This document summarizes an interview with Enock Maregesi, the 2nd winner of the 2015 Mabati-Cornell Kiswahili Prize for African Literature. It discusses how he started writing as a teenager in Tanzania and was inspired by authors like Ngugi wa Thiong'o. It describes his first fiction work and details the writing and rejection of his novel Kolonia Santita. It also discusses how winning the Mabati-Cornell prize was a surprise and his advice to upcoming writers to focus on education.

1. ENOCK MAREGESI
2nd WINNER MABATI-CORNELL
KISWAHILI PRIZE FOR AFRICAN
LITERATURE 2015
AUTHOR OF KOLONIA SANTITA
THE INTERVIEW

2. How did you start writing?
I started writing by developing a passion.
A passion of writing. Whenever I had
anything that I thought was worth
jotting down I would do so without delay
or hesitation. I started writing essays
and anything like letters to my girlfriend
at the time, friends and family. That is
what got me into the writing business.

3. My first fiction ever to write was
Magaidi wa Namba One (Namba
One being a place), a crime fiction
short story about a local gang in
Dodoma. This was a 15-page story
that I wrote when I was 15 or 16
years old at Bihawana Secondary
School in Dodoma region.

4. It was about a group of terrorists
who had headquarters in the
outskirts of Dodoma and operated
in and out of the city until one day
one of their top bosses was
apprehended and later sentenced
to life imprisonment and hard
labor, in a maximum security
prison.

5. Consequently, all the top
operatives of the group were
arrested and all were given
sentences according to the crimes
they had committed.

6. What inspired you?
I was inspired by so many people and so
many situations as a writer: Ngugi wa
Thiong’o, Ben Mtobwa, Euphrase
Kezilahabi, Penina Mlama, Shafi Adam
Shafi, action movies like Bruce Lee’s The
Big Boss and Chuck Norris’s Missing in
Action, story-telling from my
grandparents and other elders just to
name a few.

7. The most inspiration of all however was
Shaaban Robert – a true patriot of
Tanzania and a legend of the Kiswahili
language – whose books gave me
strength (and hope) to write my first
novel Kolonia Santita. Kolonia Santita
was initially titled Salina Cruz – which is
a town in southern Mexico where the
Kolonia Santita cartel was founded.

8. As soon as I finished my O-Level
studies in 1992 I started writing
Kolonia Santita during the gap year.
When I started writing officially so
to speak, 23 years ago, I had a
beautiful dream in the garden of
my father’s house in Dar es Salaam.

9. A war of ideas battled endlessly
within my head for a long time
about a certain idea; setting the
dawn of the basis of my career, and
reminded me once again of the
beauty of the talent and the ability
of the aptitude; and how powerful I
might become to entertain and
educate people by the power of
the word.

10. The audacity of having a go or
rather of having an attempt and
overconfidence and hope, gave me
the foundation to think and write
on pieces of papers mountains of
ideas and imaginations. I had the
potential I supposed, of becoming
one of the best writers and
entertainers in Tanzania.

11. In a daydream in the garden I fantasized
a book published somewhere beyond
Africa, preferably in the UK or US where
publishing is first class. My mind flashed
a novel that was going to be
internationally set in more than four
cities across the world, and which was
going to be a number one literary
blockbuster someday! I wanted my story
to be published away hoping to get the
best of the quality of the books and the
best of the quality of the services.

12. I wrote Kolonia Santita, from there, for
three months consecutively until I had
the first complete draft. (I was 20 years
old when I did that). Whenever I thought
the manuscript was ready for publishing
I found out later that it wasn’t ready. It
was childish. In 1999 however I thought
it was ready and I took it to Popular
Publications Ltd (PPL) for a publishing
contract.

13. But PPL rejected the manuscript. It
rejected it following an invaluable report
prepared by the late Saifu D. Kiango,
who was editor of BAKITA ( which is
Baraza la Kiswahili la Tanzania, National
Swahili Council of Tanzania). Kiango
suggested in his report so many changes
in the manuscript before I had to take it
back to publishers but I failed to do that.
I failed to take it back to the publishers.

14. PPL had lost some of the chapters in the
Kolonia Santita manuscript (chapter 7, 8
and 9) and I wasn’t happy with the
answers that were given to me by Mr
Mhando (I have forgotten his other
names) that he/the office didn’t know
where those chapters were and that
he/the office had taken the manuscript
to BAKITA in its complete form. Mhando
was chief editor of PPL.

15. Because of that I withdrew my
incomplete manuscript from PPL
and vowed to correct each and
every error that Kiango had
suggested; and vowed to publish it
independently overseas whenever I
had a chance.

16. Between 1992 and 1999 I had
written other five manuscripts, two
of them complete and three
incomplete, crime fictions and love
stories. In 2004 I relocated to
London where I had a good chance
to research all my six manuscripts
to the standard that I always
desired.

17. I had a desire in all my life of being
an advocate for the Kiswahili
culture and language. I think we all
need to be advocates for this
language and other African
languages for these are the
identities of our continent.

18. In 1995 in fact, I made a vow of
fighting for the Kiswahili language
for the rest of my life. But I new I
couldn’t have achieved that
without first achieving education.
So in 2010 I enrolled at The Writers
Bureau in Manchester for a course
in creative writing – just to be able
to fulfill my dreams, and to have a
profession in writing as well.

19. The Writers Bureau gave me
confidence. I was living in a burrow,
in the darkness. However,
skimming across a few books of the
course, I saw light at the end of the
tunnel. I knew from that moment
on that if I studied hard I would
have got the experience and
expertise and guidance that I really
needed.

20. I wanted to be a good writer and
entertain people as well as educate
them. My wish was to become one
of the best writers and sellers of
the entire writing community in
Tanzania, and beyond.

21. How did you win?
It was a surprise. News about the new
Mabati-Cornell Kiswahili prize for African
Literature came to me as a surprise. I
first got it from CDEA (Culture and
Development East Africa) director Ayeta
Anne Wangusa in March 2015 in her
office in Dar es Salaam. Then I prepared
my manuscript and sent it through the
prize’s website for the inaugural
competition.

22. When Chairman of the Board of Trustees
of the Mabati-Cornell Kiswahili Prize for
African Literature Professor Abdillatif
Abdalla rang to inform me that my
manuscript had won second place I was
very grateful. I was so happy that I
locked myself in my room and danced
for three hours nonstop and was happy
from that day to this moment. Top
reason why my manuscript won the
prize was 'pushing the envelope'. That is,
perseverance, hardworking and
discipline.

23. What is your advice to upcoming writers?
The only advice I should give to
upcoming writers is education. No
matter how talented or skilled you
are, you will never reach your full
potential without expert guidance.