Tanzanian playwright and literary critic, born 1940 in Zanzibar. After secondary education at home, in 1960 he left for the U.K. In 1965 graduated from SOAS of London in Kiswahili, Linguistics and Anthropology, and took his PhD degree there in 1972. In the years 1968-1971 he was a lecturer of Linguistics at the University of Dar es Salaam and founded the first course in Swahili literature in Kiswahili. During 1972-74 he was a senior lecturer at the University of Nairobi, and during 1974-75 and 1976-77, at the University of Riyad, Saudi Arabia. In 1977 he moved to the U.K. where he is still living. After working in Ismaili Studies, London, he was professor of Swahili literature at SOAS until 2006.