Mohamed Said
JF-Expert Member
- Nov 2, 2008
- 21,967
- 32,074
Leo asubuhi nimepata picha ya meli iliyokuwa ikijulikana kama ''Karanja,''
Meli hii ina historia ya pekee kwa vijana wengi wa Dar es Salaam ambao walikuwa wanawania kwenda Ugiriki kutafuta kazi za Ubaharia.
Hii meli Ally Sykes aliipanda mwaka wa 1952 akiwa na miaka 26 yeye mkewe kwenda Laurenco Marques, sasa Maputo akijitahidi kuwatafuta ndugu wa baba zake baada ya nusu karne toka waondoke kijijini kwao Kwa Likunyi, Imhambane walipochukuliwa na Hermann von Wissman kuja Germany Ostafrika kama askari mamluki kuja kuwasaidia Wajerumani katika vita vyao na Abushiri in Salim Al Harith na Mtwa Mkwawa wa Kalenga.
Hapo chini ni kipande kifupi nilichotoa katika mswada wa kitabu (hakijachapwa) cha Ally Sykes tulichoandika sasa yapata miaka 30 imepepita.
Chapter Five
Tracing My Roots: The Journey to Laurenco Marques (Maputo) and Kwa Likunyi, Mozambique 1952
In 1952 I took my annual leave so that I could travel to Mozambique to search for my relatives.
More than half a century had passed since my grandfather, Sykes Mbuwane had come to Tanganyika.
I decided to go to Laurenco Marques to try looking for my blind uncle, Kattini Mbuwane and other relatives.
In one of the letters which my father sent to one Said Saleh in Laurenco Marques in 1930 he asked him to go to the central market and ask some Manyema women who were trading there about his brother Ally Kattini.
Another letter followed to a Zulu elder called Matokan.
I requested the colonial government to grant me a ticket to go to Mozambique as my place of domicile as was provided by civil service regulations.
The authorities denied this request on the grounds that I was a Tanganyikan.
I insisted on my Zulu origins.
I was told that if the Portuguese Consulate in Dar es Salaam could accept my affidavit to prove my origins, and provide me with visa, then I could be granted free passage to Laurenco Marques by the government as stipulated by civil service regulations.
The Portuguese Councilor in Tanganyika was a Goan called Victor.
I explained to him my case that I wanted to go to Mozambique to trace my relatives.
The Councilor issued a temporary passport to my wife, Zainab and me.
I left Dar es Salaam on board a ship known as Karanja and reached Laurenco Marques few days later. A
s fate would have it my wife was heavy with child when I laid my foot in the land where my forefathers had come from and settled half a century ago.
In Laurenco Marques Said Saleh, a Comorian received us.
In 1930 my father had written to him to inquire and try to trace his relatives but up to the time of his death in 1949, he did not receive any meaningful information of the whereabouts of his relatives.
Somehow Said Saleh years later, after my father had passed away, was able to allocate my father’s sister, my aunt, Maria Mbuwane, one of the daughters of Sykes Mbuwane left behind in Inhambane in late 1800s.
It is my belief that my father did not know of the existence of his sister because nowhere in the records he left behind was her name mentioned nor did he mentioned her in his talks.
My aunt came to see me.
When I narrated the family history she broke down in tears.
My aunt took us to Kwa Likunyi a village where my uncle Ali Kattini Mbuwane lived, this village was some few miles from Nyambani where Sykes Mbuwane had originally settled when the clan trekked north from South Africa.
There I was informed that my uncle had died only some few months back.
All that was left me to do was to go and pay respect to his grave, as is the custom for Muslims.
My uncle had left behind three children, my cousins, Abdallah, Ahmed and Asya.
The family was well to do.
Abdallah the eldest child had his own fishing boat and was therefore financially independent.
Somehow my cousins were not too happy to see me, they thought I had gone there to claim property left behind by uncle Kattini.
They did not believe that after 50 years I, the child of a Zulu who had settled in Tanganyika many years ago would spend so much money to travel all the way from Tanganyika to Mozambique just to visit and get to know an uncle I had not even seen.
Aunt Maria took it upon herself to alleviate that fear from them.
I had spent sometime with her back in Laurenco Marques and it did not take her very long to realise that her brother Kleist who she never saw had been a man of means and had left the family relatively well off.
She assured my cousins of my sincerity and purpose of the visit.
This settled I had a good time with my cousins only to be spoiled by the dreaded Portuguese Police who paid me a visit one fine day and asked me to leave the country immediately because my passport was temporary and my visa had expired.
Before I left Laurenco Marques I gave my cousins 1000 escudos, which was not a small amount in 1952.
Picha: Karanja
Meli hii ina historia ya pekee kwa vijana wengi wa Dar es Salaam ambao walikuwa wanawania kwenda Ugiriki kutafuta kazi za Ubaharia.
Hii meli Ally Sykes aliipanda mwaka wa 1952 akiwa na miaka 26 yeye mkewe kwenda Laurenco Marques, sasa Maputo akijitahidi kuwatafuta ndugu wa baba zake baada ya nusu karne toka waondoke kijijini kwao Kwa Likunyi, Imhambane walipochukuliwa na Hermann von Wissman kuja Germany Ostafrika kama askari mamluki kuja kuwasaidia Wajerumani katika vita vyao na Abushiri in Salim Al Harith na Mtwa Mkwawa wa Kalenga.
Hapo chini ni kipande kifupi nilichotoa katika mswada wa kitabu (hakijachapwa) cha Ally Sykes tulichoandika sasa yapata miaka 30 imepepita.
Chapter Five
Tracing My Roots: The Journey to Laurenco Marques (Maputo) and Kwa Likunyi, Mozambique 1952
In 1952 I took my annual leave so that I could travel to Mozambique to search for my relatives.
More than half a century had passed since my grandfather, Sykes Mbuwane had come to Tanganyika.
I decided to go to Laurenco Marques to try looking for my blind uncle, Kattini Mbuwane and other relatives.
In one of the letters which my father sent to one Said Saleh in Laurenco Marques in 1930 he asked him to go to the central market and ask some Manyema women who were trading there about his brother Ally Kattini.
Another letter followed to a Zulu elder called Matokan.
I requested the colonial government to grant me a ticket to go to Mozambique as my place of domicile as was provided by civil service regulations.
The authorities denied this request on the grounds that I was a Tanganyikan.
I insisted on my Zulu origins.
I was told that if the Portuguese Consulate in Dar es Salaam could accept my affidavit to prove my origins, and provide me with visa, then I could be granted free passage to Laurenco Marques by the government as stipulated by civil service regulations.
The Portuguese Councilor in Tanganyika was a Goan called Victor.
I explained to him my case that I wanted to go to Mozambique to trace my relatives.
The Councilor issued a temporary passport to my wife, Zainab and me.
I left Dar es Salaam on board a ship known as Karanja and reached Laurenco Marques few days later. A
s fate would have it my wife was heavy with child when I laid my foot in the land where my forefathers had come from and settled half a century ago.
In Laurenco Marques Said Saleh, a Comorian received us.
In 1930 my father had written to him to inquire and try to trace his relatives but up to the time of his death in 1949, he did not receive any meaningful information of the whereabouts of his relatives.
Somehow Said Saleh years later, after my father had passed away, was able to allocate my father’s sister, my aunt, Maria Mbuwane, one of the daughters of Sykes Mbuwane left behind in Inhambane in late 1800s.
It is my belief that my father did not know of the existence of his sister because nowhere in the records he left behind was her name mentioned nor did he mentioned her in his talks.
My aunt came to see me.
When I narrated the family history she broke down in tears.
My aunt took us to Kwa Likunyi a village where my uncle Ali Kattini Mbuwane lived, this village was some few miles from Nyambani where Sykes Mbuwane had originally settled when the clan trekked north from South Africa.
There I was informed that my uncle had died only some few months back.
All that was left me to do was to go and pay respect to his grave, as is the custom for Muslims.
My uncle had left behind three children, my cousins, Abdallah, Ahmed and Asya.
The family was well to do.
Abdallah the eldest child had his own fishing boat and was therefore financially independent.
Somehow my cousins were not too happy to see me, they thought I had gone there to claim property left behind by uncle Kattini.
They did not believe that after 50 years I, the child of a Zulu who had settled in Tanganyika many years ago would spend so much money to travel all the way from Tanganyika to Mozambique just to visit and get to know an uncle I had not even seen.
Aunt Maria took it upon herself to alleviate that fear from them.
I had spent sometime with her back in Laurenco Marques and it did not take her very long to realise that her brother Kleist who she never saw had been a man of means and had left the family relatively well off.
She assured my cousins of my sincerity and purpose of the visit.
This settled I had a good time with my cousins only to be spoiled by the dreaded Portuguese Police who paid me a visit one fine day and asked me to leave the country immediately because my passport was temporary and my visa had expired.
Before I left Laurenco Marques I gave my cousins 1000 escudos, which was not a small amount in 1952.
Picha: Karanja
