Personality Traits in the Characterisation of the Main Characters in “Watoto wa Mamantilie” and “Daladala Kutoka Mbagala: A Psychoanalytic and Narrative Analysis”

Abstract

This paper examines the representation of character traits through the fictionalisation of protagonists in Emmanuel Mbogo’s Watoto wa Mamant’ilie and Mussa Shakinyashi’s Daladala Kutoka Mbagala. By analysing how protagonists are constructed, the study provides insight into the cultural narratives and societal values reflected in contemporary Tanzanian literature. The research adopts a qualitative approach and employs a hybrid analytical framework that integrates Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory and Puckett’s Narrative Theory. These theoretical lenses enable a detailed examination of how characters’ personalities are expressed, narrated, and performed within the selected texts. The study is grounded in the Constructivist Paradigm, an interdisciplinary theoretical perspective widely recognised in education, psychology, sociology, and epistemology. This paradigm holds that individuals construct meaning and perceive reality through personal experiences, beliefs, interpretations, and social interactions. Guided by this framework, the study relies on close textual reading as its primary method of data analysis, focusing on narrative description, dialogue, behaviour, and social interaction to interpret the development of key characters. The analysis reveals that Peter is portrayed as a psychologically complex character whose personality is marked by sociability, empathy, analytical thinking, and creative adaptability, reflecting resilience shaped by social marginalisation and personal loss. In contrast, Fikara emerges as a more authoritative and force-driven figure, whose personality is defined by assertiveness and controlled emotional expression, suggesting a limited yet distinct rhetorical dominance within the narrative. Together, these portrayals demonstrate how characterisation functions as a critical literary device for revealing personality types, power relations, and social identity, thereby enriching the interpretative depth of African literary analysis.