A Short Introduction: Reverend Christopher Mtikila Secretary of Full Salvation Church

  A Short Introduction:

 Reverend Christopher Mtikila

Secretary of Full Salvation Church

Reverend Christopher Mtikila

…one person who was been able to unite all Christians in their subtle opposition to Mwinyi was the self proclaimed Reverend Christopher Mtikila, Head of Full Salvation Church and Chairman of Democratic Party. [1] He has openly declared his mission as that of defending Christianity against Islam. Mtikila came to prominence in 1988 when he circulated a letter at the CCM Kizota Conference in Dodoma in which he accused Mwinyi of propping up Islam at the expense of Christianity Mtikila’s DP manifesto is to break the union between Zanzibar and Tanganyika and to expel Arabs, Somalis and Indians from the country. Conspicuously absent from his list of expulsion were Europeans. It was not difficult to understand why. Mtikila was pro-Christian and therefore could not be anti-European. In his many speeches Mtikila has shown outright contempt to religious tolerance, the union and the ideals of multi-racial society.

Mtikila’s followers went on rampage after a mass rally in which Mtikila spoke beating up Indians and Arabs. Strange enough the state-radio provides air time for Reverend Mtikila. At that time more than ten private newspapers under Christian ownership were in circulation. The Christian monopoly in politics and in the media contributed into fuelling religious tension because of its anti- Muslim stand. The press picked on Muslims ministers scandalising them at will. Muslims in the governments were accused by the press for all sorts of offences from “praying in their offices” to "selling the country to rich Arab Sheikhs” from the Middle East. Even the vocabulary had to change. People began to be referred to by the colour of their skins. The press began to identify people as “Arabs,” “Indians” and “indigenous Africans” reminiscent of colonial days; with the exception that in colonial days Africans were then referred to as “natives.”

The Church should have risen to condemn Reverend Mtikila but it did not do so instead Catholic Bishops of Tanzania through the Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC) started to issue what came to be known as Pastoral Letters which were very critical of Mwinyi's rule accusing his government of every ill in the country from incompetence to corruption. [2] The Pastoral Letters were echoed by the media and state-radio. The Pastoral Letters were the last straw which broke the camel's back. It was now evident that the Catholic Church was mixing politics with religion to the detriment of the state, the aim which was to destabilise President Mwinyi and undermine his confidence. Nyerere also joined in attacking Mwinyi accusing him of religious bigotry. [3] When Muslims were in control of politics they never allowed Nyerere to be humbled by dissident Muslims. Sheikhs always rose up in unison to defend and protect the political system from religious sentiments. Such patriotism was not forthcoming from the Church.           

…joining in this anti-Mwinyi anti Muslim campaign was the newly established free press. In a daring and dramatic encroachment of the Church into politics, the Tanzania Press Club hosted Reverend Christopher Mtikila, secretary of Full Salvation Church. In that press luncheon of the Tanzania Press Club Mtikila attacked Mwinyi's government as being corrupt echoing Nyerere's speech of February that year. [4]  Mtikila was not a new name in this anti- Mwinyi campaign. In 1987 during the CCM-NEC conference in Dodoma he distributed a document which among many allegations to Mwinyi he accused him of supporting “Muslim fundamentalism” and slotting Muslims into important positions in his government. Dar es Salaam University also hosted Mtikila and was allowed to talk at the prestigious Nkrumah Hall, the centre of serious debate and lectures by reputable personalities. Mtikila spit his venom by concluding his speech by saying that “the Church must show the way.” [5]

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[1] For more information see MSAUD paper, “Vita vya Mchungaji Mtikila Dhidi ya Uislam,” 3 February, 1993. Also Rev. C. Mtikila kwa Mwenyekiti Kamati ya Masuala ya Dini Nchini FSC/ADM/370 27 April, 1989.

[2] Al-Markaz Sheikh Suleiman Takadir, “Barua ya Kisiasa ya Maaskofu: Maaskofu Wana Nafasi Gani Katika Serikali ya Nchi Hii.”

[3] Kiongozi, 1-15 January, 1994.

[4]Business Times, 22 June, 1990.

[5] In October, 1989 the Chairman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) Colonel John Garang visited Tanzania.  Garang received a very warm reception from the University Community which is predominant Christian. The academic staff as well as students went out of their way to poetry Garang as a “true son of Africa”, and a crusader against Muslim hegemony in Sudan. And Garang cherished every moment of it. The ten percent Muslims at the Dar Es Salaam University did not even dare pose a single question to Garang much as it was evident that Garang was fighting an anti-Muslim war in the name of war of liberation. It was not a wonder that Garang was receiving military assistance and moral support from Christian controlled governments Tanzania being one of them. Garang really felt at home.  Garang himself a Marxist Christian was speaking in a Marxist School and among fellow Christians. Probably in response to this visit by Garang, the government of Al Bashir sent its official delegation to try and explain to the people of Tanzania its own point of view to the conflict. The Sudan government delegation was coldly received at the University. Protocol was flouted shamelessly. While Garang was accorded all the honours fit for a head of state, the Vice Chancellor himself receiving him, the Sudanese government delegation was received by one of the academic staff in the Department of Political Science. The Vice Chancellor was conspicuously absent. Garang spoke in the famous Nkrumah Hall, the venue for all visiting dignitaries. The Sudanese government delegation was ushered hurriedly into a lecture theater. The University administration knows who can speak in the lecture theater and who cannot speak in Nkrumah Hall. The University community made sure that the Sudan government delegation understands that it had walked into an alien territory, where Islam in whatever form was not tolerated. Hostility through rhetoric in the question posed to the delegation was evident from every angle. But the speakers were not intimidated they were cool and composed taking everything in their stride. The audience seemed only interested in painting the delegation as descendants of Arab slave traders presenting an anti- Christian regime. Islam was taken to be synonymous to Arabia by the born-again Christians in the audience who posed questions, while the Marxists thought the conflict in Sudan could be solved through class struggle and advised the delegation that the problem could be understood better through class analysis. It was clear that the audience was either ignorant of the background to the conflict or was so much taken by anti-Muslim sentiments portrayed by the  international press that it lost all objectivity, untypical  trait of academicians.

(Excerpts from:  "Christian Hegemony and the Rise of Muslims Militancy in Tanzania," by Mohamed Said)