Aniceti Kitereza: A Tanzanian Epic

A biographical account by Shoonie Hartwig of Aniceti Kitereza and the eleven-year saga of his epic novel. Words that are spoken fly like the wind; words that are written live forever, Kitereza told Gerald (Jerry) and Charlotte (Shoonie) Hartwig in 1969 while telling them the story of his novel. They could not have imagined that this conversation would inaugurate eleven years of determination and commitment revealed in a significant collection of letters. Kitereza completed his epic novel in Kikerebe in early 1945 and later translated it into Swahili as Bwana Myombekere na Bibi Bugonoka na Ntulanalwo na Bulihwali (Tanzania Publishing House, 1980), later translated from the Kikerebe original into English by Gabriel Ruhumbika as Mr Myombekere and His Wife Bugonoka, Their Son Ntulanalwo and Daughter Bulihwali (Mkuki na Nyota, 2000, Row 167). The book reveals Kitereza’s heroic life through conversations and letters, particularly eighty blue aerograms from his last years. He was forty-nine when he completed the novel and eighty-one when it was published. Dr Shoonie Hartwig has lived and taught in Minnesota, North Carolina, and Tanzania for more than fifty years.