Geza Ulole
JF-Expert Member
- Oct 31, 2009
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Bishop Desmond Tutu’s first foot in Tanzania
MEANINGFUL and informed look at the liberation struggle of South Africa cannot take place in the absence of the late Tanzania Father of the Nation President Julius Kambarage Nyerere and Nobel Peace Prize winner Anglican Church Right Reverend Bishop Desmond Tutu.
Being at the centre of liberation, southern Africa in particular, President Nyerere turned Tanzania into a special target of anti-freedom fighters’ global intelligence systems. Otherwise, how does one explain brutal deaths of liberation struggle leaders like that of Mozambique’s Dr Eduardo Mondlane, who was killed by a parcel bomb in Dar es Salam’s Seaview porch area? Such incidents put him on such big alert. But they never discouraged him.
It is in this vein that one could look at how he managed to make South African Nobel Peace Prize winner, Bishop Desmond Tutu, visit Tanzania for the first time via the Anglican church. How did he do it? The story lies with 76-yearold retired Bishop John Ramadhan, who served as the Archbishop of the Anglican Church in Tanzania for more than ten years before retiring in early 1990.
In an interview with the writer, Bishop Ramadhan now in retirement in Zanzibar narrated: “One early morning in 1984 at my residence in Magomeni area of Dar es Salaam, there was a knock at the door. An attendant told me there was someone from State House, who wanted to speak to me. “This man turned out to be neither than the man I knew. That was Joseph Butiku, the private secretary to President Nyerere.
Mr Butiku had a message from the president, who wanted to know if the Anglican Church was sending a delegation to South Africa for the inauguration of Bishop Desmond Tutu. “I told Mr Butiku that the Anglican Church of Tanzania had not even thought about it. But I promised him that, as the head, I would convene a bishops’ meeting about it. “When I tabled the idea, no bishop was ready to go to South Africa.
It was too risky, judging from reports we were reading in the press.” Bishop Ramadhan says that as a person, he was surprised by President Nyerere’s note. He was caught between his fellow bishops’ fears and personal conviction over the church’s every reason to support the African liberation struggle. So he offered himself to go to South Africa. The foreign affairs ministry made all travel arrangements for his trip.
“I received a special passport and a return ticket from Dar es Salaam to Johannesburg through Lilongwe and Durban. “I made sure I confined myself in the room but at the airport some white official put several questions to me on liberation movement officials in Tanzania. My answer was always ‘I know nothing.’ “The inauguration ceremony was great.
I had a brief au-with Bishop Tutu, who expressed appreciation for the attendance of a Tanzanian bishop as he shook my hands. “Tell your president we are happy with his support on our struggle, he told me before the Archbishop of Canterbury, ………. who officiated at the ceremony. “Back home, Mr Butiku came to me again; this time with a request for the church to invite Bishop Tutu to Tanzania. He said the government could not do so but would be responsible for the entire visit. “This we did. A quick response was texted to us. We forwarded it to Mr Butiku.
Three days after Christmas in 1984, Bishop Desmond Tutu touched down at the Dar es Salaam airport. I received him. We went to Motel Agip. We had our breakfast. Later we were joined by Foreign Affairs Minister Mr Benjamin Mkapa, who took over from us. He led the mission to board a government plane from Dar es Salaam to Mwanza on the way to Butiama.
“I had yet to see a happy Nyerere. Mwalimu welcomed us into their discussions. He asked them a lot of questions about the meeting with President Ronald Reagan. Before coming to Tanzania, Bishop Tutu had earlier gone to the US to receive his Nobel Peace Prize after which he paid a courtesy call on President Reagan.
“Mwalimu, throughout the discussions, wanted to know the stand of the US Administration on African liberation and the idea that the common American citizen held on the struggle.
“Before leaving Dar es Salaam, Bishop Tutu went critical of the situation in South Africa, short of warning a bloody liberation in the absence of international pressure. This raised fears among us that Bishop Tutu stood the risk of being arrested on his arrival back home.
Fortunately, this did not happen. And South Africa is free; proving the healthy links between Tanzania’s religion and politics.
Bishop Desmond Tutu’s first foot in Tanzania
MEANINGFUL and informed look at the liberation struggle of South Africa cannot take place in the absence of the late Tanzania Father of the Nation President Julius Kambarage Nyerere and Nobel Peace Prize winner Anglican Church Right Reverend Bishop Desmond Tutu.
Being at the centre of liberation, southern Africa in particular, President Nyerere turned Tanzania into a special target of anti-freedom fighters’ global intelligence systems. Otherwise, how does one explain brutal deaths of liberation struggle leaders like that of Mozambique’s Dr Eduardo Mondlane, who was killed by a parcel bomb in Dar es Salam’s Seaview porch area? Such incidents put him on such big alert. But they never discouraged him.
It is in this vein that one could look at how he managed to make South African Nobel Peace Prize winner, Bishop Desmond Tutu, visit Tanzania for the first time via the Anglican church. How did he do it? The story lies with 76-yearold retired Bishop John Ramadhan, who served as the Archbishop of the Anglican Church in Tanzania for more than ten years before retiring in early 1990.
In an interview with the writer, Bishop Ramadhan now in retirement in Zanzibar narrated: “One early morning in 1984 at my residence in Magomeni area of Dar es Salaam, there was a knock at the door. An attendant told me there was someone from State House, who wanted to speak to me. “This man turned out to be neither than the man I knew. That was Joseph Butiku, the private secretary to President Nyerere.
Mr Butiku had a message from the president, who wanted to know if the Anglican Church was sending a delegation to South Africa for the inauguration of Bishop Desmond Tutu. “I told Mr Butiku that the Anglican Church of Tanzania had not even thought about it. But I promised him that, as the head, I would convene a bishops’ meeting about it. “When I tabled the idea, no bishop was ready to go to South Africa.
It was too risky, judging from reports we were reading in the press.” Bishop Ramadhan says that as a person, he was surprised by President Nyerere’s note. He was caught between his fellow bishops’ fears and personal conviction over the church’s every reason to support the African liberation struggle. So he offered himself to go to South Africa. The foreign affairs ministry made all travel arrangements for his trip.
“I received a special passport and a return ticket from Dar es Salaam to Johannesburg through Lilongwe and Durban. “I made sure I confined myself in the room but at the airport some white official put several questions to me on liberation movement officials in Tanzania. My answer was always ‘I know nothing.’ “The inauguration ceremony was great.
I had a brief au-with Bishop Tutu, who expressed appreciation for the attendance of a Tanzanian bishop as he shook my hands. “Tell your president we are happy with his support on our struggle, he told me before the Archbishop of Canterbury, ………. who officiated at the ceremony. “Back home, Mr Butiku came to me again; this time with a request for the church to invite Bishop Tutu to Tanzania. He said the government could not do so but would be responsible for the entire visit. “This we did. A quick response was texted to us. We forwarded it to Mr Butiku.
Three days after Christmas in 1984, Bishop Desmond Tutu touched down at the Dar es Salaam airport. I received him. We went to Motel Agip. We had our breakfast. Later we were joined by Foreign Affairs Minister Mr Benjamin Mkapa, who took over from us. He led the mission to board a government plane from Dar es Salaam to Mwanza on the way to Butiama.
“I had yet to see a happy Nyerere. Mwalimu welcomed us into their discussions. He asked them a lot of questions about the meeting with President Ronald Reagan. Before coming to Tanzania, Bishop Tutu had earlier gone to the US to receive his Nobel Peace Prize after which he paid a courtesy call on President Reagan.
“Mwalimu, throughout the discussions, wanted to know the stand of the US Administration on African liberation and the idea that the common American citizen held on the struggle.
“Before leaving Dar es Salaam, Bishop Tutu went critical of the situation in South Africa, short of warning a bloody liberation in the absence of international pressure. This raised fears among us that Bishop Tutu stood the risk of being arrested on his arrival back home.
Fortunately, this did not happen. And South Africa is free; proving the healthy links between Tanzania’s religion and politics.
Bishop Desmond Tutu’s first foot in Tanzania