Mohamed Said
JF-Expert Member
- Nov 2, 2008
- 21,967
- 32,074
KIVULI CHA WAZEE WAZALENDO KINAPOWAFUNIKA NA KUWAZIBA WATOTO NA WAJUKUU: HISTORIA YA KLEIST ABDULWAHID SYKES (1950 - 2017) NA BAKARI HARITH MWAPACHU (1939 - 2021)
Jana baada ya kifo cha Bakari Harith Mwapachu niliombwa niandike taazia yake.
Nami nikajibu kuwa sikuwa namfahamu marehemu kwa kiasi cha kuweza kumwandika.
Hii ikanikumbusha wakati inatengenezwa Dictionary of African Biography (DAB) mradi wa Harvard na Oxford University Press (New York).
Nilikuwa mmoja wa waandishi wa hili kamusi na niliombwa nimwandike Kleist Sykes (mjukuu).
Nikamweleza Prof. Emmanuel Akyeampong kuwa Kleist Abdulwahid Sykes hana makubwa ya kuandikwa ukimfananisha na babu yake Kleist Sykes au baba yake Abdulwahid Kleist Sykes.
Hivyo nikashauri kuwa bora tumwandike babu yake.
Ushauri huu ulikubalika. Sasa hili naliona kwa Bakari Mwapachu kwangu mimi.
Kwa ajili hii basi nimeingia Maktaba kuangalia kile ninachoweza kusema kuhusu baba yake Bakari Mwapachu, Hamza Kibwana Mwapachu.
Bahati mbaya niliandika kwa Kiingereza:
HAMZA KIBWANA MWAPACHU (1913 - 1962)
"The changing colonial politics needed young blood with new ideas and vision to spearhead the struggle.
The colonial state was at that time continuously changing style, strategy and tactics in order to perpetuate its rule.
The old leadership in TAA, given its orientation and political background could not rise to meet the new colonial challenge.
Yet in spite of all this, it did not want to relinquish power. The result was power struggle between the German - educated elders and the British-trained young politicians of the calibre of Abdulwahid and Ally Sykes, Hamza Mwapachu, Tewa Said Tewa, Stephen Mhando, Dossa Aziz, James Mkande, and the five doctors-Joseph Mutahangarwa, Luciano Tsere, Michael Lugazia, Vedasto Kyaruzi and Wilbard Mwanjisi.
Amidst this power struggle and on the side of the up-and-coming young men was a Makerere graduate, a Digo from Tanga named Hamza Kibwana Mwapachu who we have already mentioned. Mwapachu was employed by Community Development Department as Assistant Welfare Officer in charge of Ilala Welfare Center in Dar es Salaam.
Mwapachu's political career began at Makerere College where he was involved in student politics in the period between the two world wars. In 1946 while at Tabora, Mwapachu was elected African Association Secretary with Julius Nyerere as his deputy.
This was the time when the Makerere intellectuals [1] had started to show interest in the Association. Mwapachu and Abdulwahid were very good friends.
In 1950 Mwapachu was thirty-two years old and Abdulwahid was twenty-six. These two would come to change the orientation of the TAA and create in the association a new kind of African leadership never experienced in the history of colonial Tanganyika.
But as fate would have it, both of them died young at the tender age of forty - nine and forty four respectively, and both of them were to be forgotten by history. Neither of them would be associated with the modern history of Tanganyika.
When some of the Makerere graduates such as Mwapachu were thinking about effecting political change in Tanganyika through TAA, Abdulwahid had already built his own political power base in the politics of Dar es Salaam mainly from the influence of his father who had founded the African Association in 1929.
Makerere graduates were coming to Dar es Salaam, some of them for the first time, to take up appointments within the civil service in their different professions.
Most of them were Christians and mission-trained. These young men were cautious about politics. They were far from home and were just beginning life. They had their own ideas about what they stood to benefit from the colonial government as civil servants; a loan to purchase a car, and good accommodation in African government quarters.
These were better than the mud and grass thatched houses of the locals; and for the lucky ones there was a trip to Britain for a course. They believed that to indulge in politics was to rebel against the state and this could jeopardise their careers. Many were of the opinion that to harbour such ideas was to tread on very dangerous ground.
They were the educated young Christian graduates of Makerere who had come to Dar es Salaam to work for some time and then to be transferred to other places for other appointments.
They were mission-trained to be faithful to the church and loyal to the colonial state. The Makerere intellectuals were not expected to bite the hand that fed them.
For an educated African civil servant it was not easy to feel directly the nature of colonial oppression and therefore to want to engage in politics against the colonial state and the status quo.
Abdulwahid, on the other hand, was a person of charisma, integrity, and selflessness, who soon won the confidence of the Makerere intellectuals and slowly integrated them in the politics of the municipality. With his war experience behind him, the family name and his proximity to the TAA leadership, Abdulwahid became one of the budding politicians. Being the secretary of Al Jamiatul Islamiyya, Abdulwahid was able to forge an alliance with the Bohra Muslim community, then under the leadership of Abdulkarim Karimjee who was also the Mayor of Dar es Salaam.
Karimjee had known Abdulwahid for many years. In the mid-1930s at the opening ceremony of Al Jamiatul Islamiyya School, Karimjee was the guest of honour, and the young man who read the welcoming speech was Abdulwahid. Abdulwahid was also acquainted with V.M. Nazerali of the Ismail Council who was also a member of the Legislative Council representing the Asian commercial class. These two Muslim communities were economically powerful but had limited political power.
What was important, however, was that these Muslims whose parents had come from the Indian subcontinent had maintained good relations with local Muslims and put their wealth at the latter's disposal. That Muslim solidarity later came to be perceived as a threat to the Church after independence.
Abdulwahid knew and was known by everybody who was somebody in Dar es Salaam. It became a tradition that whenever a young man from up-country came to town, he would be taken by his acquaintances to Abdulwahid's house at Stanley Street to pay homage and receive his first political orientation.
That was the time when these young men formed the Wednesday Tea Club, a circle of young British-trained intellectuals that met every Wednesday evening to discuss political issues over a cup of tea.
Abdulwahid's house was also a center of socialising for the young intellectuals and their wives.
Abdulwahid had very good relations and was at ease with a good number of chiefs. Whenever they were in Dar es Salaam to attend the Legislative Council, Abdulwahid would seize the opportunity to invite them to his house for lunch or dinner and sometimes he would throw a party for them. Hamza Mwapachu was a regular to these occasions.
Among them were Chief Haruna Msabila Lugusha of Sikonge, the first Tanganyikan to qualify as an agriculturalist, and Chief Thomas Marealle of Marangu (Abdulwahid used to address him as. "King Tom," the reason being that the British wanted Africans to believe that it was only white people who could have monarchies with lines of kings, queens, princes and princesses. Africans could only have chiefs).
Abdulwahid pointed out to his fellow young intellectuals that none of them had any executive post in the TAA, a place where all those debates on Tanganyika should rightly be taking place.
Reflecting on the promise made in 1945 at Imphal in Burma to turn the Burma Infantry as a base for a political party, Abdulwahid time and again discussed with his close friends Mwapachu, Dossa Aziz and his young brother Ally about organizing a political movement that would mobilise all the people of Tanganyika.
It is said that Mwapachu and a few others like Stephen Mhando were enthusiastic about this idea, but the other young-men particularly those in the civil service-thought it was unattainable.
Mwapachu's office at the Ilala Welfare Center became the center for serious political discussions during the day. In the evenings discussions shifted to Tanga Young Comrades Club.
This was a popular meeting place of the African elite of Dar es Salaam. The club was situated in New Street, a short distance from the TAA headquarters.
Political debates and discussions either at Abdulwahid's house or at Mwapachu's office at Ilala Welfare Center or at Tanga Club gradually narrowed down to how the young men with vision of the future and the British-trained civil service bureaucrats could wrest power from the dead wood old German-educated leadership of TAA under its president, Mwalimu Thomas Plantan, and his secretary Clement Mohamed Mtamila.
It was not as if Tanganyika at that time lacked issues to stimulate political debates. There were several issues which if manipulated by the TAA leadership could have aroused in the people a sense of grievance and resentment against the government.
One needs only to go through Mashado Plantan's editorials in Zuhra to appreciate the issues that were floating in Tanganyika in the 1950s.
Plantan, with his Zulu blood in a peaceful country, turned his gun to game hunting.
Plantan's game trophies can still be seen in his house at Masasi Street, Mission Quarter.
He spent most of his time in the bush hunting and therefore did not have time to call meetings or attend to TAA affairs. The Association headquarters in Dar es Salaam seemed to be in deep slumber. Correspondence from the branches remained unanswered for long periods. Worse still, there were no contacts whatsoever with the Trusteeship Council of the United Nations in New York under which Tanganyika as a Mandate Territory was administered.
The social standing of the German educated Africans had many faces.
Schneider Abdillah Plantan had already shown his contempt of the British, for which he was detained during the Second World War.
His young brother Ramadhani Mashado Plantan had established his own newspaper Zuhra (Wanderer) which became the unofficial mouthpiece of the African Association. But they were now all old men.
Frustrated with the association's political stagnation, Abdulwahid and Mwapachu, one afternoon without prior warning to anyone, crossed the road from the Tanga Club and stormed into the office of the TAA at New Street and staged a coup against the elected leadership by manhandling Clement Mtamila who was at that time at the premises.
During the war Abdulwahid had been his regiment's boxing champion for both Kenya and Tanganyika.
Abdulwahid had therefore no problem in disposing of Mtamila.
[2] Following this violent show of revolutionary force, the old leadership succumbed to the young men's demands for elections at the headquarters.
In March, 1950, a young Haya Doctor of Medicine, Vedasto Kyaruzi, and Abdulwahid were elected president and secretary respectively.
[3] When the young men took over the TAA, it had only eighty-seven shillings in its account with Barclays Bank.
This was the beginning of the end of the influence of the old generation and the beginning of nationalism in Tanganyika.
From that day Abdulwahid's name, that of his young brother Ally, and that of Mwapachu began to be associated with the TAA headquarters and the emerging nationalist politics. Abdulwahid was moving away from the political shadow of his late father to become a leader in his own right.
Abdulwahid's position as the secretary of Al Jamiatul Islamiyya and the newly acquired post of TAA secretary put him in good political standing.
He consolidated his own position and the family tradition of public service. Gradually he began to build a new and independent political base with the alliance of the Makerere intellectuals.
Some of the older politicians of the previous generation and acquaintances of his father like Schneider and Mashado Plantan and Clement Mtamila supported him and Kyaruzi in reviving the TAA headquarters.
TAA Political Subcommittee, 1951
No records exist which show that the African Association had a clear official policy or programme on the country's political situation.
To understand the direction of African politics as they appeared at that time one need to observe the behaviour of the leadership and its reaction to different African problems. Abdulwahid's first move was to form what was known as TAA Political Subcommittee [4] comprising himself as secretary; Sheikh Hassan bin Amir as the Mufti of Tanganyika; Dr Kyaruzi; Mwapachu; Said Chaurembo who was the liwali at Kariakoo local court; John Rupia and Stephen Mhando.
The task given to this committee was to deal with political issues in the country. The creation of this committee was a turning point in the history of organised politics in colonial Tanganyika.
Throughout the entire 21 years of its existence, the African Association had functioned under a non-political constitution. For the first time, in 1950, TAA under new leadership gave itself political status, not by changing the existing constitution, but by forming a political committee within the Association.
The committee represented a diversity of interests and its members had different personal abilities and backgrounds.
Sheikh Hassan bin Amir, though originating from Zanzibar was the Mufti of Tanganyika and represented the dominant Muslim interests and the local political power base. Behind him were all sheikhs, tariqa khalifas, murids and the general Muslim community.
Thus were included the very few Muslim elite who, although not committed Muslims, recognised the power and force behind Muslim institutions. Said Chaurembo represented the Zaramo tribesmen of Dar es Salaam and surrounding districts.
John Rupia from Mission Quarter was a rich African businessman and party financier.
He was also representative of old and outgoing leadership. Stephen Mhando, a radical schoolteacher and outspoken Bondei from Muheza, represented the Makerere school.
Among the members of the committee Abdulwahid was the only person representing a multiplicity of interests.
He was one of the party financiers, a member of the TAA intelligentsia and a leading personality in Al Jamiatul Islamiyya; he and Mwapachu represented young Muslim modernists. The TAA political subcommittee merged young and old leadership; allied old Muslim conservatives to young Muslim modernists on one hand and the Christian elite on the other. It was the alliance that would lead to the defeat of British colonialism in Tanganyika.
Having established the political committee, Abdulwahid settled down to write to all TAA branches in the territory in order to revitalise them. A major issue facing Abdulwahid and the political committee was the status of Tanganyika as a mandate territory. Abdulwahid engaged Earle Seaton; a lawyer from Bermuda based in Moshi, and attached him to the committee to advise them on constitutional law and decolonisation of mandate territories under foreign rule.
The United Nations Trusteeship Council had already sent its first visiting mission to Tanganyika in 1948; but not much was gained from this mission. The TAA headquarters in Dar es Salaam under Dr Kyaruzi and Abdulwahid with the backing of the political committee was now rising from its deep slumber. What was now required were serious issues to stimulate the minds of the young intellectuals. The TAA leadership did not have to look far.
These issues came in the form of the Constitutional Development Committee set up by Governor Edward Twining and the Meru land evictions.
Tanganyika as a Mandate Territory
Britain was administering Tanganyika under articles 76 and 77 of the Charter of the United Nations. As the administering authority, Britain was expected to establish and promote political, economic and social advancement of Tanganyika until such time as its people were ready for self-rule.
In spite of this international commitment, the British were more interested in safeguarding their own colonial interests and those of other minorities but-not those of the indigenous African majority. [5] In order to pre-empty African reaction to this injustice, in 1949 Governor Edward Twining invited proposals from prominent individuals, welfare societies and from Native Authorities,[6] as to how Tanganyika should be governed. The TAA political committee submitted a memorandum to the Constitutional Development Committee which was signed by the entire executive: Sheikh Hassan bin Amir, Abdulwahid Sykes, Vedasto Kyaruzi, Hamza Mwapachu, John Rupia, Stephen Mhando and Said Chaurembo.
[7] In his annual report for 1950, Abdulwahid was to write:
"For the welfare of the Africans and to safeguard the interests of this Association and those of the African community as a whole, this Association has arranged for an advocate to stand by and to advise the Association on the technical side of the law. This advocate is Mr. E.E. Seaton of Moshi. He has from time to time written to the Association on various political subjects, and helped a great deal with his advices when this Association was compiling its memorandum on constitutional development." [8]
Abdulwahid realised that many of the problems in respect of the rights of Africans in the territory were legal issues which required the advice of legal experts. For the first time, with the help of Seaton, TAA was able to confront the colonial authority with facts and figures illustrating injustices in the colonial system which were contrary to the United Nations Charter.
In his analysis of the TAA memorandum to the Constitutional Development Committee, Pratt reported:
"The most detailed African submission came from the Dar es Salaam branch of the Tanganyika African Association. It asked that the distribution of seats (i.e. an official majority and one-half of the unofficial to be African) should be held constant for the next twelve years and that in the thirteenth year a common electoral roll should be introduced with a majority of the council then being elected."
[9]Governor Edward Twining's committee ignored TAA's recommendations. The government continued with its long-term plans of strengthening the positions of minority Europeans and Asians in the political development of the territory while pushing aside the indigenous Africans contrary to the United Nations Charter.
Many learned Africans were of the opinion that the TAA submission should have rightly formed the basis of the future constitution of the territory as a multi-racial society.
But the spirit of that document did not die. It surfaced at the TANU founding conference on 7th July, 1954 and was to form the basis of Julius Nyerere's speech before the Trusteeship Council of the United Nations in New York in March, 1955. [10]
After the failure of the TAA memorandum, the leadership at headquarters turned its full effort to establishing links with and gaining support from the United Nations.
These efforts bore fruit because the world body responded very positively by sending relevant reports and pamphlets of its different committees and agencies to the Association.
Unfortunately these reports could not be displayed at the headquarters for lack of space.
At that time the TAA headquarters had rented some of its rooms to an Asian dhobi washer man and the house had no electricity.
These were hard times at the headquarters because TAA could hardly sustain itself, and was struggling to make do with a shoestring budget from donations by Rupia, the Sykes brothers, Dossa Aziz and a few other well-wishers.
Following this awakening of the Association, the government was alarmed and decided to transfer Dr Kyaruzi, the TAA president, from Dar es Salaam to Kingolwira Prison Hospital near Morogoro.
The colonial government believed this would take the wind out of the sails of TAA. With Dr Kyaruzi out of the way the TAA leadership at the headquarters would be weakened. But Dr Kyaruzi was not to be restrained. He travelled to Dar es Salaam each weekend to confer with Abdulwahid.
When the government realised that the transfer did not in any way affect Dr Kyaruzi's contribution to the leadership of the TAA headquarters, he was transferred from Kingolwira to Nzega which was a remote place very far from Dar es Salaam.
Mwapachu like his colleague Dr Kyaruzi was ostracized to the interior of Tanganyika and the colonial government moved him from one place to the other to keep him from molesting the colonial government."
(Excerpts (with minor editing) from "The Life and Times of Abdulwahid Sykes 1924 - 1968 The Untold Story of the Muslim Struggle Against British Colonialism in Tanganyika," by Mohamed Said, (Minerva Press, London 1968).
Jana baada ya kifo cha Bakari Harith Mwapachu niliombwa niandike taazia yake.
Nami nikajibu kuwa sikuwa namfahamu marehemu kwa kiasi cha kuweza kumwandika.
Hii ikanikumbusha wakati inatengenezwa Dictionary of African Biography (DAB) mradi wa Harvard na Oxford University Press (New York).
Nilikuwa mmoja wa waandishi wa hili kamusi na niliombwa nimwandike Kleist Sykes (mjukuu).
Nikamweleza Prof. Emmanuel Akyeampong kuwa Kleist Abdulwahid Sykes hana makubwa ya kuandikwa ukimfananisha na babu yake Kleist Sykes au baba yake Abdulwahid Kleist Sykes.
Hivyo nikashauri kuwa bora tumwandike babu yake.
Ushauri huu ulikubalika. Sasa hili naliona kwa Bakari Mwapachu kwangu mimi.
Kwa ajili hii basi nimeingia Maktaba kuangalia kile ninachoweza kusema kuhusu baba yake Bakari Mwapachu, Hamza Kibwana Mwapachu.
Bahati mbaya niliandika kwa Kiingereza:
HAMZA KIBWANA MWAPACHU (1913 - 1962)
"The changing colonial politics needed young blood with new ideas and vision to spearhead the struggle.
The colonial state was at that time continuously changing style, strategy and tactics in order to perpetuate its rule.
The old leadership in TAA, given its orientation and political background could not rise to meet the new colonial challenge.
Yet in spite of all this, it did not want to relinquish power. The result was power struggle between the German - educated elders and the British-trained young politicians of the calibre of Abdulwahid and Ally Sykes, Hamza Mwapachu, Tewa Said Tewa, Stephen Mhando, Dossa Aziz, James Mkande, and the five doctors-Joseph Mutahangarwa, Luciano Tsere, Michael Lugazia, Vedasto Kyaruzi and Wilbard Mwanjisi.
Amidst this power struggle and on the side of the up-and-coming young men was a Makerere graduate, a Digo from Tanga named Hamza Kibwana Mwapachu who we have already mentioned. Mwapachu was employed by Community Development Department as Assistant Welfare Officer in charge of Ilala Welfare Center in Dar es Salaam.
Mwapachu's political career began at Makerere College where he was involved in student politics in the period between the two world wars. In 1946 while at Tabora, Mwapachu was elected African Association Secretary with Julius Nyerere as his deputy.
This was the time when the Makerere intellectuals [1] had started to show interest in the Association. Mwapachu and Abdulwahid were very good friends.
In 1950 Mwapachu was thirty-two years old and Abdulwahid was twenty-six. These two would come to change the orientation of the TAA and create in the association a new kind of African leadership never experienced in the history of colonial Tanganyika.
But as fate would have it, both of them died young at the tender age of forty - nine and forty four respectively, and both of them were to be forgotten by history. Neither of them would be associated with the modern history of Tanganyika.
When some of the Makerere graduates such as Mwapachu were thinking about effecting political change in Tanganyika through TAA, Abdulwahid had already built his own political power base in the politics of Dar es Salaam mainly from the influence of his father who had founded the African Association in 1929.
Makerere graduates were coming to Dar es Salaam, some of them for the first time, to take up appointments within the civil service in their different professions.
Most of them were Christians and mission-trained. These young men were cautious about politics. They were far from home and were just beginning life. They had their own ideas about what they stood to benefit from the colonial government as civil servants; a loan to purchase a car, and good accommodation in African government quarters.
These were better than the mud and grass thatched houses of the locals; and for the lucky ones there was a trip to Britain for a course. They believed that to indulge in politics was to rebel against the state and this could jeopardise their careers. Many were of the opinion that to harbour such ideas was to tread on very dangerous ground.
They were the educated young Christian graduates of Makerere who had come to Dar es Salaam to work for some time and then to be transferred to other places for other appointments.
They were mission-trained to be faithful to the church and loyal to the colonial state. The Makerere intellectuals were not expected to bite the hand that fed them.
For an educated African civil servant it was not easy to feel directly the nature of colonial oppression and therefore to want to engage in politics against the colonial state and the status quo.
Abdulwahid, on the other hand, was a person of charisma, integrity, and selflessness, who soon won the confidence of the Makerere intellectuals and slowly integrated them in the politics of the municipality. With his war experience behind him, the family name and his proximity to the TAA leadership, Abdulwahid became one of the budding politicians. Being the secretary of Al Jamiatul Islamiyya, Abdulwahid was able to forge an alliance with the Bohra Muslim community, then under the leadership of Abdulkarim Karimjee who was also the Mayor of Dar es Salaam.
Karimjee had known Abdulwahid for many years. In the mid-1930s at the opening ceremony of Al Jamiatul Islamiyya School, Karimjee was the guest of honour, and the young man who read the welcoming speech was Abdulwahid. Abdulwahid was also acquainted with V.M. Nazerali of the Ismail Council who was also a member of the Legislative Council representing the Asian commercial class. These two Muslim communities were economically powerful but had limited political power.
What was important, however, was that these Muslims whose parents had come from the Indian subcontinent had maintained good relations with local Muslims and put their wealth at the latter's disposal. That Muslim solidarity later came to be perceived as a threat to the Church after independence.
Abdulwahid knew and was known by everybody who was somebody in Dar es Salaam. It became a tradition that whenever a young man from up-country came to town, he would be taken by his acquaintances to Abdulwahid's house at Stanley Street to pay homage and receive his first political orientation.
That was the time when these young men formed the Wednesday Tea Club, a circle of young British-trained intellectuals that met every Wednesday evening to discuss political issues over a cup of tea.
Abdulwahid's house was also a center of socialising for the young intellectuals and their wives.
Abdulwahid had very good relations and was at ease with a good number of chiefs. Whenever they were in Dar es Salaam to attend the Legislative Council, Abdulwahid would seize the opportunity to invite them to his house for lunch or dinner and sometimes he would throw a party for them. Hamza Mwapachu was a regular to these occasions.
Among them were Chief Haruna Msabila Lugusha of Sikonge, the first Tanganyikan to qualify as an agriculturalist, and Chief Thomas Marealle of Marangu (Abdulwahid used to address him as. "King Tom," the reason being that the British wanted Africans to believe that it was only white people who could have monarchies with lines of kings, queens, princes and princesses. Africans could only have chiefs).
Abdulwahid pointed out to his fellow young intellectuals that none of them had any executive post in the TAA, a place where all those debates on Tanganyika should rightly be taking place.
Reflecting on the promise made in 1945 at Imphal in Burma to turn the Burma Infantry as a base for a political party, Abdulwahid time and again discussed with his close friends Mwapachu, Dossa Aziz and his young brother Ally about organizing a political movement that would mobilise all the people of Tanganyika.
It is said that Mwapachu and a few others like Stephen Mhando were enthusiastic about this idea, but the other young-men particularly those in the civil service-thought it was unattainable.
Mwapachu's office at the Ilala Welfare Center became the center for serious political discussions during the day. In the evenings discussions shifted to Tanga Young Comrades Club.
This was a popular meeting place of the African elite of Dar es Salaam. The club was situated in New Street, a short distance from the TAA headquarters.
Political debates and discussions either at Abdulwahid's house or at Mwapachu's office at Ilala Welfare Center or at Tanga Club gradually narrowed down to how the young men with vision of the future and the British-trained civil service bureaucrats could wrest power from the dead wood old German-educated leadership of TAA under its president, Mwalimu Thomas Plantan, and his secretary Clement Mohamed Mtamila.
It was not as if Tanganyika at that time lacked issues to stimulate political debates. There were several issues which if manipulated by the TAA leadership could have aroused in the people a sense of grievance and resentment against the government.
One needs only to go through Mashado Plantan's editorials in Zuhra to appreciate the issues that were floating in Tanganyika in the 1950s.
Plantan, with his Zulu blood in a peaceful country, turned his gun to game hunting.
Plantan's game trophies can still be seen in his house at Masasi Street, Mission Quarter.
He spent most of his time in the bush hunting and therefore did not have time to call meetings or attend to TAA affairs. The Association headquarters in Dar es Salaam seemed to be in deep slumber. Correspondence from the branches remained unanswered for long periods. Worse still, there were no contacts whatsoever with the Trusteeship Council of the United Nations in New York under which Tanganyika as a Mandate Territory was administered.
The social standing of the German educated Africans had many faces.
Schneider Abdillah Plantan had already shown his contempt of the British, for which he was detained during the Second World War.
His young brother Ramadhani Mashado Plantan had established his own newspaper Zuhra (Wanderer) which became the unofficial mouthpiece of the African Association. But they were now all old men.
Frustrated with the association's political stagnation, Abdulwahid and Mwapachu, one afternoon without prior warning to anyone, crossed the road from the Tanga Club and stormed into the office of the TAA at New Street and staged a coup against the elected leadership by manhandling Clement Mtamila who was at that time at the premises.
During the war Abdulwahid had been his regiment's boxing champion for both Kenya and Tanganyika.
Abdulwahid had therefore no problem in disposing of Mtamila.
[2] Following this violent show of revolutionary force, the old leadership succumbed to the young men's demands for elections at the headquarters.
In March, 1950, a young Haya Doctor of Medicine, Vedasto Kyaruzi, and Abdulwahid were elected president and secretary respectively.
[3] When the young men took over the TAA, it had only eighty-seven shillings in its account with Barclays Bank.
This was the beginning of the end of the influence of the old generation and the beginning of nationalism in Tanganyika.
From that day Abdulwahid's name, that of his young brother Ally, and that of Mwapachu began to be associated with the TAA headquarters and the emerging nationalist politics. Abdulwahid was moving away from the political shadow of his late father to become a leader in his own right.
Abdulwahid's position as the secretary of Al Jamiatul Islamiyya and the newly acquired post of TAA secretary put him in good political standing.
He consolidated his own position and the family tradition of public service. Gradually he began to build a new and independent political base with the alliance of the Makerere intellectuals.
Some of the older politicians of the previous generation and acquaintances of his father like Schneider and Mashado Plantan and Clement Mtamila supported him and Kyaruzi in reviving the TAA headquarters.
TAA Political Subcommittee, 1951
No records exist which show that the African Association had a clear official policy or programme on the country's political situation.
To understand the direction of African politics as they appeared at that time one need to observe the behaviour of the leadership and its reaction to different African problems. Abdulwahid's first move was to form what was known as TAA Political Subcommittee [4] comprising himself as secretary; Sheikh Hassan bin Amir as the Mufti of Tanganyika; Dr Kyaruzi; Mwapachu; Said Chaurembo who was the liwali at Kariakoo local court; John Rupia and Stephen Mhando.
The task given to this committee was to deal with political issues in the country. The creation of this committee was a turning point in the history of organised politics in colonial Tanganyika.
Throughout the entire 21 years of its existence, the African Association had functioned under a non-political constitution. For the first time, in 1950, TAA under new leadership gave itself political status, not by changing the existing constitution, but by forming a political committee within the Association.
The committee represented a diversity of interests and its members had different personal abilities and backgrounds.
Sheikh Hassan bin Amir, though originating from Zanzibar was the Mufti of Tanganyika and represented the dominant Muslim interests and the local political power base. Behind him were all sheikhs, tariqa khalifas, murids and the general Muslim community.
Thus were included the very few Muslim elite who, although not committed Muslims, recognised the power and force behind Muslim institutions. Said Chaurembo represented the Zaramo tribesmen of Dar es Salaam and surrounding districts.
John Rupia from Mission Quarter was a rich African businessman and party financier.
He was also representative of old and outgoing leadership. Stephen Mhando, a radical schoolteacher and outspoken Bondei from Muheza, represented the Makerere school.
Among the members of the committee Abdulwahid was the only person representing a multiplicity of interests.
He was one of the party financiers, a member of the TAA intelligentsia and a leading personality in Al Jamiatul Islamiyya; he and Mwapachu represented young Muslim modernists. The TAA political subcommittee merged young and old leadership; allied old Muslim conservatives to young Muslim modernists on one hand and the Christian elite on the other. It was the alliance that would lead to the defeat of British colonialism in Tanganyika.
Having established the political committee, Abdulwahid settled down to write to all TAA branches in the territory in order to revitalise them. A major issue facing Abdulwahid and the political committee was the status of Tanganyika as a mandate territory. Abdulwahid engaged Earle Seaton; a lawyer from Bermuda based in Moshi, and attached him to the committee to advise them on constitutional law and decolonisation of mandate territories under foreign rule.
The United Nations Trusteeship Council had already sent its first visiting mission to Tanganyika in 1948; but not much was gained from this mission. The TAA headquarters in Dar es Salaam under Dr Kyaruzi and Abdulwahid with the backing of the political committee was now rising from its deep slumber. What was now required were serious issues to stimulate the minds of the young intellectuals. The TAA leadership did not have to look far.
These issues came in the form of the Constitutional Development Committee set up by Governor Edward Twining and the Meru land evictions.
Tanganyika as a Mandate Territory
Britain was administering Tanganyika under articles 76 and 77 of the Charter of the United Nations. As the administering authority, Britain was expected to establish and promote political, economic and social advancement of Tanganyika until such time as its people were ready for self-rule.
In spite of this international commitment, the British were more interested in safeguarding their own colonial interests and those of other minorities but-not those of the indigenous African majority. [5] In order to pre-empty African reaction to this injustice, in 1949 Governor Edward Twining invited proposals from prominent individuals, welfare societies and from Native Authorities,[6] as to how Tanganyika should be governed. The TAA political committee submitted a memorandum to the Constitutional Development Committee which was signed by the entire executive: Sheikh Hassan bin Amir, Abdulwahid Sykes, Vedasto Kyaruzi, Hamza Mwapachu, John Rupia, Stephen Mhando and Said Chaurembo.
[7] In his annual report for 1950, Abdulwahid was to write:
"For the welfare of the Africans and to safeguard the interests of this Association and those of the African community as a whole, this Association has arranged for an advocate to stand by and to advise the Association on the technical side of the law. This advocate is Mr. E.E. Seaton of Moshi. He has from time to time written to the Association on various political subjects, and helped a great deal with his advices when this Association was compiling its memorandum on constitutional development." [8]
Abdulwahid realised that many of the problems in respect of the rights of Africans in the territory were legal issues which required the advice of legal experts. For the first time, with the help of Seaton, TAA was able to confront the colonial authority with facts and figures illustrating injustices in the colonial system which were contrary to the United Nations Charter.
In his analysis of the TAA memorandum to the Constitutional Development Committee, Pratt reported:
"The most detailed African submission came from the Dar es Salaam branch of the Tanganyika African Association. It asked that the distribution of seats (i.e. an official majority and one-half of the unofficial to be African) should be held constant for the next twelve years and that in the thirteenth year a common electoral roll should be introduced with a majority of the council then being elected."
[9]Governor Edward Twining's committee ignored TAA's recommendations. The government continued with its long-term plans of strengthening the positions of minority Europeans and Asians in the political development of the territory while pushing aside the indigenous Africans contrary to the United Nations Charter.
Many learned Africans were of the opinion that the TAA submission should have rightly formed the basis of the future constitution of the territory as a multi-racial society.
But the spirit of that document did not die. It surfaced at the TANU founding conference on 7th July, 1954 and was to form the basis of Julius Nyerere's speech before the Trusteeship Council of the United Nations in New York in March, 1955. [10]
After the failure of the TAA memorandum, the leadership at headquarters turned its full effort to establishing links with and gaining support from the United Nations.
These efforts bore fruit because the world body responded very positively by sending relevant reports and pamphlets of its different committees and agencies to the Association.
Unfortunately these reports could not be displayed at the headquarters for lack of space.
At that time the TAA headquarters had rented some of its rooms to an Asian dhobi washer man and the house had no electricity.
These were hard times at the headquarters because TAA could hardly sustain itself, and was struggling to make do with a shoestring budget from donations by Rupia, the Sykes brothers, Dossa Aziz and a few other well-wishers.
Following this awakening of the Association, the government was alarmed and decided to transfer Dr Kyaruzi, the TAA president, from Dar es Salaam to Kingolwira Prison Hospital near Morogoro.
The colonial government believed this would take the wind out of the sails of TAA. With Dr Kyaruzi out of the way the TAA leadership at the headquarters would be weakened. But Dr Kyaruzi was not to be restrained. He travelled to Dar es Salaam each weekend to confer with Abdulwahid.
When the government realised that the transfer did not in any way affect Dr Kyaruzi's contribution to the leadership of the TAA headquarters, he was transferred from Kingolwira to Nzega which was a remote place very far from Dar es Salaam.
Mwapachu like his colleague Dr Kyaruzi was ostracized to the interior of Tanganyika and the colonial government moved him from one place to the other to keep him from molesting the colonial government."
(Excerpts (with minor editing) from "The Life and Times of Abdulwahid Sykes 1924 - 1968 The Untold Story of the Muslim Struggle Against British Colonialism in Tanganyika," by Mohamed Said, (Minerva Press, London 1968).