Mohamed Said
12 October 2008
column
Nairobi — It is a pity that the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere did not reveal much about his early life in Dar es Salaam of the 1950s, where he came to as a budding 30-year-old politician fresh from Edinburgh University.
One can only speculate why Nyerere was secretive about those days, the period when the Tanganyika African Association (TAA) was transformed into the Tanganyika African National Union (Tanu).
The closest Nyerere came to speaking about that period was in 1985 at the Diamond Jubilee Hall where, in an emotional farewell speech before he stepped down from the presidency, he paid tribute to "the Wazee wa Dar es Salaam" who supported him from the day Tanu was founded in 1954.
Mwalimu mentioned two people forgotten in the history of Tanganyika -- Abdulwahid Sykes and Dossa Aziz. Abdulwahid was TAA president in 1953 and was among the four financiers of the movement along with his young brother Ally, Dossa and John Rupia.
Abdulwahid died young in 1968 but Dossa lived on to a ripe old age -- though, sadly he died a poor and lonely man at Mlandizi in 1997.
However, they did not benefit from the fruits of Independence, for which they had worked so hard, nor were their names associated with Tanu, Nyerere or the independence movement.
One could write volumes about the contributions and sacrifices made by the two Sykes brothers and Dossa; and the elders like Mwinjuma Mwinyikambi, Kiyate Mshume, Jumbe Tambaza, Sheikh Hassan bin Amir and Sheikh Suleiman Takadir to mention only a few.
In those days, these names made up who's who of the municipality. They were the rich and the famous of the town.
Dar es Salaam was then divided into four areas: Kariakoo, Gerezani, Kisutu and Mission Quarter. Kisutu was the oldest and had the oldest mosque in Dar es Salaam, the Mwinyikheri Akida Mosque, which is more than 100 years.
Across Morogoro Road was Kariakoo, which still exists, and the first street stretching from the north to the south parallel to Mnazi Mmoja was a narrow road -- New Street -- where the headquarters of the African Association stood, a building of stone and lime built in the 1930s through self-help during the leadership of Mzee Bin Sudi and Kleist Sykes, president and secretary respectively.
It was in this building that Tanu was born in 1954. The building was situated at the point where Kariakoo Street and New Street intersect. The house still stands.
To the west of Kariakoo was the Mission Quarter, an exclusive African mission area set aside by the British to separate the Christian minority from the Muslim majority in the town.
Even street names in Mission Quarter had names of settlements in Tanganyika where missionaries had managed to penetrate and establish themselves. Street names such as Masasi, Likoma, Ndanda, Muhonda, Muheza and Magila have survived to this day.
This was the only area in Dar es Salaam where missionaries managed to build a chapel. African Christians were confined to this area. And if a Christian ventured into Kariakoo, a majority Muslim area, to ask for a room, he would be advised to try his luck at Mission Quarter.
Mwalimu Nyerere thus arrived in a town that was structured along lines of prejudices.
Two prominent Africans and members of the African Association who lived in Mission Quarter during the emergence of nationalist politics were Thomas Plantan, elected president of the African Association once, and John Rupia a rich African businessman.
Rupia's house, situated at Likoma Street and Magila, is where the African Association was founded in 1929. The house still stands today though not in its original structure.
An interesting fact about Mission Quarter is that it had the only printing press owned by an African -- Mashado Plantan -- which the pro-African Association newspaper Zuhra was published. This paper came to be Tanu and Nyerere's first mouthpiece.
On the west of Kariakoo was Gerezani, home of Omari Londo, Ally Sykes, Zuberi Mtemvu, Mashado Plantan, Muhsin Mende and Dossa Aziz.
These were the first patriots from Gerezani to come into contact with Nyerere. Zuberi Mtemvu, Mashado Plantan and Muhsin Mende were later to resign from Tanu to form an opposition party, the Tanganyika African Congress, and the three became bitter opponents of Tanu and Nyerere.
Among prominent personalities from Kariakoo the young Nyerere interacted with were Mzee Mshume Kiyate, Sheikh Hassan bin Ameir, Sheikh Suleiman Takadir, Idd Faizi, Idd Tosiri, Abdulwahid Sykes and Dossa Aziz.
Abdulwahid Sykes was 28, two years younger than Julius Nyerere, when one afternoon Nyerere came to Abdulwahid's house at Stanley Street (now Max Mbwana Street) accompanied by Bantu Kasella Bantu.
It is said Mwalimu Nyerere had a letter of introduction from Hamza Mwapachu (who was still in Britain studying) to Abdulwahid Sykes.
At that time, Sykes was the president of the Tanganyika African Association. The fact that Abdulwahid Sykes preceded Nyerere in the presidency of the TAA is a point often not mentioned even by Chama cha Mapinduzi.
This denies the history of nationalist politics in Tanganyika, "friendly silent power struggle" within the association between the incumbent and well established townsman Abdulwahid Sykes, son of a prosperous businessman and founder member of African Association, Kleist Sykes and the unassuming challenge from an unknown school teacher from Butiama, Julius Nyerere.
It denies the young generation inside information of what TAA did to outsmart the British and send Mwalimu Nyerere to the United Nations to address the Trusteeship Council. Most importantly, it denies them knowledge of the burning issues that were discussed at the "Sunday baraza."
This weekly meeting was generally held either at Dossa's house on Congo Street or at Abdulwahid's house on Stanley Street (now Max Mbwana), where Nyerere used to come every Sunday to meet the TAA leadership and discuss the politics of the day.
Various schemes against the British were hatched from these two houses. The meetings at TAA headquarters in New Street, now Lumumba, was merely to rubber stamp the decisions arrived at the Sunday barazas.
Any student of Tanganyika's nationalist politics wishing to trace Mwalimu Nyerere's formative years needs to walk down this path. It is saddening that it has been neglected by researchers.
In 1963, Mwalimu Nyerere talked to Lady Judith Listowel, who had come to Tanganyika to research a book she was writing (The Making of Tanganyika). Lady Judith was the wife of William Mare, the last governor of Gold Coast (Ghana).
She was put in contact with Ally Sykes by Peter Colmore in Nairobi. Lady Judith came to Dar es Salaam and interviewed Abdulwahid and Ally Sykes and Julius Nyerere.
In that book, Mwalimu paid a glowing tribute to the nationalists who had preceded him in the political arena. A copy of the book, which is out of print, can be found at the University of Dar es Salaam Library or from Ally Sykes.
There are reports that Nyerere was under pressure to write his memoir but he declined. It is reported that Mwalimu even refused to meet an Oxford University Press representative who wanted to discuss the writing of his memoir.
It was only when Mwalimu Nyerere was severely criticised in two books -- Conflict and Harmony in Zanzibar by Ali Muhsin Barwan and The Life and Times of Abdulwahid Sykes 1924 -1968 by this writer -- that he succumbed to pressure and told his confidants to form a committee to which he would talk about his life, from which interaction they would be able to write his biography. But although the committee was formed, it never got off the ground as Mwalimu was in failing health and soon died on October 14, 1999.
But equally important in tracing Mwalimu's steps from Butiama particularly after the founding of TANU in 1954 is the house of veteran politician and former secretary of the TAA Mzee Clement Mtamila who was overthrown from TAA leadership along with the president Thomas Plantan in a coup de grace led by Abdulwahid Sykes and Hamza Mwapachu in 1949.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
