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HAWA THE BUS DRIVER
By Richard Mabala
About the Book
In Hawa, the bus-driver, the author (Richard Mabala) presents an animated childlike story with serious adult themes. Hawa is a forward-thinking Tanzanian woman who lives in a rural slum but works as a bus-driver..the unthinkable in a male chauvanistic society. Her hard work, sheer physical strength and stern moral responsibility slowly turn male snobbery into devotion and respect as Hawa single-handedly battles drunkards and thieves on the night shift.
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| Richard Mabala |
TITTLE: Hawa The Bus Driver
AUTHOR: Richard S. Mabala
SETTING: Dar Es Salaam - Tanzania
YEAR OF
PUBLICATION: 1988 – 2003.
PUBLISHER: Longman Group UK Ltd./
Ben and company limited.
THE PLOT OF THE BOOK.
- Plot is the arrangement of event in the work of art.
Events in the work of art are arranged in terms of chapter, scenes, parts,
seasons, Arts etc.
- The book “Hawa the Bus Driver” is arranged in chapters,
ranges from chapter 01– chapter 06.
SUMMARY BY CHAPTER.
CHAPTER 1 ( HAWA THE BUS DRIVER).
The chapter
is all about the physical characteristics of Hawa Ibrahim the way she looks
like/ appears and his famous in Dar es Salaam city of being a good and careful
driver
CHAPTER 2 (HAWA’S
DAY)
The chapter is all about the hardworking habit of Hawa in
both at home and her driving work. Also the chapter reveals the kindness of
Hawa to his neighbors and her family.
CHAPTER 3 (HAWA
AND THE DRUNKARD)
The chapter talks about challenges that Hawa faces in her driving work,
as there some people like Drunkard man who despises Hawa that woman can’t drive
the bus rather she is suppose to stay at home looking after her family and not
driving.
CHAPTER 4 (HAWA
AND THE THIEVES)
In this chapter, we can see the way Hawa fought with thieves while
driving the bus and succeeded the thieves to be arrested and taken to the
police post at Mbezi, and people nickname Hawa as honest and heroine.
CHAPTER 5 (THE
ACCIDENT)
The chapter shows the way Hawa drove her bus careful to the extent that
she was helped to serve life of people by avoiding unnecessary accident. This
is shown when Hawa helped the injured people from a accident of another bus.
CHAPTER 6 (SELEMAN
IS JEALOUS)
The chapter shows the
way seleman, hawa’s husband, the way he was very jealous towards his wife Hawa
because of becoming more and more famous in the city to the extent that people
at Manzese greated her as “ Hawa the Great”, Due to that Seleman had decided to stop Hawa from being a bus
Driver.
WHAT IS THE BOOK ABOUT?
Generaly, the book “ HAWA THE BUS DRIVER” is all about a
woman called HAWA who lives at Manzese Dar es salaam and Drive a bus as her
daily work. Or the book is all about a famous woman bus driver called HAWA.
CHARACTERS
& CHARACTERIZATION
What are characters and characterization?
i)
Characters: These are person/people, Things/objects
that play/perform certain roles in a work of art like play/drama, Novel and
films
ii)
Characterization: these are the attributes and
descriptions of characters` behavior and actions they play in the work of art
which are normally made by the author/ writer.
TYPES OF
CHARACTERS.
There are many characters portrayed in the work of work like
that of flat chapters, round characters; protagonists characters and
Antagonists characters; But all these characters are broadly categorized into the
major groups, namely:-
(a) MAJAOR /
MAIN CHARACTERS
These are characters which carry the main theme or idea of
the story (book), film or dramas, which arenormally, appears from the first
part of the book up to the end of book. Also these characters remain with the
same behaviors up to the end of the story eg. Harshness, cruelty, kindness etc.
(b) MINOR /
MINIMAL CHARACTERS
These are characters which carry minimal/least themes/idea in
the book, film or drama and they are not important as those main characters,
rather they intend to support the main characters.
MAJOR/MAIN
CHARACTERS FROM THE BOOK “ HAWA THE BUS DRIVER”.
i)
HAWA IBRAHIMU.
v She is a
famous woman bus driver in Dar es Salaam city.
v She is
strong and courageous woman as she was able to coup with all changes she faces
in her work environment like that of thieves, accident, the drunkard man and
even from her husband, Seleman.
v She is
Seleman’s wife.
v She has
about 82 kg
v She is
Hassan’s and Saada’s mother.
v She is a
kind and hard working woman as she was able to help her family with domestic
activities and her neighbours.
v She was
despised with men that woman can’t drive a bus, because driving a car (bus) is
not a work of woman; that means, woman should take care of family like cooking
and selling vitumbua and other petty business.
v She was a
good and careful bus driver in the city as she always avoided unnecessary
accidents to the extent that passengers liked to travel by her bus.
v She was
polite and respectful woman to her husband, Seleman that she was ready to
resign from being a driver after her husband claimed her to not to drive.
ii)
SELEMAN:
v He is
Hawa’s husband.
v He is
Hassan’s and Saada’s father.
v He works at
Urafiki textile mill as a machine operator.
v He is a
tall and strong man like his wife, Hawa, became operating machines needs strong
people.
v He is a
very jealous man as he was commanded his wife, Hawa to resign from job of
driving a bus because of becoming more
and more famous in the city than him.
v He seemed
as a stupid man that allows his wife to be a bus driver.
iii)
MESHACK:
v He is a
Hawa’s bus conductor.
v He is
somehow weak and coward as he failed/unable to help hand in difficult time like
that of thieves, drunkard disturbances.
v He is the
one who hard people’s shouting about the thieves sanded in the bus.
MINOR/ MINIMAL CHARACTERS FROM THE BOOK “ HAWA THE BUS
DRIVER”.
I)
THE DRUNKARD.
v He is the
one who despises Hawa that, woman cant drive a car.
v He was
batten by Hawa became of his misbehavior and despises showed to Hawa.
v He is the
one who pushed Hawa from the stalling and wanted to cause an accident.
v He is an outdated
man, because he believed that woman can’t drive a car while is not true.
II)
THE THIEVES.
v They are
the ones who wanted to steal money from passengers and Meshack, Hawa’s bus
conductor.
v They are
the ones who were arrested by the police after being tilted by Hawa.
III)
HASSAN AND SAADA.
v They are
Hawa’s and Seleman’s children.
v They are
studying at primary school.
v They are
laughed by their fellow children at school became of being children of a bus
driver.
IV)
GEORGE.
v He is a
primary teacher at Manzese primary school.
v He is
Hawa’sneighbors.
V)
CHAUSIKU.
v She is a
nurse at a certain hospital in the city.
v She is
Hawa’s best friend who after sit together in the evenings, cooking vitumbua, planting
their hairs and every chatting.
THEMES FOUND IN THE BOOK
A THEME: Is the main subject/idea in the piece of writing
like books, film or drama.
THE MAIN THEME
FOUND IN THE BOOK:
There are many theme found in this book but some of theme are
as follows:-
i)
HARD WORKING;
This is the main theme/idea of the book, in which the writer
showed the character HAWA, the way she was working hard in both at home and
working place of driving a bus (Driver). This habit of Hawa to work hard made
her to become more and more famous and respectable in the city. Hard working
means devoting time and energy to achieve the set goals and objectives.
ii)
DRUNKARDNES
This is also the theme depicted from the book in which some
characters are portrayed as drunkard, such characters are like the drunkard who
was beaten by HAWA because of his misbehavior of despising HAWA and he wanted
to push HAWA from driving because he believes that women can’t drive a bus.
This outdated idea of that woman can’t drive a car (bus).
iii)
GENDER STYREOTYPING
This is also a theme portrayed in the book. This is shown
when men regard theme selves superior than woman, for example the drunkard
tends to despises HAWA that woman can’t driver a bus while in reality not true
because any person be it man or woman can drive a car. This problem is much practiced
in many societies in African continent that men are superior than women.
MESSAGE
This is the lesson that we normally get from the book read.
That means after reading a fiction or nonfiction stories there are some lesson
that may be warm educate criticize or develop awareness among people. In this
book, the following messages were found:
i) Hardworking is a source of development in the society.
ii) Gender stereotyping should be stopped in the sense
that men and women should be given equal opportunity in all spheres of life.
iii) Drunkardness is a source of misbehaving
characters/attributes among people in the society.
iv) Women are the source of family and national
development.
CONFLICTS.
Conflict is misunderstanding among people in the story. There
are different conflicts that happened in the story and those conflicts are in
form of group or personal.
i)
The conflict between HAWA and SELEMAN
This happens when Seleman wanted to stop Hawa from driving
bus.
ii)
The conflict between HAWA and The DRUNKARD
This happens when HAWA tried to beat the drunkard when
drunkard tried to stop Hawa from driving while despising her that woman can’t
drive a car (bus).
iii)
The conflict between HAWA and the other DRIVERS in the
company
This happens when Hawa seems to be a good driver instead of
being woman ; And this is when people tried to respect and honor Hawa as a good
driver in the company.
iv)
The conflict between HAWA and THE THIEVES
This happens when Hawa tried to fight with thieves until she
succeeded the thieves to be arrested in the police post.
v)
The conflict between SELEMAN and his FRIENDS.
This happened after Seleman came to realize that all things
that have been told by his friend that Hawa was a misbehaving and arrogant
woman not correct.
PHYLOSOPHY
OF THE WRITER
This is the stand of the writer
which can be protagonist or antagonist towards the issues portrayed and
revealed in the story for example, in this book the stand of the writer (Richard
S. Mabala ) is the positive contributions of woman in bringing development to the society. That was revealed by the
writer that women can do any job regardless their gender, for instance Hawa to
drive a bus which is normally regarded as a job for men.
GROUP DISCUSSION
QUESTIONS.
1. What is the
tittle of the book?
2. Who is the
Author/ writer of the book?
3. Can you
guess what the book is about?
4. When was
the book published?
5. What do you
see on the front cover of the book?
6. What can
you find in the blurb?
Excitement
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