BWANA MKUBWA BWANA WA MABWANA: MAKATTA MWINYI MTWANA

Utangulizi

Makatta Mwinyi Mtwana

Sifa za utajiri wa Makatta Mwinyi Mtwana bado zinahdithiwa Tanga hata baada ya zaidi ya nusu karne  toka afariki dunia tarehe  13 Julai 1964. 

Makatta Mwinyi Mtwana alikwenda kuhiji Makka mwaka wa 1947.

Passport ya Makatta Mwinyi Mtwana
alyosafiria Saudi Arabia 1947

Harusi ya mwanae Muharram,  ilivunja rekodi zote Tanga watu kusafirishwa kwa ndege kwenda na kurusi Zanzibar na walima aliofanya mjini Tanga wazee wanaukumbuka kwa chakula na sharbati.

Halikadhalika harusi ya mwanae wa kike, Asha bint Makatta Mwinyi Mtwana alipoolewa na kijana mwenye asili ya Tanga lakini kazaliwa Dar es Salaam na kukulia Dar es Salaam na mtoto wa tajiri mkubwa Dar es Salaam, Hamza Aziz, mtoto wa Aziz Ali.

Makatta Mwinyi Mtwana hakuwa anachinja ng'ombe kama kitoweo katika harusi za wanae. Mzee Makatta alikuw akichinja ngamia.

Mimi nimekutana na Mzee Makatta katika Nyaraza za Sykes na katika mazungumzo niliyokuwanayo na marehemu Ally Sykes anapowakumbuka rafiki za baba yake, Kleist Sykes. 

Mzee Makatta alikuwa tajiri kupigiwa mfano. Mwafrika wa kwanza kununua gari Tanga Opel namba ya usajili TA 1. Alikuwa na kituo cha mafuta Barabara ya 15 mbele ya nyumba yake. Kituo hiki kilivunjwa kupisha ujenzi wa Pangani Road pamoja na nyuba nyingi zilizokuwa upande ule. Kituo kikahaishiwa Mabawa karibu na Banda la Papa. Alikuwa na nyumba kumi lakini biashara yake kubwa kabisa ilikuwa ya kuuza khanga kivazi ambacho kilikuwa muhimu sana kwa wanawake wa Tanganyika wakati ule. 

Khanga zikivaliwa kwenye harusi na sherehe nyingine, misibani na hata majumbani. Mzee Makatta alikuwa pia ni wakala wa magazeti mengi yakiwamo, Tanganyika Standard, Ngrumo, Mwafrika nk. Alikuwa pia na biashara ya kokoto.

Mzee Makatta ni mmoja wa wazalendo waliyoipokea TANU, Tanga. 

Makatta Mwinyi Mtwana hakujitokeza kwenye majukwaa lakini alikuwa mfadhili mkubwa wa TANU.

Naweka kitu kidogo kama kupita njia nikitegemea iko siku watakuja wengine na kumwandika Mzee Makatta kama anavyostahili kuandikwa…

Msome Ally Sykes akieleza vipi Mzee Makatta alimsaidia dhidi ya makachero wa Wakoloni waliokuwa wakimwinda usiku na mchana:

Kushoto:Makatta Mwinyi Mtwana kulia Rashid Makoko akifuatiwa na mwanae
Mamboleo Makoko na hao waliovaa tai kulia ni Sadik Patwa na kushoto Julius
Nyerere 1950s
(Picha hii na nyingine za nyakati wa kupigania uhuru wa Tanganyika ni kwa
hisani ya familia ya Patwa na zimetundikwa Patwa Restaurant, Tanga)

''I got in touch with Makatta Mwinyi Mtwana one of very influential and rich African businessmen in Tanga who had been a friend of my father. Makatta had established his business in Tanga. He was an importer of khanga and was competing with Indians. Every weekend I used to travel to Tanga to visit him.  At that time Tanga was the seat of the settler community. Almost all the sisal estates in Tanganyika were in Tanga Province. During weekends the settlers, almost all of them members of the Sisal Growers Association of Tanganyika, would drive to town from their estates and meet at Planters Hotel, which was exclusive to Europeans to discuss politics of the day. When nationalist politics began they met at the same hotel to plot against TANU. 

Mwalimu Kihere

I got in touch with Mwalimu Kihere to see if we could open a branch in Tanga but unfortunately there was not much I could do there because at that time Tanga was involved in its own internal social conflicts, which prevented the formation of a political party. 

One day I received a message from Makatta that on Friday at 5 p.m. the Tanga police would come to my house to search me for TANU documents. I put whatever TANU papers I had in a box and went to hide them at a place where no one would think of searching. I hid the papers at Akena’s house.  When a white police officer and three black policemen raided my house that day they found nothing.  They tore my mattresses and pillows, they combed the room but they could not find any paper to incriminate me.

How was Makatta informed of the raid against my house? TANU had sympathisers in many places in the colonial administration. One of them tipped him off.

I stayed at Korogwe for eight months until when I became sick with a serious kidney ailment as a result of polluted water.  I was referred to Dar es Salaam Sewa Haji Hospital for treatment. I needed an operation but there was no qualified kidney expert in Tanganyika to perform the operation. I was put on medication to relieve the pain. The operation came to be performed in Dar es Salaam 1962 after independence by one Dr. Lean from Britain. 

I did not return to Korogwe after getting well As I was transferred to Moshi Labour Office. I immediately began to organise for TANU. By then TANU had sent Nyerere to the United Nations in New York to plead for Tanganyika’s independence.

Chief Thomas Marealle

In Moshi I renewed my contact with my friend Chief Thomas Marealle. I had known Marealle since late 1940s when I joined the Labour Department. I was voted in as TAGSA secretary Marealle as president in 1951. I stayed with Marealle at his house in Kiboroloni and then after I had settled he made his town house available to me.  I organised a meeting at Machame Girls School in which Nyerere came to give a speech accompanied by an American woman Meida Springer and Ali Mwinyi Tambwe. Meida Springer was from the labour movement in the USA.''  

''Under the Shadow of British Colonialism: The Life of Ally Kleist Sykes,'' (Unpublished)