THE STORY OF JULIUS KAMBARAGE NYERERE, 1952 PART ONE

The Story of Julius Kambarage Nyerere, 1952 Part One

Julius Kambarage Nyerere, !950s

        

The Story of Julius Nyerere, 1952

In 1952 Julius Kambarage Nyerere came to Dar es Salaam to teach at St. Francis’ College, Pugu. Nyerere had been with Hamza Kibwana Mwapachu at Tabora in 1945, and at Makerere College and later in Britain pursuing further studies. It is possible that Nyerere, who closely followed TAA activities, heard about Abdulwahid through Mwapachu while he was still in Britain. Mwapachu and Nyerere had shared the same dormitory while students at Makerere College while Kasella Bantu and Nyerere had taught together at St. Mary’s School in Tabora. Kasella Bantu, a very radical TAA activist with an unshakable anti-colonial view point, resigned from teaching and came to Dar es Salaam to join the Tanganyika Broadcasting Corporation (TBC). In an emotional farewell speech which Nyerere delivered on 5 th November, 1985, to Dar es Salaam Elders, an exclusive group of Muslim townsmen who had supported him since the founding of TANU, Nyerere told his audience that it was Kasella Bantu who had introduced him to Abdulwahid Sykes. This was one of the very rare occasions at which Nyerere talked publicly about his beginnings and it was the first time he had mentioned Abdulwahid’s name in public associating him with his own history and that of the party. [1]

Nyerere was a complete stranger to Dar es Salaam and as was the tradition, Kasella Bantu took him to Abdulwahid’s house to complete his orientation and to meet the notables of the town. Apart from Dossa Aziz who had met Nyerere briefly at TAA’s general conference in April, 1946, Kasella Bantu himself and Denis Phombeah, nobody at the TAA headquarters had ever heard of Nyerere. After the introduction Abdulwahid, Nyerere, Ally, Dossa Aziz, Mhando, Rupia, Dunstan Omari and others used to meet every Sunday for a baraza (palaver) either at Dossa’s home  at Congo Street or at Abdulwahid’s house at Stanley Street. These were two venues where the nationalists met to discuss the future of Tanganyika.

Kasella Bantu Political debates among the young nationalists now shifted from topics of internal discontent to leftist international issues concerning government and self-determination for the African people. In Abdulwahid, Mwalimu Nyerere found a person of high intellect, selflessness and a likeable character. In Julius Nyerere, Abdulwahid found a highly educated person with admirable debating skills. Nyerere was exposed to the world and sharpened by the politics of the Fabian Society during his student days in Britain. Very constructive debates evolved in the Sunday discussions when Abdulwahid’s intellect and political experience were pitted against Nyerere’s legendary debating skills. Nyerere did not have any political experience worth mentioning at that time to compare with Abdulwahid.  When the African Association in Tabora took part in the 1947 General Strike Nyerere did not involve himself with this working-class movement, although he was the Association’s secretary.

Julius Nyerere 1950s Mutual respect ensued between Abdulwahid and Nyerere. Each Sunday Nyerere would travel from Pugu to Dar es Salaam to attend the informal meetings. After the meetings either Dossa Aziz or Dunstan Omari would drive Nyerere back to Pugu. This is how Nyerere came to be integrated into TAA’s inner circle at the headquarters and how he was subsequently proposed to stand for the Association’s topmost leadership post in April, 1953. TAA’s leadership proposed Julius Nyerere in order to strengthen the organisation with highly educated Africans. It was left to Nyerere to accept or decline the offer. It was one thing to discuss politics and quite a different matter to lead a political movement aiming to capture state power. This was a war against the colonial state and one had to be prepared for any eventuality. L-R: Dossa Aziz, Julius Nyerere, Abdulwahid Sykes and Lawi Sijaona, 1956

Nyerere was a Roman Catholic trained teacher who had been through a system which moulded its followers to be obedient and loyal to both the church and the state. He was also under the influence of Father Richard Walsh who had arranged for his scholarship to study in Scotland.  It is said Father Walsh had ‘considerable influence on Nyerere’s life and thought’. [2] He had groomed Nyerere and had him enrolled at Edinburgh University.  He was not therefore expected to oppose the government. The Church expected Nyerere to settle down to a teaching career at one of the mission schools in Tanganyika. When he returned from studies in Britain the previous year and was about to settle down in life, the young townsmen he found in politics in Dar es Salaam such as Abdulwahid, his young brother Ally, and Dossa Aziz were people of means who lived in their own environment.  As a Christian, Nyerere knew that he could never hope to build a political base in the Dar es Salaam environment of the 1950s where politics assumed strong Muslim characteristics. At first Nyerere was reluctant to accept the offer.

The TAA leadership was clever enough to realise the value of Nyerere’s education and its potential to the future leadership of the association and the country. Abdulwahid confided with the TAA executive that having the most educated African in the land as the president of the Association would strengthen its leadership and portray a good image before the eyes of the colonial government and the United Nations Visiting Missions. Nyerere is quoted as  having said that it had been his intention to teach for a while then enter politics. [3]  Eventually Nyerere was made to accept the leadership TAA extended to him.

The contest between the incumbent president, Abdulwahid, and an unknown schoolteacher, Julius Nyerere, took place at the Arnatouglo Hall on 17 April, 1953. Outside the circle of the TAA leadership which had proposed him to stand, Nyerere was a complete stranger to the electorate he was facing to ask for their votes. Nyerere’s political career began  from that day.  There he was, a stranger with no history of leading a peoples’ struggle against the colonial government. On the other other side was the Sykes family which was associated with Dar es Salaam politics for almost a quarter of a century; founding and leading both the African Association and Al Jamiatul Islamiyya fi Tanganyika. Abdulwahid was a member of a family which had discussed political issues of the day publicly and written about them, at times exchanging correspondence with the colonial authority.[4]

The election was by a show of hands. Denis Phombeah who was in charge of the Arnatouglo Hall was the returning officer. Phombeah asked both Abdulwahid and Nyerere to go out of the hall for voting to begin. The whole week before voting Phombeah was making rounds campaigning for Nyerere. But there was no need of doing that; the TAA inner circle of Abdulwahid, Ally, Dossa Aziz and Rupia had already decided to make Nyerere president of the Association and the election was a mere formality. After Abdulwahid and Nyerere had gone out, voting began. Abdulwahid ‘lost’ the election-the first loss in his whole political career-and Nyerere won by a very small margin.[5] This was the beginning of the end of the influence of the Sykes family in the TAA and the beginning of Nyerere’s political career. From that day the political history of Tanganyika was never to be the same again.

It is strange that this milestone in Nyerere’s life has neither been documented nor accorded importance. In his whole political career Nyerere was never again to face a more formidable opponent than Abdulwahid. This contest between Abdulwahid and Nyerere has become a legend. Some reports have it that Abdulwahid won the election, others say Nyerere won by a single vote; yet others say that TAA members had to vote thrice to get the winner since the votes were tying. Dossa Aziz reports that Abdulwahid did not lose that election, and went on to say that:

''There was no way Nyerere could defeat Abdulwahid in Dar es Salaam of 1950s. Abdulwahid was not defeated in that election. We all wanted it to be that way. We wanted Nyerere to assume TAA leadership.''[6]

Nyerere himself has never talked about this election or how he came to lead the Party in Dar es Salaam. The nearest he got to reflect on Abdulwahid was in the farewell speech to Elders of Dar es Salaam, and unfortunately his memory failed him as he could not recall what post Abdulwahid was occupying when he (Nyerere) joined TAA in 1952.  TANU Elders Council and Nyerere Abdallah Shomari (Tandamti No. 3) Nassoro Kalumbanya (Simba) Said Chamwenyewe (Aggrey/Congo) Mtoro Ally (Muhonda) John Rupia (Misheni Kota) Julius Nyerere (Minaki Sekondari) Said Chaurembo (Congo/Mkunguni) Jumbe Tambaza (Upanga) Sheikh Suleiman Takadir (Mafia/Swahili) Dossa Aziz (Mbaruku/Somali Kipande) Mshume Kiyate (Tandamti) Juma Sultani (Kitchwele Karibu na Kanisa Dogo) Maalim Shubeti (Masasi/Likoma) Rajab Simba (Kiungani) Waziri Mtonga (Kilosa 18, Ilala) Mwinjuma Mwinyikambi (Mwananyamala) Makisi Mbwana (Aggrey/Congo) Usia Omari (Sungwi, Kisarawe) Sheikh Issa Nasir (Bagamoyo)

     [1]In his farewell speech Nyerere paid tribute to Muslim elders who supported him during the struggle in spite of his religion, but he played down the role of Abdulwahid and TAA as a political organisation.

     [2]William Redman Duggan and John R. Civille, Tanzania and Nyerere, New York, 1976, p. 45.

     [3]Nyerere has been quoted on this in his many speeches.

   [4]Some of this correspondence is in the custody of the Sykes family but a good number of them dating from 1930-1955 are preserved at the Tanzania National Archives (TNA) and Party Archives in Dodoma.

     [5]See Listowel, op. cit. p 221 also Iliffe, A Modern History... op. cit. p 510.

     [6]Dossa Aziz, interviewed in 1987.               

(Excerpts from Mohamed Said's book: The Life and Times of Abdulwahid Sykes (1924 - 1968) The Untold Story of the Muslim Struggle Against British Colonialism in Tanganyika, Minerva Press, London 1998)