Boko Haram,
Ahsante sana.
Nakupa zawadi hii mpe rafiki yetu.
Huyu ninaemzungumza hapa Ahmed Rashad Ali alikuwa rafiki kipenzi cha Abdu Sykes
walijuana wakati wa Bank Holiday sasa tunaita Sport wakati wa Easter Wazanzibar na
Watanganyika wanatembeleana.
Walikutana Arab Association Club mwaka 1939 na wakawa marafiki wakubwa hadi Abdu
anaaga dunia.
Ahmed Rashad Ali na Abdu Sykes waliishi nyumba moja Cairo 1964.
Mzee Rashad ni mmoja wa watu walionipa ya ''ndani'' wakati natafiti kitabu changu.
Huyu Ahmed Rashad Ali alikuwapo siku Abdu alipofanya mkutano na akina Kenyetta, Kungu
Karumba, Bildad Kaggia, Achieng Oneko Nairobi 1950.
Huyu hapa chini Ahmed Rashad Ali:
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[TD]Ahmed Rashad Ali-Radio Free Africa (Radio ya Afrika Huru), 1952
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[TD]Rashad was employed by Radio Cairo, the radio station set up by President Gamal Abdel Nasser soon after the 1952 Free Officers revolution to broadcast propaganda on behalf of liberation movements in African countries. Among the revolutionaries who worked with Radio Cairo was Sam Nujoma, later to be president of Namibia; Marcellino Dos Santos of Mozambique, and Reuben Kamanga, later vice-president of Zambia. Kanyama Chiume of Nyasaland was given airtime to broadcast to his country whenever he passed through Cairo. The broadcasting house was in Zamalek Street in central Cairo and the Egyptian government provided offices and diplomatic status to the liberation movements as well as bilingual secretaries.
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[TD="width: 595, bgcolor: transparent"]Radio Cairo took a very radical and partisan approach in its broadcasts and came to be very popular in East Africa. Rashad's name came to be synonymous with the radio station. Rashad also operated a pirate radio station-Radio Free Africa, also sponsored by Nasser. OnRadio Free Africa there were no diplomatic niceties in its broadcasts. A spade was called a spade. While on Radio Cairo Rashad played popular music, in Radio Free Africa he played martial music and other revolutionary songs from East Africa. And this is what added flavour to Rashad's broadcasts to Africa. Rashad was so effective that Britain lodged a compaint to the Egyptian government that these broadcasts had to be stopped or Britain would halt economic aid to Egypt. Britain referred to Rashad as ‘that communist from Zanzibar'. Nasser ignored the threat and ordered Muhammad Faik, the Egyptian Minister responsible for African Affairs and Nasser's right hand-man, to tell Rashad to continue with the good work. Nasser's instructions to Rashad were that only the Queen of England was to be spared. All others were to be put under the hammer. It is an irony of history that some of the countries such as Kenya which Nasser supported turned their backs on Egypt and embraced Israel.
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[TD="width: 595, bgcolor: transparent"]In the early days of the cold war following the end of the Second World War, Mashado's glorification of the Soviet Union was unparalleled. Mashado was an ardent listener of Ahmed Rashad's broadcasts on Radio Free Africa from Cairo attacking ‘imperialism and its lackeys'. It was from this radio station that Mashado got some of the material for his editorials and articles. The music of Abdulwahab and Um Kulthun added flavour to those highly-charged political broadcasts. In those days very few Africans could afford radio sets and it was therefore very common to find people in Dar es Salaam standing near an Arab shop or hotel, particularly in the evenings, listening to the radio broadcasts. Mashado's paper and Rashad's broadcasts became a source of moral support to TANU and provided a challenge against colonial propaganda machinery.
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