Classicism in Shaaban Robert's Utopian Novel, Kusadikika

Classicism embodies elasticity beyond that of acknowledged excellence (Cuddon 122). On the one hand, it is associated with "literary immortality" or "timelessness," and on the other, with the "universality" that goes with "humanistic idealism." A classical work like Shaaban Robert's Kusadikika (1951), ¹ therefore, shows openendedness and a certain flexibility that allows for an analysis oscillating between the past and the present. Kusadikika is a novel of "grand style" with an ambivalent theme that bears some relevance today, as it did when it was first written. The aim of this paper, then, is to show the classical nature of Kusadikika and how it transfuses its relevance to the contemporary situation. Since in the final analysis form and content in a work of art are inseparable, the tendency here will be to take certain formal features not as discrete units but as features that are in a complementary role with content. The artistic aspects under scrutiny are: the utopian nature of the novel; Kusadikika as a satirical tale; characterization; plot, story, language, and narrative style; and axiomatic endings.

The novel has an imaginary nonspecific setting, ² though its thematic kernel can be conjectured to have evolved from the author's colonial past. The name Kusadikika ("The Believable," ³ or perhaps "The Unbelievable"?) refers to a country that has no real existence outside the text. Kusadikika as a country simply floats in the air as a void, discerned only by means of the winds blowing from the four cardinal points and bordered from above by the sky and below by the land:

Kusadikika ni nchi ambayo kuwako kwake hufikirika kwa mawazo tu. Nchi hiyo iko katikati ya mipaka sita. Kwa upande wa Kaskazini imepakana na Upepo wa Kaskazi, na kwa upande wa Kusini imepakana na Upepo wa Kusi. Mashariki imepakana na Matlai, na Magharibi mpaka wake ni upepo wa Umande. Kwa kuwa nchi yenyewe inaelea katika hewa kama wingu, zaidi ya kupakana na pepo nne hizo, ina mipaka mingine miwili. Mipaka miwili yenyewe ni hii. Kwa juu nchi hiyo imepakana na mbingu na kwa chini imepakana na Ardhi.

Kusadikika is a country whose existence is only thought to be in the mind. That country is situated amid six boundaries. In the north it is bordered by northerly winds, and in the south by the southerly winds. In the east it is bordered by "Matlai" [easterly winds] and its boundary in the west is "Umande" [westerly winds]. Since the country is floating in the air like a cloud, apart from being bordered by the four winds, it has two other borders. These two other borders are the sky from above and the land below. (xii)

Kusadikika, however, does not enjoy the perfection portrayed by other utopian novels. ⁴ In fact the imagined country of Kusadikika reveals imperfection in its socioeconomic, material, and ideological setups, which are in direct opposition to the perfect order of other countries that have been visited by the messengers from Kusadikika. From the beginning, when Robert tacitly describes the existence of a strange phenomenon of reproduction, we are shown that Kusadikika is shrouded in a mystery--that is, all women giving birth to twins ⁵ :

Wanawake wote katika nchi hiyo huzaa watoto pacha. Hii ni habari ya ajabu sana lakini haionekani kuwa imepata kugusa ndoto za wazee [. . .].

All women in that country give birth to twins. This is very puzzling news but seems not to have dawned upon senior citizens [. . .]. (vii)

Robert's utopianism (or perhaps anti-utopianism?) is presented in contrastive parameters as perfection versus imperfection, and in the process, the author's wishful thinking and dreams unfold. Other countries that Kusadikika's messengers visited are described as earthly paradise, whereas Kusadikika is a hell and purgatory. Actually, Robert's presentation is often contrastive. The findings of Buruhani, the first of Kusadikika's messengers who went to the north, is a case in point:

Marejeo ya Buruhani yaliyazibua masikio ya Kusadikika...