Encounter with the Former President Benjamin Mkapa

The former President of Tanzania, Benjamin Mkapa was laid to rest today. I met the former President at his Residence in Masaki in December 2019. I heard so many things about him, read countless articles. I wanted to speak to him to understand his ideas, journey, and place in history. He did not disappoint me.

The former President welcomed me to his home with "Karibu Professor" to which I replied “Asante” and gave him his "Shikamoo." As we sat down to talk, it did not take long to realize that he had taken the time to look me up and study my work. Despite his advanced age (he was 81 years old), Mzee Mkapa was attentive, his memory was sharp, he looked me directly in eyes with his sharp piercing eyes. He was constantly looking at me, assessing my every move, body language. The Americans diplomats presented their assessment of the newly appointed Tanzania Foreign Minister, Benjamin Mkapa in 1977 as someone who was a "shrewd judge of human personalities." I wondered at the time if those deep piercing eyes were assessing me, judging my personality? I may never know!

I picked up his book My Life, My Purpose: A Tanzania President Remembers, a couple of days before meeting the former President. Dar es Salaam is a busy city; it was difficult to find time to read the book. I managed to read it in record time. I was not going to get caught flat-footed. I was determined to learn as much as I can about him from his book. My discussion with this serious, no nonsense, former President was a meaningful one. I had a lot of questions. I wanted to learn about him, his history and debate him on various issues. He did not rush to answer any question I asked him. I got to see a diplomat, an intellectual, at work. Every word he said was carefully thought out. He was well-read, articulate, and thoughtful. He had depth! I learned about his childhood, experience with racism in Atlanta and Alabama in the late 1950s, and his early experience in Foreign Affairs. He told me that he was a low level employee in 1963 when his job consistent of, among other things, taking notes when Mwalimu spoke to foreign dignitaries.  He had already earned his Masters from Columbia University when he worked as a “note taker” for Foreign Affairs. The former President was an ardent Pan Africanist. His work as a Foreign Minister helped advance the liberation struggle in Africa in the late 1970s and 80s. He told me that Tanzania sacrificed to liberate southern Africa because they were liberating their "Brothers and Sisters,” adding that "Africa is one." Our conversation finally turned to African development. I wanted to know why Africa is where it is at this point in time. His insight into African development challenges was brilliant. Here was a person who spent years thinking about this very important question. I shared my thoughts about the state of African development. He paused for what felt like eternity and then he told me that he agreed; it was a good end to a great discussion.

There is nothing like having a great conversation with a knowledgeable person. Time flies in those moments. We ended our discussion and I thanked him. I told him that this was just the beginning of our discussion and that I would stop by his place to pick up where we left off the next time I was in Dar. He looked at me, smiled, and said "yes Professor." Little did I know then that there was not going to be a second conversation. I had one more request for him before leaving: I was not going to leave his house without him signing my book. I opened that book again today with a heavy heart.  I was sad.  Then it occurred to me that that I was holding a treasure, not so much for his signature, but the wealth of information that is contained in the book.  Mkapa the intellectual had thought this through.  He made sure that we knew what he wants to be remembered for.  It is all in his book!

Assessing the legacy of a leader can be tricky. Historians like to let time pass before they can begin to dig in and try to understand a person, events, an era. There is no leader who did not have their shortfalls. The former President Mkapa was not perfect in any sense of the word. His work, like the work of many other leaders, has it highs and lows. Time will tell. You really don’t know what you have until it is gone. There is little doubt that Mkapa the journalist, the diplomat, helped advance African liberation. Mkapa the President helped set Tanzania in the path to prosperity. I am convinced that history will be kind to Benjamin William Mkapa. Safe journey Comrade!

© Azaria Mbughuni

July 29, 2020

Governments Must Work to Flatten the Income Gap Curve, Access to Adequate Health Care and Basic Needs.

The Coronavirus (Covid-19) is teaching us something about class. This is particularly clear in the West, the US to be exact. The situation in Africa is evolving at this point: we will have to wait and see. In the US, both the rich and the poor are getting sick. The poor will be impacted more than the rich; that is without a doubt. Yet, the rich and powerful cannot hide from this disease. This pandemic will have a profound impact on the society as a whole.

Failure to provide adequate healthcare system and livable wages (minimum wages) will haunt Americans for generations to come. The older generations were shaped by World Wars I and II; this generation will be shaped by the Covid-19. This is truly a global crisis. When hospitals are full to capacity with Covi-19 patients and all equipment has run out, it will not matter if you are a millionaire or broke when you show up at that emergency room. It will not matter how many zeros are in your bank account when you are dying in isolation in that ICU room. There will be no one to comfort you, to touch you. No goodbyes, I love you. What will be left is that shared human experience: tears, grief, joy, regrets, happiness, fear of the unknown. The rich and the poor will experience some of those emotions, feelings. Again, it is obvious that more poor people will die from this when it is all said and done. There is not much fine dinning at restaurants, exclusive social clubs etc for most of the rich at this point.

The Covid-19 pandemic is teaching us many lessons. We are learning about the heroism of medical workers and the spirit of giving (Jack Ma, Chinese owner of Alibaba). But what are the Dangotes (the richest person in Africa) of Africa doing? What are the Mohammed Dewjis of East Africa doing? They may very well be doing something privately. I hope that is the case! You may say who cares what the rich do. What they say, do or not do matters. Dangote may decide to say that this is none of his concern. In that case, the people can and should decide to say that his cement is none of their business!

We live in a Global Community. We are interlinked in ways that was unimaginable just a century ago. What happens in Wahun, China can reach to all corners of the world within a very short period. What happens in Lagos, Nigeria or New York, can reach the furthest corners of the world in a very short time. In some ways, the borders and border controls are meaningless. It is too late by the time politicians realize what is happening and close borders (yes closing borders may mitigate spread of diseases). The so-called poor countries are most likely to be impacted more than the rich. However, this pandemic is teaching us lessons about our connectedness; that we are in this together. When wealthy countries continue to exploit poor countries, when they refuse to flatten the curve of income gap between nations, what happens in the “poor” countries will impact the “rich countries” in ways that they cannot ignore. Something has to change!

Finally, it is up to governments to flatten the curve of income gaps and access to adequate healthcare. The poor will eat the rich if there is no meaningful change. We are all in this together. When we provide adequate wages and healthcare, both the rich and the poor are protected; the society as a whole becomes for successful, happier. As we work hard to defeat the Covid-19 pandemic, we should also be keep in mind that the gap in income, wealth, adequate healthcare, education and access to basic needs, all of those differences are not sustainable in the long run if we are to survive as a specie. Governments should work to flatten the curve of income gap, provide adequate healthcare, and access to other basic needs. The people are waiting. This should be a wake up call for all!

© Azaria Mbughuni

March 28, 2020

Share a link for a free online book. Weka linki ya kitabu kinachopatikana bure kisheria mtandaoni

Share a link for a book you enjoyed reading online that can be legally accessed online for free on the comment section.  This is difficult period for many people around the world.  Let us take a moment to share with others knowledge with have acquired online for free

Tafadhali weka linki ya kitabu ulichosoma kinachopatikana mtandaoni kwa bure kisheria kwenye comment hapo chini.  Hii ni nafasi kwetu sote kuonyesha upendo kwa wengine katika kipindi hiki kigumu.

Hii ni linki ya kitabu: Kesi ya Julius Kambarage Nyerere 1958 kilichoandikwa na Simon Ngh'waya.  Kitabu hichi unaweza kukisoma kwenye hii linki. Unaweza kusoma kitabu chote kupitia hii hinki hapo chini

Bonyeza hapa kusoma kitabu cha Kesi ya Julius Kambarage Nyerere 1958.  Click the link below to read the above book

http://www.nzdl.org/gsdlmod?e=d-00000-00---off-0unescoen--00-0----0-10-0---0---0direct-10---4-------0-1l--11-en-50---20-about---00-0-1-00-0--4----0-0-11-10-0utfZz-8-10&a=d&cl=CL1.12&d=HASH015c801205c5314989c9ebfe.4

Lee Kuan Yew and Africa

Lee Kuan Yew managed to bring his country from a "third word to first world." He wrote about his experiences in his book From Third World to First." Many observers like to use his experience to critique African countries. Yew wrote briefly about his African tour of 1964 in his book. He visited seventeen capitals during his tour. He was in Dar es Salaam in February of 1964. Singapore had full internal self-government between 1959 and 1963. In September 1963, Singapore joined Malaya, Sarawak, and North Borneo in a union/federation that formed Malaysia. Singapore was a part of the troubled Federation when he did a tour of Africa in 1964. In the book, one gets a clear sense of the differences that faced African countries compared to Singapore. Singapore was expelled from the Federation in August 1965. The trouble back home, appears to have compelled Yew to try to establish closer links with Britain. Yew built strong relations with Britain. The relationship was important to Singapore's advancement. This relationship turned to a new chapter when Singapore was admitted to Commonwealth in 1965. Yew used the tension in Africa to give support to Britain over the claims and demands of African leaders. Commonwealth was the vehicle he used to achieve his objective. He did this with great skills.

Singapore joined Nigeria to call Commonwealth conference of Prime Ministers in Lagos, Nigeria January 1966 to discuss Rhodesia’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence. Yew met Sir Abubakar Balewa in 1964. Prime Minister Harold Wilson was not going to use force in Rhodesia. Yew took on a “broad philosophical approach.” (353) Alberta Margai of Sierra Leone had just spoken before him. Sir Margai said that only Africans should be concerned with the problem. Yew disagreed. Yew wrote “We were all interested parties and concerned. Singapore was closely associated with Britain in defense. If Britain were to be branded as a supporter of Ian Smith’s illegal seizure of power, my position would become more difficult.” (353) There you go: Yew was took a position which he presented as neutral; but in reality, he was siding with Britain over Africans on the question of Rhodesia to protect the defense interests of Singapore. Again, Yew disagreed with Milton Obote who said that Britain did not want to stop Ian Smith, that they wanted Smith to stay and consolidate his power. He writes “It was unhelpful to talk in terms of racist divisions between white settlers and immigrants. Like the peoples in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, I was a settler.” Yew was indeed a settler in Singapore! The problem of migration, he insists, had to be dealt with by accepting that “all men had equal rights.. For colored peoples of the world to demand retribution for past wrongs was not the answer to survival. In Africa, the nub of the problem was not Rhodesia but race relations in South Africa.” But the problems was that the white settlers in southern Africa did not want equality. This somehow escapes Yew's analysis. Britain wanted to buy time to secure its economic interests in South Africa and Rhodesia, and this Yew argues, was in the interest of both Africans and Europeans. Yew said that he “sympathized with Africans, but also saw the difficulties a British Prime Minister faced if he had to send British troops to quell a rebellion of British settlers..” Harold Wilson had to be careful at home with voters. Once again, Yew is pointing out that his views and interests were different from those of Africans. His sympathies lied with the settlers and the difficult conundrum that the British faced.

Yew writes that his attendance of January 1964 Lagos Commonwealth meeting “consolidated” his friendship with Harold Wilson. (354) Wilson congratulated Yew after the meeting. Wilson told Yew that he hoped he would attend other Commonwealth conferences. In other words, the British Prime Minister had a new friend, an ally at the Commonwealth meetings against the African bloc.

The next conference was in London in September 1966. Yew writes “In the two weeks there, I consolidated Singapore’s position with the British public and maintained my already good relations with Wilson and his key ministers, and with Conservative party leaders.” (357) The Rhodesia question dominated the September 1966 Commonwealth conference. In the 1971 Commonwealth conference, Yew recalls “friend” Nyerere who “pitched his argument on a high moral plane, that South Africa was out of the Commonwealth because its ideology was inconsistent with a multiracial Commonwealth. Despite Yew's overall praise of Nyerere, the sentence is condescending. The implication here is that morality takes second stage to other interests. This is perhaps one of the differences between Nyerere and Yew. Nyerere asked that Britain at the conference not to help South Africa and force Africans to react. The request is phrased in a way that gives Britain the final decision on how Africans would react: violently or peacefully. Nevertheless, Yew goes on to praise Nyerere; he writes that Nyerere “was the African leader I most respected. He struck me as honest and sincere.” (360) Despite his respect and admiration for Nyerere, Yew decided to take a position against the African bloc at the Commonwealth to secure his country’s links to Britain. The question of morality, what is right and what is wrong, was second to his desire to do what he felt would help his country of Singapore. Yew sees the situation of white minorities in southern Africa as a problem caused by migration, a problem that he faced in Singapore as an immigrant. Perhaps what one can add here is that he may indeed been a part of an oppressive settler group. He clearly sympathizes with fellow Europeans settlers who immigrated to southern Africa. Yew turns a blind eye to the realities and consequences of white racist policies in both South Africa and Rhodesia.

East Africa was being dragged into the Cold War. Zanzibar was at the center of tension between the East and West when Lee visited Tanganyika in February 1964. The situation on the ground was complex. Multiple foreign and local forces were pushing people and groups in different directions. There was an ideological clash between Pan Africanism and Pan Arabism in East Africa. This ideological gap was compounded by another major difference between African nationalist and Socialists revolutionaries. When Yew visited Tanganyika in February, the government had already made the decision to support the liberation struggle in southern Africa. Freedom fighters from Mozambique, South Africa, Southern Rhodesia, Namibia, were receiving military training in Kongwa, Dodoma. Tanganyika was in a war. The political and economic realities of Tanganyika, East Africa, Southern Africa, was very different from that of Singapore when Yew visited Dar es Salaam. Yew's position on Africa must, therefore, be seen from very different lenses. His views on Africa were not that much different from those of Europeans, the British, those who colonized Africa and refused to take any drastic measures to bring justice to southern Africa. Perhaps the fact that he was an immigrant to Singapore, an outsider himself, speaks volumes about the position he took on Africa. Yew's family originated in China. All this is not to deny that Singapore made great strives forward economically under his leadership; it did. Yet all the economic benefits that people in Singapore enjoy today has done little to ease racial and ethnic tension in that country. Ethnic Chinese are the dominant group; they make up over 76 percent of the population. Malays and Indians remain two groups of people that continue to face the wrath of discrimination to this day. The struggle is far from over!

© Azaria Mbughuni
March 1, 2020

Leah George: Women Who Changed the World

Leah George was the Chief Nurse at Nzega Hospital in northern Tanganyika in 1950. She was one of the few female nurses in a large territory that served tens of thousands of people. Nzega hospital was one of the few hospitals in the region that provided needed urgent medical attention for many, particularly women. It was common for people to walk fifteen miles to go to the hospital. Patients were in a bad state when brought to the hospital. Women travelled up to twenty miles to give birth at Nzega hospital. It was women who often had to travel many miles to bring their children to get medical attention. The hospital provided critical service to a large population that needed it the most. Leah George trained student nurses and took care of patients in critical condition. The services the hospital provided was everything to the many who depended on it; the life saving services meant the world to the patients who came to the hospital. Leah George was the heart and soul of hospital and the services it provided to the community.

Leah George’s journey, her story, is an inspiring one; it provides an example of day to day heroines who are often left out in history, or at best, relegated to the footnotes of history. Her story is a story of determination, defiance, commitment; it is yet one important reminder of the importance of telling "her story" as history is already inundated with his-story. Not much details of her story are available. The few details we have are enough to present a powerful story of a woman who changed challenged the societal norms, excelled in education, changed those around her, and in the process, changed the world.

Nzega township was the administrative center of Nzega District in Tanganyika in the 1950s. Plans for the Nzega hospital were formalized in 1928 under Dr. Nina H. Maynard, a pioneer in providing training and medical services in Tanganyika. She was the wife of a missionary, Rev. William J. Maynard, of the African Inland Mission in Tanganyika. Dr. Maynard was one of the first to provide training to African midwives to provide extensive services that were more acceptable to local communities. She proposed a hospital that would provide health education, western style birth procedures, and curative medicine for the sick. The governor of Tanganyika endorsed the proposal for the hospital at Nzega in 1928. Thus it is clear from the outset that it was a woman who set the stage for the important work that others like Leah George were to follow later.

The population of the District of Nzega was estimated to be about 200,000 people by mid-1950s. Medical services were beyond the reach of most people in the region. In mid-1950s, a medical officer visited the district once every three months. The hospital at Nzega did not have enough staff, equipment, or medicine to meet the needs of the people in the district. Infant mortality rates were estimated to be between 400-500 per 1,000 birth. The infant mortality rate was almost fifty percent! It is not clear how many women died giving birth at the time. However, it is clear that the number was very high taking into consideration the infant mortality rate. African “general-practitioners” provided clinical services at the thirteen “native authority dispensaries.” Leah George was on the frontlines of the battle to save lives. She served first as a student nurse in the early 1940s. The program she studied under was the one set up by Dr. Nina Maynard.

The first day at school is often the most difficult. That experience is more difficult when you are an adult enrolled in a school with filled with mostly teenagers. Leah George showed up in Nzega, northern Tanganyika, with one desire: to get an education and become a nurse. She was in her late twenties. Determined to pursue her education and change the world. This was the late 1930s. Few, male or females, were able to get an opportunity to go to school in Tanganyika in the 1930s. It was much more difficult for girls, for women. She was determined!

Leah George enrolled in a program as a student nurse. She travelled in Nzega and neighboring areas treating patients and educating the public about hygiene. At the age of forty, she heard about opportunity to enroll in a midwife program in neighboring Uganda. Uganda was the closest place that provided opportunities for Tanganyika students to study medicine. A number of Tanganyika males studied medicine and became Doctors in the 1930s and 40s. Among the earliest Tanganyikans to study medicine at Makerere were Joseph Mutahangarwa and Francis Mwaisela. Dr. Joseph Mutahangarwa became the first Tanganyikan to complete medical course at Makerere. Doctor Francis Mwaisela, to whom a ward is named after him in Muhimbili Medical Center today, was among the first Tanganyika doctors to practice at Nzega hospital. Leah George was, therefore, not the only Tanganyikan seeking education in Uganda in the 1940s; however, she was probably one of the few women from Tanganyika studying to become a nurse in Uganda. While men were allowed to enroll in medical school and become doctors, women could only pursue nursing courses at the time. Leah George was fort years old when she enrolled in the program in Uganda. Nothing could prevent her from accomplishing her educational goals. She left Tanganyika for Uganda. But first, she had to learn a new language, Baganda. This was a three year course. She completed the course with flying colors sometime in the 1940s and returned to Nzega.

By 1950, Leah George was working hard providing medical care to those who needed it the most, and at the same time, she was training a new generation of women to continue with the important work of providing badly needed medical care and health education. She was a trailblazer, broke barriers, showed a generation of young girls that by hard work and determination it was possible to make their dreams come true. Not much details of her life and work is available. Looking at the little information that is available about her, one comes to the conclusion that she was a remarkable woman, an extraordinary human being. She was a role model, a person who saved lives and inspired countless girls to pursue their dreams and service society. Leah George changed her world, and in the process, changed the world around her.

© Azaria Mbughuni
February 1, 2020