IN MEMORY OF ALLY KLEIST SYKES (1926 - 2013)

Ally Kleist Sykes and Mohamed Said
At Mr Sykes Office, Mkwepu Street, Dar es Salaam 

Extreme Right is Abbas Kleist Sykes
Hawli at Kipata Mosque

L-R: Hussein Shebe, Sheikh Abdallah Awadh, Ambassador Abbas Sykes,
Mohamed Said, Former Dar es Salaam City Mayor Kleist Abdulwahid Kleist Sykes,
Sitting Mzee Shomar Inside Kipata Mosque After Hawli

On a day like this on 19th May 2013 Ally Sykes passed away in Nairobi. Today was his hawli (memorial) and was read at Kipata Mosque, a mosque which he used to pray as a young boy since his father's house was just a stone throw from the mosque. Many years back before he died I used to sit down with Mzee Ally in his office at Mkwepu Street  and  he would narrate to me his life history over a tape recorder and through these tapes I wrote his biography, ''Under the Shadow of British Colonialism in Tanganyika the Life of Ally Sykes.'' The manuscript remains unpublished for almost 20 years now. Here are excerpts from the manuscript:

Introduction

Kushoto Aliekaa: Kleist Sykes na Abbas Kleist
Nyuma ni Ally Kleist na Abdul Kleist

The history of my father I dare to say is the history of the beginning of political development of modern Tanganyika then under British colonialism. My father achieved many things in his lifetime, which directly benefited his immediate family members and the country. Kleist gave all his children comfortable life style, status, and social position and introduced us into colonial politics, business and the merit of public service. Kleist’s name to those who knew him is associated with the development of Dar es Salaam then a municipality. He actively participated in the social development of its people and its religion - Islam, building a school Al Jamiatul Islamiyya for its children. The Al Jamiatul School exists to the present day at the same place. The school was nationalised by the government and renamed Karume. My father initiated African leadership all its affairs culminating in the struggle of the people of Tanganyika against colonial oppression. He was the founding secretary of the Railway African Civil Service Union. The founding of the African Association in 1929 of which my father was the founding secretary was one of those achievements, which I am, proud to say influenced and benefited all the people of Tanganyika. It is from this organisation that one can trace the political development of Africans of Tanganyika to the present times. The Association endured and remained unchallenged for two decades until when we transformed it into an open political party, the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) in 1954 under the leadership of Julius Nyerere as its first President and John Rupia as Vice-President.  I with my elder brother, Abdulwahid and Dossa Aziz, Tewa Said Tewa, Saadan Abdu Kandoro, John Rupia, Japhet Kirilo, Joseph Kimalando, Germano Pacha and other patriots from the provinces are among the 17- founding members of TANU....

The Last Kicks of a Dying Horse, 1957

After my return from Accra I was transferred to Kibongoto Infectious Disease Hospital. This hospital was some few miles from Moshi town. There was no accommodation for African clerks at the hospital. The hospital had only quarters for labourers and there were only two houses for European doctors. I refused to stay in those houses meant for Africans because they were sub standard fit for locking in animals I therefore stayed in Moshi town and commuted to Kibongoto each morning. Meanwhile I wrote to Attorney General, Gretton Bailey complaining about lack of accommodation to African staff at Kibongoto Hospital.  Bailey wrote to hospital authority and ordered them to allocate one of the European quarters for me. This was unprecedented in the history of labour relations between Africans and Europeans. An African was being accommodated in the same class of houses reserved for Europeans. Again I made history silly as it seems. I became the first African to occupy European quarters at the hospital. Dr. Hughes and Dr. Frank two Britons working at the hospital were furious.  But there was nothing the two could do about it, so I thought. 

The two hatched a very sophisticated plot to get rid of me for good. They waged a psychological war against me. They decided to move my office from where it was into the main building of the hospital between the operating theatre and laboratory. These were areas out bounds to all. Bear in mind that this hospital was admitting patients suffering from tuberculosis, which is a very infectious disease. The area, which my office was being shifted to, was strictly confined to patients to avoid contamination and communication of the disease. They thought if I worked in those surroundings and without protection it is likely I would catch the disease and probably be severely impaired by it or die altogether. In this way there would be no murder charge against them for killing a ‘troublesome self styled freedom fighter.’ The colonial administration including the governor Sir Edward Francis Twining would be happy. The colonial administration must have been by now tired with members of my family for their troublesome character. Every Governor who came to Tanganyika from 1927 had to deal with my father in one way or another. From 1939-1947 he appeared three times before a tribunal appointed by the government to investigate industrial unrest in Tanganyika.

Who knows the Queen for their ingenuity may even knight them. It was due to this harassment that I fought with Dr. Frank and I trounced him severely. This was a very serious offence.  It was a great crime to answer back a colonial officer let alone beat him up. But the British were not yet ready to make a martyr out of me. I was not dismissed but transferred to Arusha Hospital. At Arusha again there was no accommodation for me. The hospital had accommodation for Asians only. Africans had to find their own accommodation in town. I broke into one of the houses and occupied it by force. This time the authority ignored me.  No action was taken against me for breaking into the house. I worked under a British lady who was secretary to the Medical Officer in charge of the African section of Arusha Hospital. My reputation had superseded me. Everyone knew about Ally Sykes, son of Kleist Sykes and Nyerere’s friend; agitator and founder member of TANU, the party which wanted to oust the British from Tanganyika. But the European staff was bent into making my life difficult whenever they had the chance. 

My wife had by then gave birth to twin girls, Monalisa and Alma. My twins contracted chicken pox and I took them to hospital for treatment. I took them to the European Section of the hospital for treatment. My twins were refused treatment because that section was reserved for white children. One of the twins Alma studied medicine and has her own practice in Dar es Salaam Gerezani where I was born. I could no longer stomach that and I beat up the white nurse. I was suspended from employment for the second time. It was decide that I be transferred to Mtwara. I went to see Establishment Officer, Othman Chande to tell him that I was not going to Mtwara. I refused the transfer and returned back to Dar es Salaam to my mother.  In their anger and frustration the colonial government sent my personal effects to Mtwara.

The British did not dismiss me from employment but transferred me Dar es Salaam to the Ministry of Works to work under the Public Works Department (PWD). I was put under another colonial officer, Molohan who at one time was Deputy Labour Commissioner. I had worked with Molohan some years back. Molohan assigned me the duty of writing time cards for labourers. It was a silly job to humiliate me. It was about this time that I bought my first car, a Holden. This was an Australian car. I used to drive this car to work and parked my car at the office car park where Europeans parked their cars. They hated me for that but there was nothing they could do to prevent me behaving in whatever manner I wanted or from parking my car besides theirs. I was employed because man has to work. I was not in the civil service out of necessity. Even by then what I was earning from moonlighting before I went into fulltime business was enough to sustain me. I thank Allah that I could afford what the Europeans thought was their own domain and privilege.

Ally Sykes and Mohamed Said
Eid El  Fitr 2009 at Ally Sykes Residence Mbezi Beach