Mzee Said Mohamed Shikamoo!
Godfrey H. Kayamba Ni Mjukuu wa Hugh Peter Kayamba,mtoto wa Martin Kayamba,Alibahatika kusoma enzi hizo za Ukoloni London School of Economics,Huyu ni mmoja wapo yawaliounda Tanga Discussion Group!( 1950s) Chini ya Katibu wao Peter Mhando.Godfrey Kayamba akishirikiana na member wenzake aliandika memorandum ya hatari sana iliyomtisha gavana wa Tanganyika wakati huo Twinning akafunga safari mpaka umoja wa mataifa kukanusha memorandum hiyo! Sehemu ya Memeorandum hiyo ilisomeka hivi "It is a sin to God on the part of the Colonialists to treat people as human guinea pigs...'' Historia ya Tanganyika haijakamilika na ninakubaliana na wewe kuwa kuna mashujaa wengi wameachwa aidha kwa makusudi ya watawala,au kwa bahati mbaya,au kwa kuwa wa Tanzania hatuna utaratibu wa kusoma ndio maana hatujaweza kuyaona yote! Ila MZEE unapotoka unapowakumbuka hawa Mashujaa wetu kwa kuwaita Waislamu!
Kimsingi mimi siuoni huo Uislam wa hao wazee mashujaa hata kidogo ( In Islamic teachings) kwa sababu waliwahi kumfanyia Julius Nyerere matambiko ya Kiswahili(Pwani) ambayo ni kinyume cha mafundisho ya Uislamu( Ni kosa kumshirikisha Allah na matambiko).
Ninancho acknowledge ni kuwa Wazee hao ni Mashujaa na Wazalendo wa kweli Watanganyika halisi ambao historia rasmi ya Tanganyika imewapita bila kutambua mchango wao.
Naomba kuwasilisha.
Mnabudehe,
Marahaba.
Tuanze na hili la Waislam katika kupigania uhuru wa Tanganyika.
Sidhani kama huo mchango wa
Godfrey Kayamba unaweza kufuta mchango mkubwa
wa akina
Hamisi Heri, Mohamed Kajembe, Mmaka Omari, Sheikh Rashid Sembe
kwa kuwataja wachache.
Hii mosi.
Pili nimepitia katika utafiti wangu wa kitabu cha
Abdul Sykes yale yaliyotokea katika
hiyo, ''memorandum,'' uliyoitaja hapo juu na nakuwekea kitu hapo chini ukiangalie:
''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.
[1] In order to pre-empt African reaction to this injustice, in 1949 Governor Twining invited proposals from prominent individuals, welfare societies and from Native Authorities,
[2] 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.
[3] 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.
[4]
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.
[5]
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 7 th 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.
[6]
[1]For a detailed discussion on the subject see Cranford Pratt,
The Critical Phase in Tanzania 1945-1968, Cambridge University Press, London, 1976, pp. 29-31.
[2]Ibid p. 30.
[3]The author was for the first time informed of the existence of this document by one of Mwapachu's children, Juma Volter Mwapachu. He was informed that Mwapachu took great pride in having participated in the drafting of this document. In her book Listowel mentioned this document and its historical significance to the political history of Tanganyika. But it was Pratt who analysed the document in detail. The document was first consulted by Pratt in 1959 in a file of the Committee on ‘Constitutional Development Report/and Despatches to the Secretary of State’ no. 1146-6, Dar es Salaam Secretariat Library. Although this file is available at the Tanzania National Archives, the document is missing. The author was informed that a microfilm of the document was available but that too could not be traced. For more information on loss of historical documents see M. Said, ‘In Praise of Ancestors Revisited’ in
Africa Events, London March, 1989, pp. 50-51.
[4] Annual Report of the secretary of TAA, ibid.
[5] Pratt op. cit. p. 30.
[6] There are old men, TANU veterans, who believe to this day that the March 1955 speech by Julius Nyerere before the Trusteeship Council was written by Abdulwahid, and so was the constitution of Tanganyika. The author has come across this story several times in his interviews with early members of TANU. The reason for this belief is that the document was drafted by the TAA Political Subcommittee in 1950.
Mnabudehe,
Tuje katika nukta yangu ya tatu.
Umemsoma Pratt hapo juu na maelezo yake kuhusu hii memorandum.
Hajamtaja Godfrey Kayamba popote lakini inawezekana taarifa za
Godfrey
Kayamba zilimpita.
Sasa ili kuthibitisha nukuu hiyi ya
Kayamba uliyoiweka hapa itakuwa bora
kama utaweka, ''citation,'' yake.
Mwisho ningependa kueleza kuhusu matambiko na Uislam.
Naamini wewe umefanya nukuu ya hotuba ya
Mwalimu Nyerere kuhusu dua
aliyofanyiwa nyumbani kwa
Jumbe Tambaza, Upanga.
Nyerere hawezi kupambanua kati ya dua na tambiko hana ujuzi huo.
Tujaalie kuwa walifanya dua na tambiko hii haiwatoi katika Uislam.
Nyerere mwaka wa 1958 alipata kushiriki katika dua nyingine kubwa kushinda
ile ya kumlani
Edward Twining na dua hii ilifanyika Mnyanjani, Tanga na
ilifunguliwa kwa kisomo cha Qur'an iliyosomwa na
Sheikh Kombora.
Haya niliyokuwekea hapa na mengi mfano wa haya ndiyo yaliyofanya kitabu cha
Abdul Sykes kishinde historia zote zilizoandikwa kuhusu TANU na uhuru wa
Tanganyika.
Katika mhadhara niliofanya Northwestern University, Evanston Chicago kuhusu
mchango wa Waislam katika kupambana na ukoloni, msemaji mmoja alisema
kuwa walimjua kiongozi wa uhuru wa Tanganyika,
Julius Nyerere kuwa ni Mkristo
lakini hawakujua kuwa nyuma yake kulikuwa na ''a strong Muslim Movement.''
