Spike,
Niliweka hapa ''excerpts'' za kitabu cha Ally Sykes ''Under the Shadow of British Colonialism''
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Naweka hapa excerpts zote tatu kwa pamoja kwa faida ya wanajamvi kaka zilivyochapwa
na The Citizen kwa siku tatu mfululizo kuanzia Jumatano
22 May hadi 24 Ijumaa 2013:
Ally Kleist Sykes
1926 2013
I was named Ally after my fathers elder brother Ally Sykes, or Kattini Mbuwane, as he was known back home in Mozambique. My grandfather is from the Shangaan a Zulu clan, which originated from South Africa but settled in Mozambique. The reason, which caused the Zulu migration to Mozambique, was to run away from civil upheavals caused by the reign of Shaka, the Zulu King. My father was the second child; the first one was Ally Kattini who was born from Mbuwanes first wife back home. My uncle Kattini was blind. When Mbuwane came to Tanganyika he came with him but he was later sent back home. The village, which my people settled, is known as Kwa Likunyi.
I had the occasion to visit the village of our origins in 1952 and I was able to trace some members of our family. At that time the country was under the harsh rule of the Portuguese. I will narrate the story of my travel to trace my people later on.
The history of my family begins at a village called Kwa Likunyi in the then Portuguese Mozambique about a hundred years ago. I learned most of the history of my forefathers from my father, Kleist Sykes. Kleist Sykes was born in Pangani in 1894. His mother, my grandmother, was a Nyaturu from Central Tanganyika. My father always considered himself an aristocrat of sorts and had his own exceptional way of carrying himself. He behaved and even dressed differently in comparison to other Africans.
He was always immaculately dressed and all his existing photographs show him in suit and tie. He considered himself a modern man, a man of the times. He was very conscious of his Zulu origins and loved and longed for the country which he never set foot on. My father sentimental and melancholy used to talk about his father, Sykes Mbuwane, who he never even knew because Mbuwane my grandfather, died soon after my father was born.
My grandfather was part of mercenaries who came to Tanganyika with Harmine von Wissman and landed in Pangani . at the turn of 19[SUP]th[/SUP] century. The Zulu were under the leadership of Chief Mohosh. The mercenaries were recruited from Kwa Likunyi. This was just after the Berlin Conference of 1884 in which Africa was partitioned between imperial powers in Europe. This caused resistance from the people of Tanganyika who rose up in arms to defend their freedom.
Germans had a military camp at Pangani, which today is a small coastal town few miles from Tanga, but in those days it was an important town in the Germany administration. It was from this Germany camp in Pangani that my grandfather and fellow mercenaries under the command of Chief Mohosh mobilised under von Wissman and prepared themselves to go into action against the local population resisting German rule.
My grandfather fought against Abushiri bin Salim bin Harith as well as Chief Mkwawa
In 1942 my elder brother, Abdulwahid was conscripted into the Kings African Rifles (KAR) and was transferred to Nairobi to undergo military training. This was a nightmare, which every parent in Dar es Salaam was dreading. Some parents went as far as to hide their boys in the back yard of their houses not allowing them to be seen outside. When Abdulwahid left I felt lonely and out of place in town.
I decided to run away from home and join the army.Conscription centre was at Kilwa Road, not very far from town. I went there and asked to be registered for military duty. I was 15 years old but with huge built. I looked well above my age. When my father came to know about this he came to the military camp to complain that I could not be conscripted because I was under age.
But by then I had signed all the papers. My father had to return home without me. I was transferred to Nairobi for training and was posted in the East African Education Corps. In 1943 I left Kilindini Harbour Mombasa in a convoy of ships heading for Ceylon escorted by the Royal Navy. I was ready to join the war
After demobilisation I disembarked in Mombasa from Bombay, Kalieni camp where we were regrouped after the war. I took a train from Mombasa to Nairobi. In Nairobi I lodged at a hotel called the Central Hotel, which at that time was classified as an Asian class hotel therefore out of bounds to Africans.
But I had registered myself in Kenya as a Zulu and due to that I was considered a high class African compared to my Kikuyu and Luo brothers. I therefore qualified to be accommodated at the hotel. Colonialism was all about colour and class qualifications.
Colonialism had very strange laws as well as very strange perceptions. The place was owned by a Goan called De Souza. This hotel was behind Government Road at the centre of Nairobi town and was a meeting place of Kenyan nationalists. I had a friend by the name of James Kariuki. Kariuki a Kikuyu was a taxi driver. We became very close friends and he came to know just about everything about me.
He was a member of Mau Mau, the underground peasant movement which was struggling against the British. Kariuki used to take me to Ngong, Limuru and Kiambu in his taxi. We did these trips at night under the cover of darkness and in great secrecy. In Burma I had known General China who we served together in the K.A.R General China came to be one of the leaders the Mau Mau force fighting the British in the Aberdeen Mountains.
At the beginning I did not realise how deep Kariuki was involved in that secret society and if he had at all taken the oath. The oath I later came to learn was the driving force behind the success of the Mau Mau movement because once taken one was to obey and undertake whatever assignment given. Usually the assignment was to undertake an operation to kill white settlers.
It was at the Central Hotel that I came to meet Jomo Kenyatta, Bildad Kaggia, Tom Mboya, W.W. Awori and other Kenyan nationalists I used to talk about my father and what he was doing in Tanganyika to further many issues of African interests. Mboya was a keen listener and he used to urge me to return back home and help in the struggle. I also received many letters from my brother Abdulwahid asking me to come home. He told me in his letters that the struggle against the British had begun.
I knew I had to get back home and join the struggle or I would miss an important opportunity to play a role in the history of my country. I returned home in 1948. I was twenty- one years old
It was while serving in the Labour Department that I was in 1951 elected General Secretary of Tanganyika African Government Servants Association (TAGSA) as well as representative in the Government Establishment Committee.
The 1951 TAGSA election elected Thomas Marealle (later to become Paramount Chief of the Chagga) as President and Rashid Kawawa later to become Vice-President of Tanganyika, committee member. The constitution of TAGSA provided for annual elections.
I was returned to office as secretary four times until October 1954 when I had to resign after being transferred to Korogwe. This record was unprecedented. I was the only secretary under TAGSA since its inception in 1927 to have been returned to the post in each election four times. I would have been returned again and again if it were not for the transfer, which was my punishment for being with Julius Nyerere among the seventeen founder members of TANU, the party which led Tanganyika to independence in 1961.
It is generally believed that the people of Tanganyika asserted their mandate status in March 1955 when Nyerere spoke before the Trusteeship Council. But we had established our status as a mandate territory in 1950 when Abdulwahid, Hamza Mwapachu, Stephen Mhando and Dr. Kyaruzi took over the leadership of TAA. Very few people are aware that the speech, which Nyerere delivered before the Trusteeship Council of the United Nations in 1955, was in TAA files since 1950.
In 1951 following United Nations Visiting Mission to Tanganyika and being disappointed with the government I wrote a letter to Chief Secretary questioning British jurisdiction over our country. I told the Chief Secretary that legally it is the United Nations Organisation, which should administer Tanganyika and not Britain.
My letter to the Chief Secretary created problem to all of us. I was transferred to Mtwara Public Works Department; Dr. Wilbard Mwanjisi was transferred from Sewa Haji Hospital in Dar es Salaam to Kingolwira Prison Hospital near Morogoro. Rashid Kawawa was transferred to Bukoba. I refused my transfer and remained in Dar es Salaam maintaining contact with Kawawa keeping him informed of what was taking place in Dar es Salaam and TAGSA headquarters.
The colonial government realising that I was adamant in the position I had taken, that is, I would not accept the transfer, decided to let me stay in Dar es Salaam but under severe scrutiny.
We realised that one of the most effective ways to confront the British was to mobilise the people. I had a cyclostyle machine hidden at home and I used that for writing and distributing propaganda leaflets to alert the people of what was happening in our country. We organised a nation-wide campaign to inform the people about the outcome of the Meru Land Case at the United Nations and to seek financial support to enable TAA to send another delegation to the United Nations to present and establish Tanganyikas case as Mandate Territory seeking independence. In 1953 TAA therefore dispatched Abdu Kandoro, Kirilo and my young brother Abbas Sykes to Dodoma, Mwanza, Bukoba, Ukerewe, Tarime, Musoma and Shinyanga to hold meetings with the people and collect money for the Association.
In 1952 Nyerere came to Dar es Salaam as a teacher at St. Francis College, Pugu, a few miles from Dar es Salaam. Before this time we had never heard about him. It was Kassela Bantu who brought him to Abdulwahid's house at Aggrey Street.
This is how my brother came to meet Nyerere and eventually Nyerere came to meet Dossa, Rupia the rest of the TAA leadership and eventually was introduced to the people of Dar es Salaam. In 1953 the TAA leadership elected him to stand against the incumbent President, my brother Abdulwahid. On 17 April 1953 election was held at Arnautoglo Hall between Abdulwahid and Nyerere.
Abdulwahid lost the election by a very narrow margin. In June we announced our executive committee: J.K. Nyerere, President; Abdulwahid Sykes, Vice-President; J.P. Kasella Bantu, General Secretary; Alexander M. Tobias and Waziri Dossa Aziz, Joint Minuting Secretary; John Rupia, Treasurer and I was Assistant Treasurer. Committee members were Dr. Michael Lugazia, Hamisi Diwani, Tewa Said, Denis Phombeah, Z. James, Dome Okochi, C. Ongalo and Patrick Aoko. Nyerere became TAA President and Abdulwahid Vice-President.
In July 1954 we founded TANU. I designed and chose the TANU colours and emblem. The colours were black representing the African race and green for the land. The design I used for the TANU card was copied from my Tanganyika Legion card. It was the Tanganyika Standard Newspapers who printed the first 1000 card and I paid the money from my own pocket. I later borrowed money from TAGSAand printed another 2000 cards. I issued Card No. 1 to Territorial President Nyerere and card No. 2 to myself. I then issued card No. 3 to my brother, Abdulwahid and card No. 4 to Dossa Aziz; card No. 5 to Denis Phombeah card No. 6 to Dome Okochi one of the Kenyan nationalists in TANU and card No. 7 to John Rupia
In August, 1954 a month after founding TANU I received a letter from the Labour Commissioner Molohan informing me that I was being transferred to Korogwe. My transfer from Dar es Salaam could not have come at a worse time. We were to inaugurate the TANU Dar es Salaam Branch the following week. I have gone on record in the Commonwealth as the first civil servant to be transferred on a Sunday. Civil service regulations did not provide for transfer on a public holiday. I was transported to Korogwe on a Sunday by a PWD lorry together with all my belongings
