“Paradise” (1994) - Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Bildungsroman Set in Colonized Tanzania, Taking Place Shortly before WWI

[DonRocks]

I don’t know how many people will ever use this, but this novel - although written in English by Gurnah - contains numerous terms that may be unfamiliar to the western reader. 
 

I’ve written this little glossary to help explain these words (and also the characters), along with the first page of the book in which they’re referenced. This is for the hardcover edition with the burnt-orange colored cover.

These are not spoilers unless for some perverse reason you read it from start to finish. The final entry is the only one I couldn’t figure out.

—-

ABDALLA (presumably “penis”) 7

ABDULRASAK (Yousuf’s “merchant in Herat”) 108

AFREETS (in Arabian mythology, powerful jinns) 112

AGA KHAN (a British-Indian Imam) 80

AJEMI (a bread from Zanzibar (?)) 104

ALHAMDULILLAHI RABI-L ALAMIN (praise God) 58

AMIN (“Amen” in Swahili)

AMINA (Khalil’s sister) 204

Ten ANNA (1/16 rupee) coin 4

ASHA (Hamid’s child Yusuf befriended in Olmorog) 107

ASKARIS (soldiers or police officers) 169 

ASLI (“original” in Swahili) 63

ASTAGHFIRULLAH (“I seek God’s forgiveness”) 95

Uncle AZIZ (a seyidd who took Youssef as rehani)  3

BA (short for baba, papa) 24

BACHUS (the truck driver for Yusuf’s journey) 53

BAGAMOYO (Yusuf’s father’s original landing) 14

BAFTA (long, narrow pieces of cotton) 109

BANYANS (Indian merchants in Southern Africa) 74

BATI (a young girl in Marungu, attracted to Yousuf) 167

BIRI (a cheap cigarette) 53

BISMILLAH (an invocation to Allah to begin a thing) 19

BOHRAS (Shia Muslims living in Western India) 74

BORAKH (“Buraq”, winged horse prophet rode) 95

BUIBUI (black cloth worn as a shawl) 36

BWANA (sir) 58

CHATU (a harsh Sultan in Marungu) 141

CHILDREN  (3) (of Hamid and Maimuna) 69

   — (ASHA (11/F), ALI (M), and SUDA (M)) 99

COMORO(s) (island nation of Mozambique) 60

COOLIE (an offensive term for an unskilled laborer) 79

DHOW (1-2 mast sailing ship) 14  as a

DHUL QURNAIN (Iskander, slayer of (Ma(Gog)) 41

DUKA-WALLAH (“shopkeeper”) 80

Two EUROPEANS (at train station) 1

FAZA (sea landing in north of Kenya) 15

GANESH (elephant-headed God of beginnings) 81

GERMANS 7

GOG and MAGOG (two groups of Turks) 83

GUJARATI (from Gujarat state in India) 74

HAKIM (learned person) 38

HAMDANI (Arabic for “much praise) 222

HAMID SULEIMAN (man who owned inland shop) 63

HAMIDI MATANGA (a Swahili trader) 143

HARBANS SINGH (Kalasinga, the town mechanic) 74

HERAT (3rd-largest city in Afghanistan) 105

HIRIZI (arm amulet with a verse from the Koran) 198

HOTEL COOK 5

HUJAMBO BWANA WANGU (“how are you, sir?) 57

HUSSEIN (a store owner from Zanzibar in Olmorog) 82

IBLIS (leader of the devils in Islam) 

IDD (“EID” - a Muslim holiday involving feasting) 17

INDIAN storekeeper and family 6

ISHA (1 of 5 Islamic prayers, in the early evening) 103

JANAB (an Islamic title, “sir”) 53

JENNET AL ADN (“garden of Eden”) 80

JICHO (“the eye” - dhow that took father’s family) 15

JINN (an intelligent spirit of lower rank than an angel)

JINNEYEH (“Jinniyah”, feminine form of “jinn”) 200

JUMA’A (Friday) 39

JUU KWA JUU (“top for top”) 189

KAABA (the center building of Mecca’s mosque) 207

KAFIR (an offensive term for a black African) 75

KAKANYAGA (the boatman to Chatu) 142

KALASINGA (Harbans Singh, the town mechanic) 74

KANIKI (Calico strands tied around the waist) 109

KANYENYE (a divided district of Sofala)

KANZU (whitish robe, tunic) 17

KARIBU (welcome) 58

KASKAS (a tribal land of Turkish people (?) 106

KAWA (Youssef’s (fictional) home village) 5

KHALIL (Youssef’s young caretaker / employer) 21

KHALIL’S SISTER (Also taken by the Seyyid) 203?

KHOIKHOI (S African/Namibian hunter-gatherer) 165

KIFA URONGO (“living death”) 22

KIGONGO (town on return trip) 76

KIJANA MZURI (“beautiful boy”) 52

KIKOI (traditional Swahili cloth) 58

KILIFI (port town in SE Kenya) 46

KILWA (home of father’s first wife, a bit inland) 14

KIMWANA (“darling”, “beloved”) 98

KIPANDE (a type of baseball-like game) 8

KIPUMBU WE (a derogatory term meaning “silly”) 25

KISIMAMAJONGOO (neighborhood errand boy) 36

KISIRANI (bad luck) 49

KISWAHILI (Swahili) 22

KIYAMA (doomsday) 29

LAHODA (captain of a dhow) 14

LAMU (small island in NE Kenya) 63

LUFITA 

LINDI (port in SE Tanzania) 46

MA AJUZA (an old customer, hits on Youssef) 30

MAFIA ISMAND (an island off of mid-Tanzania) 104

MAGENDO (“magic”, contraband in Swahili) 45

MAIMUNA (Hamid Suleiman’s wife) 63

MAKKA (“Mecca”)

MALAI (clotted cream (used in Indian desserts)) 25

MALUUN (cursed / thrown out of society) 25

MANDAZI (fried bread, bofrot, or puff-puff) 19

MANYEMA (a powerful, warlike, Bantu tribe) 73

MAREHEMU (dead) 24

MAREKANI (the United States (?)) 119

MARIMBO (the island conduit to the fierce Chatu) 148

MARUNGU (mountain in Kenya, 140 km from sea) 73

MASHAALLAH (a wonder of God) 47

MASKINI (“very poor” in Swahili) 99

MDACHI (“m” + Dachi ( “German”)) 176

MECHANIC (Indian, trader with Hamid) 71

MFIPO (the chief of the Elders on Chatu’s island) 153

MGANGA (traditional medicine man) 38

MIKOKONI (coastal town in far SE of Kenya) 202

MIRAJ (the night the prophet ascended to Heaven) 95

The MISTRESS (Kisirani?, lives inside the shop) 37

MKALIKALI (town on return trip, N of large river) 176

MKATA (a village in East-central Tanzania) 121

MNYAPARA WA SAFARI (Foreman of the Journey) 34

MOFA (a pancake-like bread) 25

MOGUL (an Indian Muslim from a power group) 80

MOHAMMED (Aziz’s shopkeeper before Khalil) 202

MOHAMMED ABDALLA (the Mnyapara wa Safari) 34

MOHUN SIDHWA (Kilimanjaro train station master) 57

MOMBASA (port city in SE Kenya) 63

MOROGORO (inland city in eastern Tanzania) 110

MPWELI (a town on return trip, close to the coast) 177

MRIMA (name for mainland facing Zanzibar) 46

MTOTO WA SHETANI (“child of the devil”) 183

MTWARA (sea landing in south of Tanzania) 14

MUKKI-YUKKI (Mukki is a village in India) 74

MUKKI (Indian money lender?) 46

MUSLIN (a delicate cotton cloth from Mosul, Iraq) 109

MZEE HAMDANI (the old gardener) 36

MZUNGU (a European government employee) 78

NABI NUH (prophet Noah) 81

NEEMS (Indian iliac, nimtrees, mahogany family) 20

NYIKA (“bush”, “hinterland”) 71

NYUNDO (Mwene’s chief “courtier” on a journey) 118

OLD MEN ON THE TERRACE (3) 32

OLMOROG (government station ½ up mountain) 81

PEMBA (island off Tanzania, N of Zanzibar) 201

PEMBE (the spirit of the island shrine) 147

POMBE (an African beer made from millet) 75

PRIMUS (a small cooker that burns paraffin) 103

QADHI (magistrate in a Sharia court) 242

QASIDAS (odes) 36

RAJAB (seventh month of Islamic calendar) 100

REHANI (a secured loan) 47

silver RUPEE (16 Annas, Yusuf stole from father) 11

RUMI (a 13th-century Persian poet (?)) 103

SAID (Sultan of the Omanis in times past) 130

SALAAM ALAIKAM (“peace unto you”) 77

SARUNI (soap) 40

SEYIDD (a Muslim of high stature) 20

SHAABAN (8th month of the Islamic calendar) 73

SHABAB (youth) 39

SHAMS (“Sham?”, Syria (?)) 104

SHEBE (former old slave of Zulekha (deceased)) 221

SHUKA (a sash worn in parts of Africa) 82

SIKUFANYIENI MASKHARA (“Dead to the world?) 105

SIMBA MWENE (Mohammed Abdalla’s overseer) 109

SIMI (a knife or sword favored by the jKikuyu) 126

SLEEPING PORTER KILLED BY HYENA (124)

SOFALA (formerly the chief port in Mozambique) 130

SUFI (“msufi” - deciduous, flowering tree) 20

SURA (one of 114 “chapters” in the Koran) 95

TAJIRI MKUBWA (rich, big businessman) 5

TAYARI (a city in SE Kenya, cut into ten towns) 130

THIRD STORE (containing contraband) 70

UDI (aloe wood, a perfume from Zanzibar) 37

UNGUJA (largest, most-populated Zanzibar island) 83

USUMBARA HIGHLANDS (north of Kawa) 7

VIBARUA (day laborers for Germans et al)) 6

VIPUSA (“rhino horns”) 189

VUMBA (or FUMBA?) Malina’s childhood town 228

MFIPO (Chatu’s village elder chief on Marungu) 153

WAH (great) 53

WALLAHI (word of oath) 60

WALII (benefactor, guardian) 243

WAUNGWANA (“people of honor”) 99

WANYAMWEZI (Bantu group from Tanzania) 33 

WASHENZI (savages who worship demons) 6

WASOMALI (Somali) 33

WAUNGWANA (a cultured freeborn, or patrician) 20

WITU (coastal-ish town in middle Kenya) 51

WOMAN KILLED BY CROCODILE 122

YALLA (“let’s go”, “come quickly”) 98

“YA SIN” (36th sura in the Koran)

YUSUF 1 

Yusuf’s PARENTS 2

ZANZIBAR (island in north of Tanzania, by Kenya) 14

ZUB (“penis”) 53

ZULEKHA (Aziz’s (first) wife, flirts with Yusef) 217

ZULEKHA’S 1ST HUSBAND 221

ZUMA (some sort of derogatory nickname?) 25

ZUWARDE (I haven’t found the translation) 182