MOHAMED IQBAL DAR THE MAN WHO GAVE A NAME TO THE UNION

Would like to share more information on the man who coined the name Tanzania - Mohamed Iqbal Dar! He is the son of the late Dr.Tufail Ahmed Dar.

He was born on the 8th August, 1944 in Tanga. His father, famously known as 'Dr.Dar' was a Doctor at the farms in Mkonge. In 1963, M.I Dar joined H.H The Agakhan Sec.School in Morgoro and in 1964 he joined Mzumbe Sec.School. Mheshimiwa Shamim Khan was his classmate.

It happened while at the school library where he was reading 'The Tanganyika Standard' (now Daily News) that the 18 years old student bumped into a simple announcement that suggested to name Tanganyika and Zanzibar as one combined nation. Five minutes later, he put down a name in a burst of creativity. He says, "I took a piece of paper, whispered 'Bismillah' (In the name of God) and wrote two words - Tanganyika - Zanzibar.

I took 'Tan' from Tanganyika and 'Zan' from Zanzibar and got the word 'Tanzan'. It did not sound well and I began thinking of names of other African countries and realized most of the names had 'IA' in the ending : Ethiopia, Nigeria, etc. I added both vowels to Tanzan and framed the word 'Tanzania'! And the rest is history.

Why was he not famous in Tanzania all these years? It was because he was still a 19 year old student when he went to University in U.K in 1964! The time went by and after many years he realized his name was not mentioned in any historical record. No one knew about him! It was assumed it was Mwalimu Nyerere who coined the name Tanzania! Thereafter, he wrote letters regarding his contribution to President Mwinyi and President Mkapa but did not get any response. Thus, in 2003, he visited Tanzania but was not granted an appointment with the President.

He held a press conference with his certificates and medals, but he received negative response by media who challenged his claim!

Funny part was that even his surname 'Dar' was challenged by the media that it was taken from 'Dar es Salaam'!

Even the Daily News, the source of announcement to name the country, disagreed to his claim! He was saddened to learn that he was not given a warm welcome in his homeland as expected!

Naming a country is not something any of us can lay claim to! Our historians fail to preserve historical data of  what other countries boast of its heritage!

However, when we called him in U.K and gave him the news that President Jakaya Kikwete along with the Members of Parliament after keenly going through his claim declared his name as the man who named 'Tanzania', he broke into tears! He was invited by the State to honor him, but due to his ill health he cannot travel now.

Mohamed Iqbal Dar, has very humbly requested us to do him a favour to convey his warmest regards to Tanzanians from the bottom of his heart and "Thank You" to the government, for their efforts to do justice recognizing him.

We cannot escape history. It is a task of those in authority to ensure all aspects of our patriotic sons of this soil are preserved and are historically accurate.

Shakespeare appeared in the  16th century and his work is preserved while we in Tanzania have to argue over the fact "Who coined the name Tanzania?"