Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah

The Genesis of an Arranged Disaster: Raya and Bakari Abbas

The narrative arc of Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Theft begins in an atmosphere of paternal panic and revolutionary upheaval. The protagonist Raya’s marriage is not born of love, but of her father’s desperate need to preserve “respectability and honor”. This panic is triggered by Rafik, a childhood neighbor who returns from Cuba as a “heroic, slender warrior” in the Umma Party. To Raya’s father, Rafik represents the “hooligan soldier” who threatens to “dishonor” his daughter through public conversation and long, knowing looks. This fear is grounded in the broader social instability of the time, where revolutionary “heroes” used their power to “humiliate or to intimidate” citizens who lacked birth certificates or political standing.

In response to this perceived threat, Raya’s father and his elder brother, Hafidh, arrange a marriage with Bakari Abbas, an “amiable man in his forties” from Pemba. Raya, only seventeen and “beautiful,” finds herself with no real choice; she must either accept the arrangement or risk shaming her entire family. The wedding is a hurried affair, preceded by “sudden, intense preparations” and advice from elderly women on the “lore of obedience to male lust”.

The reality of the marriage is a “nightmare” of “crushing and somehow humiliating” physical demand. While Bakari Abbas maintains a facade of “effortless courtesy” to the world, he is “curt” and “relentless” with Raya, demanding her body multiple times a day and laughing at her “quailing” and “mute resistance”. Raya learns to survive by “preparing her body to receive him” and feigning enjoyment to temper his aggression, but her self-disgust grows. The birth of their son, Karim, only worsens the tension, as Bakari becomes “out of control” with rage when Raya is reluctant to lie with him too soon after delivery.

When Karim is three, Raya executes a plan of “stubborn cunning,” taking the child back to Unguja under the guise of a visit and refusing to return to her husband. She chooses the “futility” of poverty and the “airless cells” of her parents’ rented rooms over the “violence” and “promiscuous lusts” of Bakari Abbas. Her father, though initially displeased by her return and his own “story drought” caused by the disappearance of his nephew Suleman in the revolution, eventually permits her to stay.

The Parallel Lives of the Brothers: Karim and Ali

Karim grows up in the shadow of his elder half-brother, Ali, the son of Bakari Abbas and a woman named Mamkuu. The two boys are ten years apart and possess starkly different temperaments. Ali is a “champion clown” and “dogged” athlete who loves the sea and the company of rowdy fishermen, much to his mother’s worry. Karim, conversely, is a “lanky, soft-spoken, self-possessed boy” with “melting eyes” who excels in school and earns the praise of teachers for his “obedient ways”.

Despite their differences, Ali is fiercely proud of his “smart little brother”. When Bakari Abbas dies at fifty-eight from heart failure and complications of diabetes, the inheritance highlights the family’s fractures. Bakari snubs both Raya and Karim in his will, leaving his business to Ali and his house to his third wife. Ali, ever dutiful, sells the business, marries his betrothed Jalila, and buys a house in Unguja, eventually taking Karim in when their grandmother dies and Raya remarries and moves to Dar es Salaam.

Karim’s academic success leads him to a scholarship at the University of Dar es Salaam to study Geography and Environmental Studies. During his university years, he moves into the spacious Dar es Salaam house shared by his mother, her new husband Haji Othman, and Haji’s gloomy, silent father, Uncle Othman. It is in this household that the next major thread of the narrative the life of Badar Ismail is woven into the family tapestry.

The Servitude and Secret Identity of Badar Ismail

Badar Ismail is a child of “fate” and tragedy. His mother died of cholera (kipindupindu) when he was a baby, and his real father, Ismail, abandoned him to his wife’s relatives before disappearing toward Mombasa. He is raised by Mohamed Rashidi, a man who is “not his father” and who treats him with a “scowling” dislike, eventually sending him away at age thirteen to work as a “boi” (servant) for Haji and Othman in the city.

Badar’s introduction to the Othman household is a study in “mute servitude and deference”. He is trained by Raya in the meticulous cleaning of the luxury home, from scrubbing tiles until they “glisten” to dusting the “kursi” holding the Koran. While Haji is “bubbling” and “teasing” with Badar, Uncle Othman treats the boy with “loathing,” communicating only through “snorts of contempt” and snapped fingers.

Badar finds a mentor in Juma, the gnarled old gardener, who tells him stories of the past and hints at a mystery regarding Badar’s parentage. Juma warns Badar that the house is “not a good place for you to be” and that Uncle Othman’s “ferocity” is not the boy’s fault.

The crisis of Badar’s life occurs when Uncle Othman discovers inflated bills at Fadhili’s grocery shop. The grocer, who has been cheating the family, blames the discrepancies on the “boi,” claiming Badar has been stealing rice, sugar, and tinned sardines to sell. Othman, fueled by a “shaking rage,” orders the “thief and son of a thief” out of the house.

It is at this moment that Haji finally reveals the “shameful secret” of Badar’s identity: Badar is actually a relative. His father, Ismail, was a cousin of Haji who had been “chased away” by Uncle Othman years prior for being a “restless troublemaker” who stole from the family. Othman had only permitted Badar to live in the house on the condition that he be kept in “ignorance of who they were to him” and serve as a servant to punish his father’s sins. Karim, witnessing this “vengeful” treatment, “rescues” Badar and brings him to Zanzibar, promising to find him a better life.

The Tamarind Hotel and the Arrival of Jerry Bruno

In Zanzibar, Karim uses his connections with Bwana Sharif Makame, a powerful hotel owner, to secure Badar a position as a trainee at the Tamarind Hotel. The hotel is a “boutique” establishment in the old town, catering to European tourists seeking the “serious part of their holiday”. Badar works under Assistant Manager Issa, a gaunt man with a thin moustache and a “bitter” instructional style: “It’s just their money we want, not their love. Don’t touch them!”.

Badar thrives in this environment, teaching himself to use a computer and overcoming his “tongue-tied” fear of speaking English. He becomes the “discreet” observer of Bwana Sharif’s “day bookings” in Room 5, where the boss brings his mistress, the wife of a junior minister. Badar’s life feels like a “rest” until the arrival of Geraldine “Jerry” Bruno, a twenty-one-year-old British volunteer for a relief agency.

Jerry is a “glowing beauty” with fair hair and “intense eyes” who plays the clarinet in her room. Badar is immediately “awestruck” and “enamored,” but his position as a “flunky” and his fear of Issa’s rules keep him at a distance. However, when Jerry asks for a snack one evening and eventually invites Badar to dinner, he is forced to decline because he is covering the night shift for the ailing Ramadhani.

The Tectonic Shift: The Betrayal of Karim

The central “theft” of the novel is not of groceries or money, but of affection and family stability. Karim, now a successful government official and manager of a health assessment team, is deeply unhappy in his marriage to Fauzia. The birth of their daughter, Nasra, has turned their “compact and contented” life into a “silent misery”. Fauzia is consumed by post-partum depression and a paralyzing fear that she has passed her “falling sickness” (epilepsy) on to the baby. Karim, in turn, has become “withdrawn and defensive,” feeling “captured” by the “daily aggravation” of a crying infant and a “sullen” wife.

The tension reaches a breaking point when Karim visits Badar at the Tamarind and meets Jerry Bruno. He is struck by a “momentary surge of nerves” at her beauty and, noticing Badar’s inability to take her to dinner, offers to do so himself. This “companionship” quickly evolves into a reckless affair. Karim begins lying to Fauzia about “work barbecues” while spending nights at Jerry’s flat, eventually leading to a weekend tryst in Dar es Salaam.

The betrayal is exposed when Maria Caffrey, the director of the relief agency, visits the Tamarind Hotel to report a theft of money from a volunteer named Edna. She reveals that “Badar’s friend” (Karim) has been spending hours at the flat and implies he is the culprit. While Jerry later admits she was the one who “borrowed” the money, the damage is done. Fauzia, having already intuited the affair from the smell of “perfumed soap” on Karim’s skin, moves back to her parents’ house with Nasra.

The Final Reckoning and the Lesson of Endurance

In the aftermath of the breakup, Karim visits Badar, not to seek forgiveness, but to announce his departure for Copenhagen for training in a prestigious EU-funded sustainable development project. When Badar attempts to offer help or moral reflection, Karim explodes in a “venomous” display of class-based contempt. He calls Badar an “ungrateful idiot,” a “weakling,” and a “useless wanker,” claiming that without Karim’s “rescue,” Badar would be a “criminal or a drug addict begging in the streets”. Karim justifies his actions by claiming he has “learned not to be afraid” and has chosen to “take his life in his own hands” regardless of the pain caused to Fauzia or the child he “didn’t even want”.

The book concludes four years later. Karim has achieved his ambition, becoming a “grandee” in the government and living a wealthy life in Dar es Salaam and Europe. Badar, now the Assistant Manager at the hotel, has remained in Zanzibar, quietly supporting Fauzia and Nasra. The “theft” of Karim’s affection has left a void that Badar fills with “patience and endurance”.

In the final scene, a trip to Mangapwani Beach with their mutual friend Hawa and five-year-old Nasra provides the resolution. Fauzia “takes Badar’s hand,” and they walk together toward the tidal palms, finally acknowledging the love that has matured between them in the wreckage of Karim’s departure. Hawa’s closing remark “I thought you would never get round to it” affirms that while Karim sought a future “without fear,” it is Badar and Fauzia who have found a future through the quiet strength of staying behind.