Nani Alionja Nini? Who Had a Taste of What? A Sociopolitical Interpretation of Farouk Topanis Play Aliyeonja Pepo ("A Taste of Heaven"), Dar es Salaam, 1973

The Swahili play Aliyeonja Pepo ("A Taste of Heaven"), ¹ written in 1970 by the Zanzibarian playwright Farouk Topan, ² has hitherto not received much attention in literary criticism. Still, it is generally considered to be an important piece of East African literature; written in beautiful language, it has been performed many times and has been on the secondary school reading list in Tanzania since it was published in 1973. In Elena Zúbková Bertoncini's Outline of Swahili Literature, the standard work on Swahili literature, the discussion of this play even takes up the entire section on drama from Zanzibar (178-82). The play is built on symbolic and implication techniques typical of the school that emerged during the post-independence period of Tanzania, to which, for example, the distinguished writer Ebrahim Hussein also belongs (Kinjeketile, 1969; Mashetani ("Ghosts," 1971), that took theater as a means of communication with the masses, producing works of public and historical interest and social impact (Said A. Mohamed, pers. corr. 30 Oct. 1996).

First of all, Aliyeonja Pepo is a very amusing piece of drama. As the title indicates, it is set in Heaven, i.e., an image of Heaven inspired by East African Islamic beliefs. Yet, the play pictures the heavenly angels, who are allocated an important role in East African Islam, as servants working in some big bureaucratic organization. They look and behave like busy clerks who sit behind desks and phone each other, as well as their alleged boss. The job of the main character, the angel of death Ziraili, is to organize the transfer of human souls from Earth to Heaven; when his administration fails, a soul is brought to Heaven too early and subsequently has to be sent back to Earth. This human soul, however, enjoys his stay in Paradise very much and vehemently opposes being returned to Earth—even more so when he hears that they want to put his soul into the body of an Englishman. This situation gives rise to several hilarious scenes that constitute the main act of the play.

Evidently, the play is funny owing to the use of religious images that are twisted to a considerable extent. But, apart from being amusing, the play is also confusing. Why does the author use religious images to make us laugh? What is he actually trying to say? This confusion becomes even more acute when confronted with the last scene, which has a completely different tone than the rest of the play. This is where Ibilisi, the Devil, enters the stage. He is the only one to address the public directly, and, after a digression on his history as the fallen angel, he comes to the remarkable conclusion that he and God love each other; he argues that they are in fact sote kitu kimoja, "one and the same thing."

Probably due to this confusing plot, the play led to some discussion when it first came out. Some members of the intellectual circles of Dar es Salaam believed it actually ridicules religion, which might pose problems to the young when confronted with it. Others, however, did not share this opinion and Aliyeonja Pepo was allowed as a textbook in the schools and even became part of the examinations (Farouk Topan, pers. comm. London, 25 Nov. 1993).

Only two references to the play could be found, both of which focus mainly on its religious content. One is a rather ambiguous review by P. S. Kirumbi, published in the Tanzanian magazine on literatures Mulika (1975). Kirumbi first praises the author for his courage to create such a work, but, in the course of his review, he actually accuses him of kejeli, "ridicule, blasphemy." According to Kirumbi, by...