, did I have an African friend. And that was because, unlike my Asian peers, I chose to study at the Dar es Salaam Technical College."

A genius indigenous "Professor " at age 13 admitted in DTC (now a days DTI). Not even in record books.

Wooooow. A Tanganyika record if not Africa or rather the world?. Not mentioned anywhere.

Hirji, wasn't it at Adams garage near DTC, then?

Pity.

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Ndjabu Da Dude said:

Said quoted text is from Hirji's review of two works of fiction by M.G. Vassanji and Jules Damji. Its beyond comprehension how any one with even middle-school level education would interpret it any different. Aibu!

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Ndjabu Da Dude said:

Hey, there's nowhere Hirji claims he's indigenous to Tanzania or having a doctorate degree at 13 years old. Its clear Mohamed Said is an intellectual fraud of the highest level, na inawezekana kabisa anatumia "ghost writers" (kwa maana ya Waandishi au Wachangiaji wasiofahamika), kwani haiingii akilini kwanini "Msomi" wa caliber yake ashindwe kabisa kutetea maswali ya msingi kwenye kazi yake, and why most of the time he's being so evasive. Akiamua ku-posti basi ni kutoa anecdotes za Abdulwahid Sykes na Waswahili wenzake wa Kariakoo au hata Cat Stevens ili mradi awafurahishe wanao mdhamini kwa hali na mali.

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FaizaFoxy said:

"Though these collections of short stories are declared to be purely fictional, it is evident that they derive from reality. Many characters either bear strong resemblances to, or are composites of, real persons from those days. And, the tales mostly relate to the Ismailia community in Dar es Salaam, from which both authors originate. These varied stories essentially reflect the angst and aspirations of a racial minority in a nation burdened with the toxic legacy of colonialism. Hitherto, it had led an isolated and relatively privileged existence. Now, with the nation seeking a brighter future for all its citizens, it finds itself in an existential bind."


Sir Hirji, thank you for admitting again that all your stories are "declared to be purely fictional".

On the other side, none of Mohamed Said's history is declared to be so.

Kudos.

Click to expand...

Ndjabu Da Dude said:

Hey, there's nowhere Hirji claims he's indigenous to Tanzania or having a doctorate degree at 13 years old. Its clear Mohamed Said is an intellectual fraud of the highest level, na inawezekana kabisa anatumia "ghost writers" (kwa maana ya Waandishi au Wachangiaji wasiofahamika), kwani haiingii akilini kwanini "Msomi" wa caliber yake ashindwe kabisa kutetea maswali ya msingi kwenye kazi yake, and why most of the time he's being so evasive. Akiamua ku-posti basi ni kutoa anecdotes za Abdulwahid Sykes na Waswahili wenzake wa Kariakoo au hata Cat Stevens ili mradi awafurahishe wanao mdhamini kwa hali na mali.

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Mohamed Said said:

Ndjabu Da Dude,
Unaweza ukaniona, "fraud," na natumia, "ghost writers."
Wewe si wa kwanza kusema maneno haya au kunifikiria hivyo.

Hivi unajua kuwa kuna watu walidhani Nkrumah alikuwa akitumia, "ghost
writers?"

Lakini wakaja kutambua kuwa kile kilikuwa kichwa chake mwenyewe.

Walimu wangu Chuo Kikuu cha Dar es Salaam miaka ya mwanzo walipata tabu
sana kuamini kuwa essay ninazopeleka kwao ni mimi nilikuwa naandika na kile
ni Kiingereza cha mtu mwenye jina la "Mohamed."

Haya kwangu ni mambo ya kawaida kiasi sasa ninaona badala ya kuwa tusi
ni, ''compliment."

Mhariri wa Oxford University Press kaja Dar es Salaam tukamilishe kitabu.

Swali la kwanza aliloniuliza ni kuwa je niliandika kwa Kiswahili kisha akaja mtu
kunifanyia tafasiri?

Naona hukubali hata kuwa mimi ni msomi umeweka, "inverted comas."
Abdul Sykes ni mzee wangu na mtu ninayemjua vyema na ndiyo maana naweza
kusema mengi sana kuhusu yeye na TAA, TANU na Nyerere.

Wewe unaita, "anecdotes."
Sawa laikini mlimjua Abdu Sykes kabla sijamuandikia kitabu?

Waswahili wenzangu wa Kariakoo ndiyo ndugu zangu na ndiyo watu ninaowajua.
Kuna ubaya gani kuandika habari zao?

Kuhusu mimi kudhaminiwa...

Akutukanae hakuchagulii tusi.

Ndugu yangu ukiwa unahisi kuwa mimi ni "fake," nipuuze.
Usipoteze muda wako kwangu.

Ukifanya hivyo utakuwa umejifanyia hisani kubwa sana.

Ndjabu Da Dude
Mimi nikikusoma napata picha ya mtu aliye na elimu nzuri.
Ukweli ushaujua tatizo ni kuiamini akili yako kama inasema kweli.

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"Though these collections of short stories are declared to be purely fictional, it is evident that they derive from reality. Many characters either bear strong resemblances to, or are composites of, real persons from those days. And, the tales mostly relate to the Ismailia community in Dar es Salaam, from which both authors originate. These varied stories essentially reflect the angst and aspirations of a racial minority in a nation burdened with the toxic legacy of colonialism. Hitherto, it had led an isolated and relatively privileged existence. Now, with the nation seeking a brighter future for all its citizens, it finds itself in an existential bind."


Sir Hirji, thank you for admitting again that all your stories are "declared to be purely fictional".

On the other side, none of Mohamed Said's history is declared to be so.

Kudos.
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About Hirji being an indigenous Tanzanian shouldn't surprise you at all, as none who has forfeited his whatever background prior to Tanzania remained the same, they all became the first and foremost indigenous Tanzanians unless you interpret being indigenous Tanzanian otherwise. So have I, though I was born within the 10 miles strip of coastal land belonging to whoever in Tanganyika.

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FaizaFoxy.

Huyu kweli "Comedian Professor" msome hapa chini...

Karim F. Hirji,

All children in my primary school in colonial Tanzania were brown-skinned, with ancestry in India or Pakistan. Instruction in the first three years was in Gujarati. Only at the age of 13, two years after Independence in 1961, did I have an African friend. And that was because, unlike my Asian peers, I chose to study at the Dar es Salaam Technical College. Else, like them, my circle of friends would have remained an exclusively racial and communal one, and I would have been cut-off from genuine contact with 99% of my country folk until reaching the university.

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Fiction thrives when imagination has a free reign. Yet, if the work depicts a specific historic era, the writer is ethically obliged to not, by commission or omission, give a fictionalized rendition of history.

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(Hirji creating an analogy to Prof. Said paper!)

Vassanji has a case to answer for his lack of due attention to the inner life of a secretive community, and his bland, superficial and misleading portrayal of the broader landscape. While Damji does a much better job there, he takes too many liberties with history, and at times, reveals the lack of adequate research and mastery of facts. And both authors too simplistically depict the radical Ismailia youth as governmental followers–many, in fact, were critical of Nyerere’s policies in that it was socialism.

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(His own potrayal?)


Ironically here (in Bold) he excluded himself that he exploited through his writing and his critique on his advantage!


Nearly five decades later, race relations in Tanzania, or East Africa for that matter, seem no better than they were at the time of Independence. Even religious, ethnic and regional schisms continue to corrode the social fabric. Leadership at all levels today is singularly lacking in vision, places its own interests above anything else, and is firmly wedded to Western economic interests. As the recent post-election turmoil in Kenya attests, the state authorities, virtually the whole spectrum of the political and business elite, and community leaders, bereft of any true legitimacy, can and will exploit these differences to their own advantage.

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Ndjabu Da Dude said:

Said quoted text is from Hirji's review of two works of fiction by M.G. Vassanji and Jules Damji. Its beyond comprehension how any one with even middle-school level education would interpret it any different. Aibu!

Click to expand...