Chief David Kidaha Makwaia
Tanzanian
politician, businessman and head of the Sukuma
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Awam Amkpa
Chief David Kidaha Makwaia of Tanzania, who has died aged 84,
was one of the last great bridges between colonial and postcolonial Africa.
Paramount chief of the Sukuma Federation and an ally of Tanganyika's governor
from 1949 to 1958, Lord Twining, Makwaia liaised between British rulers and
various constituencies of their Tanzanian subjects, witnessing East Africa's
transition from imperialism through independence to postcolonial repression.
Makwaia's
life offers a window to the overlapping identities and cosmopolitan experiences
that defined the colonised elites of 20th-century Africa. He was born a Muslim
son of the Sukuma chief, Makwaia Mwandu of Usiha, in the Shinyanga region of
Tanganyika. He trained in agriculture at Uganda's Makerere University College
in the early 1940s before entering Lincoln College, Oxford, where he read
principles and praxis of local government, philosophy and politics.
Makwaia's
political life unfolded along multiple channels bestriding the worlds of
Tanzania's colonial rulers and its local chiefdoms. He succeeded his father as
Usiha chief in 1945 and later became "paramount chief" of the Sukuma
Federation, an autonomous institution of more than 50 chiefdoms, with its own
offices and flag. This won him British recognition as an authoritative native
voice - a privilege cemented by his appointment in the same year as the first
of two Africans to Tanganyika's Legislative Council (Legico).
Other
offices followed. In the course of the 1950s, he served as the only African
member of the East African royal commission on land and population, was an
unofficial member of the governor's executive council, and a consultant to the
colonial government as an administrator in the African aspirations section of
the social welfare department.
He
was a guest at Queen Elizabeth's coronation in 1953; two years later he was
awarded an OBE. He was viewed by the British as a likely president of Tanzania.
Along the way, Makwaia underwent a conversion, embracing Roman Catholicism.
This reawakening shaped his subsequent sense of mission. Although one of the
most influential chiefs in East Africa, he was not driven by the need for
power, but had always considered himself a servant of the people.
As
the winds of independence gathered steam, he facilitated the political rise of
his long-time college friend Julius Nyerere by winning him British support as
well as by securing the allegiance of Sukuma chiefs to Nyerere's party, Tanu
(Tanganyika African National Union). As prime minister, later president of
independent Tanganyika, Nyerere repaid Chief Kidaha, as he was known, by
abolishing the role of chiefs, and banishing him for some months to the remote
Tunduru district of the Southern Province for undisclosed reasons. This
experience alienated him from politics forever, prompting him to turn his
energies to private business and religious pursuits.
In
the 1960s and 1970s, he served as managing director of Market Research (T) Ltd,
and was appointed public relations officer of the Nairobi-based East African
Railways and Harbours administration. Upon his retirement in 1975, he moved to
the northern Tanzanian town of Moshi, where he operated a private insurance
agency. Active in local religious affairs, he founded the Moshi chapter of the
Order of Franciscans.
At
the time of his death, Chief Kidaha had resumed the leadership of the Sukuma
community from his late brother Hussein, and was active in preserving Sukuma
cultural legacies. He was buried at Ibadakuli in Shinyanga, the site of his
state house during the heyday of his chiefdom. Most people who met the chief
commented on his charismatic yet welcoming presence. He was proud of having
fulfilled his promise to his father to ensure all his 43 siblings were properly
educated.
He
is survived by his wife, Grace, his former wife, Mary, four children, Misuka,
Edward, Jonathan and Simona, eight grandchildren, and two great grandchildren.
· David Paul Kidaha Makwaia, politician and businessman, born May
7 1922; died March 31 2007
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