Aditi Vahia
In the ‘Foreword’ to his collection Uhuru Street, Vassanji observes that
‘Uhuru’ means ‘independence’. The Kichwele Street of Dar es Salaam – later
renamed as Uhuru street nurtures the spirit of independence irrespective of the
continual changes that the street experienced from the sheltered innocence of
colonial rule in the 1950s to the shattered world of the 1980s.
This collection of short stories – as many
of Vassanji’s works is characterized by “a complex ethno-cultural identity”
that incorporates multiple countries (Kenya, Tanzania, India, Canada, U.S.A.),
religions (crucially, the syncretic bhakti tradition he was raised in),
languages (Gujarati, English, Swahili, Hindi). , The stories in Uhuru Street
explore political and social change in the city of Dar es Salaam in the East
African country of Tanganyika. They follow a historical arc which begins in the
years leading up to independence (in 1961) and concludes in the decade or so.
This paper
analyzes the microcosm of an
immigrant world as portrayed by Vassanji in his Uhuru Street through its eccentric characters giving us a portrait
of a place and a people losing their innocence. The stories come together as a
story of generations new and old, the former searching for a new identity, the
latter, fiercely holding onto the past. We share with these people the moment
of moving on, of leaving the place where we have roots, knowing that things
will never be the same.
: Vassanji, Communal
Cocoon, Immigrant World, Ethno-Cultural Identity
VOL.12, ISSUE No.2, March 2020