From Buzuruga (Mwanza) to Picha ya Ndege (Morogoro) to Mwembechai (Dar es Salaam) to Mwembetanga to Madina (Tanga): The Never Ending Story of Killings

1983

Warsha came to prove its worth and BAKWATA lost the little credibility it had in what came to be known as the sungusungu conflict. In 1983 the government and BAKWATA found itself facing a crisis which vibrated even beyond its borders. A few miles from Mwanza, a town on the shore of Lake Victoria there is a small village, Buzuruga which had a small mosque of which its imam was one Sheikh Daud. The village had its fair share of Muslims, Christians and animists. Buzuruga was to participate in the inauguration of its traditional headman, the leader of a local tribal militia known as the sungusungu. The inauguration was more or less a tribal ceremony with certain political undertones. The militia was part of the clientele of the one party state. The ceremony entailed congregation of all the people including men and women standing on an open ground with women leaving their top parts bare. People were to stand like this early morning before sunrise in order to watch the sun rising from the east and supplicate to it. This was a pagan initiation ceremony and no Muslim worth his name could participate. The CCM Chairman one Masabo Kabambo in a rally on 8 th August declared that no one was to be spared in the ceremony, Muslims must participate like all other citizens. This was in all intent and purpose a threat to Muslims.

The sungusungu a Sukuma tradition long forgotten was revived as a peoples' militia when it was realised the police force could no longer be trusted to maintain peace and order due to several reasons, one of them being corruption in the police force. Under the authoritarian regime of Nyerere, sungusungu had a political stance and was given a force of law. This force of law conferred to an untrained force under arms, although primitive, created apathy. Muslims refused to participate in those celebrations held on 17 August for the simple reason that the festival was un Islamic.  The Muslim stand enraged sungusungu and in its fury sungusungu conducted a house to house search and went Sheikh Daud's house and roughed[1] him up ridiculing Islam, and in the process intentionally defaced the Holy Qur'an. Sheikh Daud was punished with 115 lashes for his insolence. Muslims were rounded up as they were going for salat fajr and forcefully matched to the grounds to participate in the celebrations. Other Muslims including women were dragged from their homes and taken to the grounds. Men were forced to strip and women to take off their hijab.  Muslims who resisted were manhandled and humiliated. The following day when Muslims in Mwanza alerted the Muslim umma in Tanzania of what had taken place in Buzuruga, all hell broke loose.

Muslim activists in Mwanza sent a detailed report to Warsha in Dar es Salaam. In return Warsha through its members in the executive of the Dar es Salaam University Muslim Student Association (MSAUD) dispatched an emissary to Mwanza one Mohamed Lulengelule to have on the spot assessment of the situation. The emissary interviewed Sheikh Daud.  BAKWATA as a state clientele like the sungusungu was hesitant to issue a statement to condemn the defilement of the Qur'an because sungusungu was taken as a state institution. BAKWATA was waiting for direction from the government on how to act and what to say. Meanwhile Muslims throughout the country were calling for Muslims to rise up in jihad against the government and BAKWATA. This time round the government had gone too far. The Qur’an was a sacred book and Muslims would not late that pass lightly. They had to show the government that there were areas which even angels fear to tread.

When eventually BAKWATA sent the Grand Sheikh, Sheikh Hemed bin Juma to Mwanza to investigate the crisis it was too late. Muslims had taken full control of the problem. BAKWATA had come to close the stable door after the horse had bolted. And when BAKWATA through the Grand Sheikh using the state-radio gave their own version of the crisis Sheikh Hemed bin Juma said that it was not the Holy Qur’an which was defaced but Yasin and there was no reason for Muslims to rise up in arms. It would have been better if BAKWATA had remained silent. Muslims were by that gesture made to see BAKWATA for what it was- a hypocrite, puppet organisation on the government payroll. In the articles which Warsha and other Muslim organisations wrote and distributed to Muslims BAKWATA and the government were treated as one. While BAKWATA went down on the estimation of Muslims, Warsha's stature rose in the eyes of Muslims as a true organisation representing Muslim interests. Muslims all over the country were now in control of their own affairs with Warsha providing de facto leadership.

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 [1]Sheikh Daud was to die soon following the beating in the hands of sungusungu.

1994

In desperation the Christian Lobby played its last card. As the problem of Bible scholars remained in stalemate, then the unthinkable happened. While Muslims as well as Christians were assembled at  Picha ya Uwanja wa Ndege Mosque in Morogoro to lend an ear to the Bible preachers Al Malid from Dar es Salaam, riot police in five Land Rovers and 2 small cars surrounded the place and attacked the mosque with tear gas bombs  firing bullets into the air. As people ran into the mosque to seek refuge riot police in hot pursuit followed them into the mosque and beat them up. To ensure that maximum damage was inflicted to the Bible scholars, the expensive public address equipment which they used was completely wrecked.  Muslim Bible scholars were arrested including some of the people in the audience. Two Muslims died as a result of the beatings.[1] More than 60 canisters were exploded. Some canisters failed to explode and were tendered in court as exhibit of police brutality towards Muslims.

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[1] Kamati ya Kupigania Haki za Waislam, “Kesi za Waislam,” 17 October, 1994 and Taarifa ya Kifo (undated). Also see Majira, 18 July, 1994.

1998

Tanzania has experienced the Buzuruga Muslim-Sungusungu Conflict (1983), Pork Riots (1993) and Mwembechai Upheaval (1998). For more information See Hamza Mustafa Njozi, Mwembechai Killings and Political Future of Tanzania, Globalink Communications Ottawa, 2000. (The book is banned by the government). In all these conflicts, Muslim blood has been shed. In between these conflicts Muslims have sent several petitions to the government requesting it to look into these problems but all of them have been ignored. As a result of this Muslims from all regions of Tanzania met in Dar es Salaam at Masjid Tungi in 1990 and issued the Tungi Declaration which among other things stated that Muslim should prepare to defend their rights by all means...

2001 

Sheikh Juma Khamis Mohamed of Masjid Mwembetanga,  Zanzibar shot by police at his mosque soon after Jumaa prayers

2013

Madina and Lwande

Two villages Madina na Lwande destroyed including houses and mosques

Two Muslims killed on the pretext of combating terrorists.

Muslims have been forbidden to go back to the two villages.

When will these killings stop?

Photographs from Lwande