Reinveting BAKWATA, 1981 Part One

Reinventing BAKWATA, 1981

Part One

Strangely the BAKWATA leadership at the headquarters decided to turn the organisation into a profit making body. It registered a transportation company and bought trucks for the business. This became the source of the conflict because reports were received that BAKWATA trucks were transporting alcohol as part of its cargo.  It did not take long for the leadership of BAKWATA to find itself engulfed in an internal conflict on important matters of principle. The late Sheikh Kassim bin Juma who was on the forefront in the denunciation of the EAMWS in 1968 was this time, on the forefront to condemn the BAKWATA leadership at the headquarters for un-Islamic practises.  The student of Prof. Malik had by then formed their own organisation - Muslim Writers Workshop which came to be popularly known as Warsha. For strategic purposes this organisation operated without registration and no one exactly knew its leadership with certainty. But from the quality of the papers it published and distributed to Muslims there was no doubt whatsoever that authors were highly educated individuals.

In the conflict Warsha saw the opportunity to extricate from BAKWATA the puppet leadership imposed by the government upon Muslims at the founding conference of the organisation in Iringa in 1968. Since inception of BAKWATA a good number of Muslims adopted an apathetic attitude towards it. At that time Warsha's view was that such an attitude was self-defeating. If BAKWATA holds itself as a Muslim organisation then Muslims should make it serve Muslims interests.  With the help of Warsha Sheikh Mohamed Ali was able to call for fresh elections under a new constitution.[1]  A new educated, progressive and independent leadership came into power. Sheikh Mohamed Ali had managed to conduct not only a coup de grace against Chairman Saleh Masasi and his deputy Sheikh Abdallah Chaurembo from leadership but also against President Julius Nyerere who had imposed this leadership upon Muslims in 1968. The only person who remained from the old leadership was Adam Nasib. Soon after Warsha members moved in to occupy different positions in BAKWATA. For the first time since 1968 BAKWATA began to act and behave as a true Muslim organisation. This infused into Muslims a new sense of hope, purpose and direction.

Once in BAKWATA Warsha began to implement education programmes initiated by the EAMWS but were left to die after its demise. Before being banned by the government the EAMWS had built schools, mosques and a hostel in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda as follows:

Muslim projects by the East African Muslim Welfare Society by 1968

	Uganda	Tanzania	Kenya
Schools	77	70	28
Mosques	67	53	29
Technical Schools	3	-	-
Hostel	1	-	-

Source: Research Data

Warsha turned four schools built by the EAMWS in Tanzania which were under BAKWATA into Muslim seminaries. These schools were leading in the production of poor school results and were leading in everything compatible with decency. It was a shame that these schools were under and carried the name of Islam. In order to inculcate into the students high virtues of Islam, Qur'an and Islamic Knowledge was introduced as compulsory study subjects to Muslims students. A new recruitment of staff was carried out with Warsha members monopolising most of the all teaching posts. Previous to the Warsha take-over of the schools, the schools were enrolling Christians as students. It was decided that from there on the schools would only accept Muslims. Within a short period of time, discipline was restored into the schools and it was compulsory for students to observe prayers and for girls to dress in hijab.

Since the demise of the EAMWS, which published, EAMWS Newsletter Muslims did not have a mouthpiece of their own.  For the first time Muslims were able to have their own mouthpiece. Warsha helped BAKWATA to register a newspaper Muislam with Warsha forming the editorial board. Warsha's stand was that if Christians had two papers, Lengo and Kiongozi there was no reason for the government to bar Muslims from owning their own paper. Warsha also took over the weekly radio programme on Fridays on the state radio. Warsha reduced the playing of kasda and dhikr to broadcast programmes which carried a special message to Muslims. Warsha urged not to listen to recitation of the Holy Qur’an as if it music but to understand and obey its message. Warsha had by then written books, which were published in Kenya by Islamic Foundation, these books were very popular and came to be taken by Muslims as reference books for understanding Islam in the Christian surroundings and the political system, which existed in Tanzania.

Warsha under BAKWATA then conducted a social research project, which no Muslim organisation had attempted before. It commissioned its educationists to research and write a paper to show why Muslim students were lagging behind in education. It is important to get a glimpse of those findings:[2]

Table 1

Selection of Std.VII Pupils to Form I in Dar es Salaam Region 1978-1981

Year	Total Selected	Muslims	Percentage of Muslims Selected
1978	956	216	23
1979	903	194	22
1980	1071	247	23

Source: Dar es Salaam City Council, Department of Education.

 NB: In 1967 census Muslims in Dar es Salaam Region were 67%; therefore the number of Muslim students in Dar es Salaam Primary Schools is greater than that of Christians. This should have reflected in the selection.

Table 2

Religious Distribution University of Dar es Salaam 1971/72-1973/74

Year	Muslim %	Non-Muslim %	Total
1969/70	17	83	100
*1970/71	-	-	-
1971/72	13	87	100
1972/73	14	86	100
1973/74	13	87	100
*1974/75	-	-	-
1975/76	15	85	100
*1976/77	-	-	1.     -
*1977/78	-	-	-
1978/79	14	86	100
**1979/80	14	86	100
**1980/81	11	89	100
**1981/82	16	84	100

* Official Statistics not available

** Students selected for Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Science and medicine not included.

Source: 1969/70-1978/79 University of Dar es Salaam Students Directory.

1979/80-1981/82 Daily News June 1979/1981.

Table 3

Religious Distribution of University Admission 1971/72-1973/74

Year	% Muslim	% Christians	Others	% TotTotal
1971/72	13	86	1	100
1972/73	14	84	2	100
1973/74	13	79	8	100

Source: University of Dar es Salaam Student Directory

Table 4

Christian Seminary Secondary Schools 1980

No.	School	Level	Region
1.     2.     3.      4.     5.      6.      7.      8.     9.      10.  11.    12.   13.   14.   15.   16.   17.   18.   19.	Mafinga Ujiji Kilema Maua Uru Nanupa Makoko Kasita Lutheran Junior Saint Peter’s Nyegezi Kaengesa Likonde Mwadui Dungunyi Itaga Soni Katoke Rubiya	“O” “ “A” “O” “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “A” “O” “ “A” “O” “ “	Iringa Kigoma Kilimanjaro Kilimanjaro Kilimanjaro Lindi Mara Morogoro Morogoro Morogoro Mwanza Rukwa Ruvuma Shinyanga Singida Tabora Tanga Kagera Kagera

Source: Ministry of National Education, Dar es Salaam.

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 [1]The BAKWATA constitution of 1968 was a replica of the TANU constitution. See P. Van Bergen, Development and Religion, Madras 1981, p. 26.

[2] Muslim Writers’ Workshop, “The Importance of Establishing Islamic Seminaries,” 21 December 1981.