Wild Card,
If your uninitiated in Tanzanian politics as it is related to Muslims and Islam, it is
advisable to read first the research paper, ''Islam and Politics in Tanzania by MS
before reading this expose.
This will help you in having a better grasp and understanding of the plight of Muslims
in the country.
This paper will attempt to narrate and at times analyse problems facing Muslims in
Tanzania in their quest to uplift themselves from the lower strata by equipping
themselves with skills which can only be acquired through education.
In this research paper we are introducing a hypothesis which we believe has not
been researchedinto and therefore has remained hidden much as it has been in
existence since independence - the concept of the power and influence of the
Christianity and its role in the Tanzanian administrative machinery to counter Islam.
This is the Christian lobby.
This is an opportunity to see how the Christian lobby functions.
It is a subject worth researching at the moment since it is one of the clues to the
Muslims riddle of stagnation.
To understand the problem of Muslim stagnation in education we need to go
back to the history of Islam and its relation with missionaries and colonialism.
When colonialists and missionaries set foot in the East African coast then
known as Zanj their main aim was to wipe out Islam.
Muslims in the East African coast had their first glimpse of what Christianity was
all about in 1498with the arrival of the Portuguese.
In 1567 the Augustinian order was established in the East African coast to counter
the influence of Islam so that Christianity becomes the religion of the whole world.
Christianity extended its influence further when Cardinal Lavigirie founded The White
Fathers, the Catholic institution whose purposewas and still is to confront Islam.
About the same time period Church Missionary Society (CMS) imposed upon itself the
duty to deliver the world from Islam, ignorance and darkness .
The White Fathers are in Tanzaniaand are still involved in the work which brought them
to the country more than a hundred years ago.
When the Germans first arrived in Tanganyika they found Muslim already literate, they
could read, write and count.
The missionary Ludwig Krapf when he appeared at the court of Chief Kimweri of the
Sambaa in 1848 he found him and his children literate.
They could read and write with ease.
The alphabet in use was the Arabic script.
Being educated Muslims were employed by the German colonial government as teachers,
interpreters and administrators.
The institution responsible for all this excellence and achievement was the madras.
Missionaries and colonialists were envious of the level of educational advancement achieved
by Muslims and therefore initiated plans to subvert its progress.
The first step taken by the British at the turn of this century was to abrogate the Arabic script
which was in use for many years in favour of the Roman script.
By a stroke of a pen people who were educated were overnight reduced to illiterates.
All these machinations against Muslim were part of a systematic campaign as provided in article
IV of the Berlin Conference of 1884 which stated that Christianity should be safeguarded and given
specialpreference over Islam.
The vacuum created by the abrogation of Muslim education was filled with missionary education in
Tanganyika with the British colonial government as the overseer.
Between 1888-1892 in compliance with that article as agreed in the Berlin Conference, Imperial British
East Africa Company used political and military force to prop up Christianity in East Africa.
The Church has been making propaganda that it were missionaries who laid down the first foundation of
education in Tanganyika.
The truth is that the missionaries followed the madras education system and the teachers they employed
in their schools were Muslims who were product of the madras education system.
Abel Ishuwi, an educationists has revealed this fact in his work, Education and Social Change, (1980).
Realising the importance of education Muslims initiated their own schools under colonialism.
These came to be known as Muslim schools.
Where as missionary schools were being provided with assistance by the government known
as Grant-in-Aid, this privilege was denied to Muslim schools.
Due to this privilege mission schools were well equipped and could afford well trained teachers.
It was therefore impossible for schools run by Muslims to compete with missionary schools.
Muslims therefore were the most oppressed people by colonialism compared to other communities.
The propaganda being spread far and wide by enemies of Islam in Tanzania that Muslims do not value
education and that is why they lag behind is false and malicious.
Sheikh Mohammed Said,
Asalaam Alaykum
Al Akhiy.
Wallahi nitakuwa nimeifanyia dhuluma nafsi yangu kama sitakushukuru kwa bayana yako hii adimu hapa jamvini.
Insha Allah Mola takulipa kwa yoote,na kuzidi kuikurubisha darja yako,akuweke uwe miongoni mwa waja wake alowaenzi pasi mipaka.
Nimependa jinsi ulivyonyambulisha hizo
ingredients japo kiduchu,lakini itajaribu kutoa picha kwa ndugu zetu wengine watuchekao na kutufanzia kebehi,japo wajue sisi
Waislamu tumeanzia wapi kusakamwa na kuandamwa.
Hayo masuala ya
Madrassa ni topic kubwa na ni ndefu mno,najua hapo umechelezea tu kiduchu. Ndo maana mimi huona fahari iso kifani pale niitwapo mtu wa akili za
Madrassa!
Kwa wale ndugu ndugu zetu watakao kujua, japo kiduchu embu chungulieni japo kiduchu hii paper.
Paper presented by
Dr. Anne K. Bang Univ. of Bergen Norway;Reasserting connections,commonalities and cosmopolitan: The Western Indian Ocean since 1800's. This paper was delivered at
Yale University Nov. the 3rd.-5th. 2000. Kuna mengi humo kuhusu nchi yetu
Tanganyika/Zanzibar na historia ya ilm ya
Waislam na Madrassa imenyambuliwa kwa kina.
Kuna Bwana mmoja akiitwa
Sheikh Pera Bin Ridhwan Gombe. Huyu bwana asili yake ni pale
Mnyanjani Tanga. Alikua ni mmojawapo wa Waalimu wa mwanzo kutoka
Madrassa na kukubaliwa kufundisha
Government Schools.
Baadae aliajiriwa kwa contract na
UDSM-Institute of Kiswahili Research kama
Researcher. Mambo na kazi nzito zilizokua zimekwama na alizofanza pale Taasisi,na ambazo zilikwama kwa miaka mingi,Wallahi hakuna mfano wake. Matokeo yake alipomaliza hizo shughuli,alitupwa bila ya hishma yoyote. Tena kwa kebehi yakuwa Mzee samahani hatuwezi kukupa
permanent contract kwa sababu huna
Degree inayotambulika na Serikali hapa nchini!?
Wakati hao
ma-Professor takriban woote,walitumia kazi zake na
manuscripts alizoshughulika nazo mpaka kupata hizo
PhD!? Kwa mtazamo ule basi hata wale
ma-Professor nao pia hadhi zao za kitaaluma ingelazim zipitiwe upya maana ndani yake pana utata mwingi!?
Kuna huyu nae
Sheikh Khamis Bin Akida Bin Said,ambae nafikiri hata
Mwanakijiji anamfahamu na pia ni maaruf kwa
waTanzania wengi. Nae pia ni kichwa cha Madrassa. Alikua ni
multi-Linguist. Alifanya mambo mengi mno na ya ustadi mwingi pale
UDSM-Institute of Kiswahili Research. Alikua ni
Malenga bingwa na sifa zake mpaka kesho zimo vyuo vingi sana duniani na kwa
Wanataaluma wengi mashuhuri.Yeye alikua ni nguli wa
Etymology na Lexicography.
Kuna wakti alifanza ziara ya
Vienna,Bonn,Uk na Tehran. Alipofika
Tehran alipewa fursa ya kukutana kiduchu na
Maulana Ayatollah Khomein. Aliweza kuzungumza fluent
ki-Persia bila hata ya mkalimani.
Ayatollah akamuuliza;hapa
Iran ulikaa lini na ulisomea
University ipi!?
Sheikh Khamis Akida akamjibu,la
Maulana...hii ndiyo mara yangu ya mwanzo kukanyaga ardhi hii tukufu alokupeni
Allah,namimi hii lugha yenu nilisomeshwa kitambo kwenye
Madrassa ya kule kwetu
Mwarongo Tanga!
Kwa kifupi,huyu Bwana nae pia
Sheikh Khamis Akida alipotakiwa "kustaafu";
Prof. TSY Sengo wakti huo akiwa
Director pale
UDSM-Institute of Kiswahili Research, alipendekeza yakuwa anastahili na apewe
PhD ya heshima kwa mchango wake wa kitaaluma pale
UDSM. Basi huo msukosuko na upinzani alopata huyo
Professor TSY Sengo mwenyewe ilikua almanusur nae pia apoteze hata ule wadhifa wake wa u-
Director. Aliambiwa na kushutumiwa ati analeta
udini!? Na vikaletwa ati vipengele vya kitaaluma yakuwa
Sheikh Khamis Akida,alitakiwa awe na first degree ili atunukiwe hiyo
PhD ya heshima!? Wakati takriban nusu ya wanafunzi wake huyu Sheikh Khamis Akida wakti huo ndo walokua ma-Professor pale
Taasisi!? Sasa hii
contradiction ya kitaaluma,si pia itawakumba mpaka hao ma-
Professor wengine kwa kusomeshwa na mtu wa
Madrassa,na kutumia
manuscripts,research papers zake kwa uchunguzi na masomo yao, halafu huyo huyo si ndie mtu alosahihisha hiyo mitihani yao!?
Huyu
Sheikh Khamis Akida,alikua ni mtaratibu mno na mstaarabu mno hakutaka malumbano, na watu wengi walikua wakimuhishimu na kumstahi kwa hali yajuu. Alichofanza ni kumwambia tu
Prof. TSY Sengo aachane ni hiyo
issue,na yeye malipo yake yapo kwa
Allah. Embu fikiria,mtu anajaribu kudai haki za
Wazee wetu tena kwa kufuata taratibu na sharia anaitwa
mdini na kufanyiwa misukosuko iso kifani!?
Huyu
Sheikh Khamis Bin Akida Bin Said,wakti "anastaafu" pale
UDSM,alikua ni
Senior Research Fellow.
Nilifarijika mno,nilipokwenda pale
University ya
Warsaw-Poland na kutembelea
Faculty of Foreign Languages...nilionyeshwa baadhi ya kazi za huyu
Sheikh Khamis Akida na picha kiduchu alizopiga na rafikiye Marehemu
Prof. Ohly wakati alipotembela
Poland.
Ni aibu kubwa
Wazee wetu kuenziwa na watubaki nasisi kuwanyapaa.
Kuna kisa cha
Nyerere na
Sheikh Khamis Akida miaka ya sitini,waligombana kiduchu.
Malenga Khamis Akida alitunga shairi refu na lakina cha kihistoria,kupinga
Pare kwanini imo mkononi mwa
Mkoa wa Kilimanjaro!? Shairi alilita; "Tokea lini
Pare kuwa
Kilmanjaro"!?
Basi
Nyerere,alimwita
Ikulu. Akamwambia yakuwa;Baba nakuheshimu saana. Lakini nakuomba kwa sasa, siasa niachie mimi nawewe nakuachia masuala ya kitaaluma na sitakuingilia asilan!ahaha!!
Shukran na tuendelee na mnakasha
Insha Allah.