Uhuru Street

Hugh Oliver is editor-in-chief at the OISE Press.

With their setting in Dar es Salaam (capital city of Tanzania), the 16
stories in this book span the period from the 1950s to the 1980s,
embracing the time when what had been Kichwele Street changed its name
to Uhuru (meaning “independence”). The stories, some of which are
linked by the characters and all of which are linked by the street, are
essentially delicately structured vignettes illustrating the foibles of
human nature: the servant who is dismissed for being a peeping Tom;
boyish imaginations that transform a beggar into a terrifying devil; the
schoolmaster who hides a painful secret; the allure versus the reality
of emigrating to North America; and (at a less gentle level) the
abduction and murder of an arrogant woman. Most of the characters are of
Asian descent, and their racism is beautifully exemplified by the
horrified response of an Asian couple to the courtship of their daughter
by a black professor visiting from Ghana. Guided by the author’s
ironic vision, all the stories unfold in a compellingly believable way.