[3] After receiving the school certificate, Shaaban worked at various posts as a colonial government civil servant.

From 1926 to 1944 he was a customs official at different locations throughout the territory including one post at Kwale Island in current day Mkuranga District of Pwani Region.

Tanzania's first president, Julius Nyerere, had complete admiration for the late Shaaban Robert, and greatly valued and promoted his intellectual work.

[The name Robert was in fact one of his father's several names, the others being Selemani and Ufukwe] Sheikh Shaaban Robert succeeded in writing essays, books, prose and poems and some of his literature is part of school curricula and higher education reading.

Some of his books included Maisha Yangu na Baada ya Miaka Hamsini, Kusadikika, and Wasifu wa Siti binti Saad.