Nelson...
Usiwe mkaidi usiweke !!!??? unachafua unachiandika.
Nakuwekea hapa rejea usome:
In 1985, President Nyerere, while conferring an honorary degree on Basil Davidson, challenged the University of Dar es Salaamto write a correct history of Tanzania.
In 1988, while commemorating thirty years of the Tabora Declaration, Nyerere in reference to early TANU members and as a tribute to them Nyerere asked the Party to take stock of those who joined TANU between 1954 and 1958.
Nyerere said: “That was the most trying period in the history of our Party and few people were courageous enough to join and work for the Party.” [1] | |
In supporting Nyerere for his recent call and taking up the challenge to record a correct history which he had for the first advanced in 1974 and again in 1985 the present author published an article in African Events [2] in which Abdulwahid and other forgotten TANU pioneers received prominence.
In that article the author did what no other scholar had done before.
He mentioned the fact that Muslims were in the forefront during the struggle for independence. It was at that time taboo to associate Islam or Muslims with the independence movement. The author received sharp rebuke from a Party historian, Dr Mayanja Kiwanuka, a leading member of the panel which wrote the Party book Historia ya Chama Cha TANU 1954-1977, the official history of the Party. The Party historian had this to say: | |
(the)... article...argues that although Muslims in Tanzania played a crucial role in the struggle for independence, there is a deliberate effort to downplay their contribution.
Consequently, the entire article contains half-baked fairy tales to sustain his argument, more so by mentioning names of several TANU stalwarts who happened to be Muslims...
The greatness of TANU, indeed that of its founder-leader, Mwalimu Nyerere, is that, in so short a time since its inception, it managed to weave together into a formidable, relatively homogenous nationalist movement, a people so ethnically, culturally and religiously diverse... Said’s major goal is to sow seeds of discord, and at any price, truth to him is a matter to be ignored. [3] | |
[1]
Daily News, 6 th October, 1988.
[2]
[3] See
Africa Events, May, 1988, letter by Dr K. Mayanja Kiwanuka.