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Godfrey Mwakikagile (born 4 October 1949 in
Kigoma
Kigoma is a city and lake port in Kigoma-Ujiji District in Tanzania, on the northeastern shores of Lake Tanganyika and close to the border with Burundi and The Democratic Republic of the Congo. It serves as the capital for the surrounding Kigoma R ...
) is a prominent
Tanzanian
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...
scholar and author specialising in
African studies
African studies is the study of Africa, especially the continent's cultures and societies (as opposed to its geology, geography, zoology, etc.). The field includes the study of Africa's history (pre-colonial, colonial, post-colonial), demography ...
. He was also a news reporter for ''The Standard'' (later renamed the ''
Daily News'') — the oldest and largest English newspaper in Tanzania and one of the three largest in
East Africa
East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa:
Due to the historical ...
.
Mwakikagile came to prominence after he wrote ''Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era'' — a major biographical book on the life of former Tanzanian President
Julius Nyerere
Julius Kambarage Nyerere (; 13 April 1922 – 14 October 1999) was a Tanzanian anti-colonial activist, politician, and political theorist. He governed Tanganyika as prime minister from 1961 to 1962 and then as president from 1962 to 1964, aft ...
set in the backdrop of Africa's early post-colonial years and the liberation wars in the countries of southern Africa in which Nyerere played a major role.
Growing up in the 1950s, Mwakikagile experienced a form of
apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
and
racial segregation
Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...
in
Tanganyika
Tanganyika may refer to:
Places
* Tanganyika Territory (1916–1961), a former British territory which preceded the sovereign state
* Tanganyika (1961–1964), a sovereign state, comprising the mainland part of present-day Tanzania
* Tanzania Main ...
, what is now mainland Tanzania, and wrote extensively about it in some of his works, as he did about the political climate of Tanganyika during the colonial era.
[Kyoso, David E., ''Godfrey Mwakikagile: Biography of an Africanist'', Intercontinental Books (2017), pp. 7 -12, 116]
/ref>
Early life and family
Mwakikagile was born on 4 October 1949 into a middle class
The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Commo ...
Tanganyikan family in the town of Kigoma
Kigoma is a city and lake port in Kigoma-Ujiji District in Tanzania, on the northeastern shores of Lake Tanganyika and close to the border with Burundi and The Democratic Republic of the Congo. It serves as the capital for the surrounding Kigoma R ...
, Western Province of Tanganyika
Tanganyika may refer to:
Places
* Tanganyika Territory (1916–1961), a former British territory which preceded the sovereign state
* Tanganyika (1961–1964), a sovereign state, comprising the mainland part of present-day Tanzania
* Tanzania Main ...
– what is now mainland Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...
. His father Elijah Mwakikagile, who once worked at the internationally renowned Amani Research Institute in the late forties, was a medical assistant during the British colonial era and was one of the very few in the entire country of 10 million people. Medical assistants underwent an intensive three-year training after finishing secondary school and worked as a substitute for doctors. They were even called ''madaktari'' (doctors) in Swahili and formed the backbone of the medical system in Tanganyika as was the case in other British colonies. There were fewer than 10 doctors in colonial Tanganyika in the forties and fifties and only 12 at independence on 9 December 1961. And there were fewer than 300 medical assistants during those years serving millions of people in a vast country of more than 365,000 square miles. Godfrey's mother Syabumi Mwakikagile (née Mwambapa), a housewife, was a pupil of Tanganyika's prominent British feminist educator and later member of parliament Mary Hancock. She remembered Ms. Hancock, a friend of Nyerere and his family since the early 1950s, as a very strict disciplinarian when she was taught by her at Kyimbila Girls' School in Rungwe District in the early 1940s, one of the very few schools for girls in colonial Tanganyika. Ms. Hancock was the founder of the school, also of Loleza Girls' School which had its origin in Kyimbila Girls' School.
The eldest of his siblings, Mwakikagile was named Godfrey by his aunt Isabella, one of his father's younger sisters, and was baptised at an early age.
His father played a critical role in his early life and education. He was a very strict disciplinarian and taught him at home when he was attending primary school from Standard One to Standard Four and during the first two years of middle school, Standard Five and Standard Six, before he left home to go to boarding school, three miles away, when he was 13 years old. He also taught him when he was out of school and went home during holidays in his last two years of middle school in Standard Seven and Standard Eight. His mother, who taught Sunday school and was a volunteer adult education teacher for some time teaching adults how to read and write, also taught him at home when he was in primary school.
Family connections
Godfrey Mwakikagile grew up in a politically conscious family. His parents, especially his father, were friends with some of the leading figures in the struggle for independence, and some renowned African nationalists and Pan-Africanists
Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all Indigenous and diaspora peoples of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement ext ...
of that era. They included Austin Shaba, Elijah Mwakikagile's co-worker as a medical assistant and earlier his classmate at the Medical Training Centre (MTC) at Tanganyika's largest hospital in the capital Dar es Salaam
Dar es Salaam (; from ar, دَار السَّلَام, Dâr es-Selâm, lit=Abode of Peace) or commonly known as Dar, is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over s ...
later transformed into the country's first medical school who also served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Mtwara
Mtwara (Portuguese: ''Montewara'') is the capital city of Mtwara Region in southeastern Tanzania. In the 1940s, it was planned and constructed as the export facility for the disastrous Tanganyika groundnut scheme, but was somewhat neglected when t ...
and cabinet member in the first independence cabinet— serving as Minister of Local Government under Julius Nyerere
Julius Kambarage Nyerere (; 13 April 1922 – 14 October 1999) was a Tanzanian anti-colonial activist, politician, and political theorist. He governed Tanganyika as prime minister from 1961 to 1962 and then as president from 1962 to 1964, aft ...
, and later as Minister of Health and Housing, and as Deputy Speaker of Parliament
The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England.
Usage
The title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hungerf ...
;
John Mwakangale John Mwakangale was one of the main leaders in the struggle for independence in Tanganyika (now part of Tanzania) during British colonial rule. When the country gained independence, Mwakangale joined the first cabinet of Julius Nyerere, the first Pr ...
, a classmate of Elijah Mwakikagile from Standard One at Tukuyu
Tukuyu, known as Neu Langenburg during the German colonial rule, is a small hillside town that lies about south of the city of Mbeya, at an elevation of around in the highland Rungwe District of southern Tanzania, East Africa.
Tukuyu town has ...
Primary School in Rungwe
Rungwe is a District in Mbeya Region, Tanzania. It is bordered to the north by Mbeya Rural District, to the east by Iringa Region, to the southeast by Kyela District, to the southwest by Ileje District and to the west by Mbeya District.
Acco ...
District to Malangali Secondary School Malangali Secondary School was one of the leading academic institutions in colonial Tanganyika. It retained its reputation for academic excellence after Tanganyika won independence from Britain in December 1961.
It produced a large number of people ...
in Iringa District in the Southern Highlands Province. They came from the same area, five miles apart, in Rungwe District and knew each other since childhood. Mwakangale became one of the prominent leaders of the Tanganyika African National Union
The Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) was the principal political party in the struggle for sovereignty in the East African state of Tanganyika (now Tanzania). The party was formed from the Tanganyika African Association by Julius Nyerere ...
(TANU) and of the Pan-African Freedom Movement for East and Central Africa
The Pan-African Freedom Movement of East and Central Africa (PAFMECA), later renamed the ''Pan-African Freedom Movement of East, Central and Southern Africa'' (PAFMECSA) was a political and Pan-Africanist organisation that was formed to campaign fo ...
(PAFMECA) under the leadership of Pan-Africanist and African nationalist Julius Nyerere.
John Mwakangale was also the first leader Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...
met in newly independent Tanganyika in January 1962 - just one month after the country emerged from colonial rule - when Mandela secretly left South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
on 11 January to seek assistance from other African countries in the struggle against apartheid and wrote about him in his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom
''Long Walk to Freedom'' is an autobiography credited to South African President Nelson Mandela. It was ghostwritten by Richard Stengel and first published in 1994 by Little Brown & Co. The book profiles his early life, coming of age, education ...
. Tanganyika was the first independent African country Mandela visited and the first in the region to win independence. He went to other African countries using a travel document given to him by the government of Tanganyika. The document stated: "This is Nelson Mandela, a citizen of the Republic of South Africa. He has permission to leave Tanganyika and return here." Tanganyika was chosen by other African leaders in May 1963 to be the headquarters of all the African liberation movements under the leadership of President Julius Nyerere when they met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to form the Organisation of African Unity
The Organisation of African Unity (OAU; french: Organisation de l'unité africaine, OUA) was an intergovernmental organization established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with 32 signatory governments. One of the main heads for OAU's ...
(OAU
The Organisation of African Unity (OAU; french: Organisation de l'unité africaine, OUA) was an intergovernmental organization established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with 32 signatory governments. One of the main heads for OAU's ...
).
John Mwakangale was also a Member of Parliament (MP) and served in the cabinet as Minister of Labour under Nyerere in the early part of independence. Professor John Iliffe in his book ''A Modern History of Tanganyika'' described John Mwakangale as a "vehement nationalist." He did not even want American Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John F. ...
in Tanganyika and accused them of causing trouble. He was quoted in a news report, "M.P. Attacks American Peace Corps," which was the main story on the front page of the Tanganyika ''Standard'', 12 June 1964, stating: "These people are not here for peace, they are here for trouble. We do not want any more Peace Corps."
American Peace Corps were some of Godfrey Mwakikagile's teachers in middle school and secondary school. One of them was Leonard Levitt, his teacher at Mpuguso Middle School in Rungwe District in 1964 who became a prominent journalist and renowned author. He wrote, among other works, ''An African Season'', the first book ever written by a member of the Peace Corps, and ''Conviction: Solving the Moxley Murder'', about a homicide which received extensive media coverage because it involved a member of the Kennedy family.
Other classmates of Elijah Mwakikagile were Wilbard B.K. Mwanjisi from Standard One at Tukuyu Primary School to Malangali Secondary School who became a doctor, prominent member of TANU and, before leaving government service, was president of the Tanganyika Government Servants Association, a national organisation for African government employees during colonial rule; Jeremiah Kasambala Jeremiah Kasambala was one of the first ministers in the cabinet of Julius Nyerere after Tanganyika (now part of Tanzania) won independence from Britain on 9 December 1961. He rose to prominence when he was the head of the Rungwe African Cooperative ...
, Elijah Mwakikagile's classmate at Malangali Secondary School who became head of the Rungwe
Rungwe is a District in Mbeya Region, Tanzania. It is bordered to the north by Mbeya Rural District, to the east by Iringa Region, to the southeast by Kyela District, to the southwest by Ileje District and to the west by Mbeya District.
Acco ...
African Cooperative Union responsible for mobilising support from farmers to join the struggle for independence. Kasambala went on to become a cabinet member in the early years of independence—taking over the portfolio for Commerce and Cooperatives and later served as Minister of Industries, Minerals and Energy; and Brown Ngwilulupi, appointed by President Nyerere as Secretary General of the Cooperative Union of Tanganyika (CUT), the largest farmers' union in the country.
Ngwilulupi later left the ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi, and became co-founder and vice chairman of Tanzania's largest opposition party Chadema under Edwin Mtei who was the first Governor of the Bank of Tanzania
The Bank of Tanzania ( sw, Benki Kuu ya Tanzania) is the central bank of the United Republic of Tanzania. It is responsible for issuing the national currency, the Tanzanian shilling.
The bank was established under the Bank of Tanzania Act 1965. ...
, who also at different times served as Secretary General of the East African Community
The East African Community (EAC) is an intergovernmental organisation composed of seven countries in the Great Lakes region of East Africa: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the United Republic of Tanzania, the Republics of Kenya, Burundi, ...
(EAC), Minister of Finance under President Nyerere, and as IMF Executive Director for Anglophone
Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the ''Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest language ...
Africa, elected to that position by the governors of the World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...
and the IMF after being recommended for the post by President Nyerere following Mtei's resignation from the cabinet over economic policy differences with Nyerere. Ngwilulupi was also a relative-in-law of the Vice President of Tanzania during that time, John Malecela
John Samuel Malecela (born 19 April 1934 in Bugiri Dodoma) was Prime Minister of Tanzania from November 1990 to December 1994. He served as the vice-chairman of the CCM from 1995 to 2007, and a member of the CCM Central Committee to date.
Pri ...
, who served concurrently as Prime Minister and was once Minister of External Affairs and vice chairman of the ruling party when he was vice president. Ngwilulupi's daughter, later divorced, was married to the vice president's son.
Years earlier, John Malecela was District Commissioner (D.C.) of Rungwe District in the early part of independence, appointed by President Nyerere, and knew Brown Ngwilulupi and Elijah Mwakikagile in the early 1960s when they worked in the town of Tukuyu
Tukuyu, known as Neu Langenburg during the German colonial rule, is a small hillside town that lies about south of the city of Mbeya, at an elevation of around in the highland Rungwe District of southern Tanzania, East Africa.
Tukuyu town has ...
, the district capital during British colonial rule and after independence. The town was founded by the German colonial rulers who named it Neu Langenburg and served as the capital of Rungwe District when they ruled the country then known as Deutsch-Ostafrika (German East Africa, 1891 – 1919) and renamed Tanganyika in 1920 by the British when they took over after the end of World War I.
Ngwilulupi was a senior officer at the main office of the Rungwe African Cooperative Union, headed by Jeremiah Kasambala, and Mwakikagile was a member of the Rungwe District Council where he served as a councillor for many years.
Brown Ngwilulupi and Elijah Mwakikagile came from the same village four miles south of the town of Tukuyu in Rungwe District ringed by misty blue mountains north of Lake Nyasa
Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, is an African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania.
It is the fifth largest fre ...
in the Great Rift Valley
The Great Rift Valley is a series of contiguous geographic trenches, approximately in total length, that runs from Lebanon in Asia to Mozambique in Southeast Africa. While the name continues in some usages, it is rarely used in geology as it i ...
in the Southern Highlands Province and were classmates from Standard One at Tukuyu Primary School to Malangali Secondary School, one of the top schools in colonial Tanganyika where Elijah was head prefect. One of their teachers at Malangali Secondary School was Erasto Andrew Mbwana Mang'enya who later became Deputy Speaker of Parliament in the year before independence, a cabinet member after independence and Tanganyika's permanent representative to the United Nations.
Ngwilulupi and Mwakikagile later became relatives-in-law. Their respective wives, Lugano Mwankemwa and Syabumi Mwambapa who came from the same area their husbands came from, were first cousins to each other and were born and brought up together in the same household of Lugano's father who was Syabumi's maternal uncle and younger brother of her mother, Asegelile Mwankemwa, a pastor of Kyimbila Moravian Church in their home area. He was the first African pastor of the church, a position that had previously been held by German missionaries who founded the church. His sister, pregnant with her last child Syabumi, went to live with him after her husband died. Brown Ngwilulupi was an elder brother of Ephraim Weidi Ngwilulupi Mwasakafyuka—a senior diplomat at the Tanzania Mission to the United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
and at the Tanzanian embassy in Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...
, Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
, and later Tanzania's ambassador to France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
and Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
who also left the ruling party and joined one of the main opposition parties, NCCR-Mageuzi, where he became head of its foreign affairs division. He also once served as head of the Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
and Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
Division at the Tanzanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He ran for Parliament in 1995 when NCCR-Mageuzi was the strongest opposition party in Tanzania and had a formidable presidential candidate with populist appeal who once served as Deputy Prime Minister and whose vice presidential candidate - later disqualified through legal manipulations by the government-controlled National Electoral Commission - was Abdulrahman Mohamed Babu
Abdulrahman Mohamed Babu (22 September 1924 – 5 August 1996) was a Zanzibar-born Marxist and pan-Africanist nationalist who played an important role in the 1964 Zanzibar Revolution and served as a minister under Julius Nyerere after the island ...
, a Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
intellectual and renowned revolutionary thinker who was Zanzibar's Minister of External Affairs before Zanzibar
Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islands ...
united with Tanganyika to form Tanzania and who was later appointed by President Nyerere as Minister of Economic Planning in the government of the United Republic of Tanzania. It was the first multi-party election in 30 years since 1965 when Tanzania became a one-party state and ushered in a new era of multi-party politics.
The American ambassador to Tanzania, James W. Spain
James William Spain (July 22, 1926 – January 2, 2008) was in the US Foreign Service with postings in Karachi, Islamabad, Istanbul, Ankara, Dar Es Salaam, and Colombo and four ambassadorships in Tanzania, Turkey, the United Nations (as de ...
, described Weidi Mwasakafyuka in the following terms, according to a "Public Library of US Diplomacy" report, 5 May 1976:
"E.W. N. Mwasakafyuka, Director of Africa and Middle East Division of Foreign Ministry (also Head of the OAU
The Organisation of African Unity (OAU; french: Organisation de l'unité africaine, OUA) was an intergovernmental organization established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with 32 signatory governments. One of the main heads for OAU's ...
Affairs Section at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), educated at the University of California-Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
(and Carleton University
Carleton University is an English-language public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to serve returning World ...
in Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
, Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
)...is a career Foreign Service Officer who has served in Addis Ababa and at the U.N. He drafts many Tanzanian policy papers on African matters, and is articulate, outspoken, approachable, and confidential, prepared to listen to US points of view with an open mind. He is friendly with Americans, has a strong but dry sense of humor, and looks like a black Disraeli....FonOff (Foreign Office) number one African expert...a forthright source when he is unleashed. A regular embassy contact."
Godfrey Mwakikagile is also a first cousin of Brigadier-General Owen Rhodfrey Mwambapa, a graduate of Sandhurst, a royal military academy in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
, and head of the Tanzania Military Academy
The Tanzania Military Academy (TMA) is a military training academy located in Monduli in northern Tanzania. It is regarded as a prestigious training institution and has trained officers from a number of countries across the region.
History
The ...
, an army officers' training school at Monduli in Arusha Region
Arusha City is a Tanzanian city and the regional capital of the Arusha Region, with a population of 416,442 plus 323,198 in the surrounding Arusha District Council (2012 census).
Located below Mount Meru (Tanzania), Mount Meru on the eastern e ...
. Owen's father, Johann Chonde Mwambapa simply known as Chonde Mwambapa, a school teacher, was an elder brother of Godfrey's mother, the last-born in her family who was brought up by her elder brother after their parents died. She lived with him until she got married. She was twelve - almost thirteen -years younger than her brother.
The younger brother of Chonde Mwambapa, Benjamin Mwambapa, was head of the Criminal Investigation Department
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is the branch of a police force to which most plainclothes detectives belong in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth nations. A force's CID is distinct from its Special Branch (though officers of b ...
(CID) for Rungwe District at the headquarters of the police station in the town of Tukuyu since independence in the early sixties. He worked in Tukuyu with the district's police chief Robert Kaswende who later became the Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) for the whole country appointed by President Nyerere. Kaswende later served as head of the National Service - it is a part of the Ministry of Defence and National Service
The Ministry of Defence and National Service (MODANS) is the government ministry of Tanzania that is responsible for defense and national service.
References
External links
*
D
Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Rep ...
- appointed by the president.
Robert Kaswende also knew Godfrey's parents long before he went to Tukuyu to serve as head of the police department for Rungwe District where he ended up working with Elijah Mwakikagile's brother-in-law Benjamin Mwambapa.
Benjamin Mwambapa was a police officer since the early 1950s and worked for the head of the Special Branch
Special Branch is a label customarily used to identify units responsible for matters of national security and Intelligence (information gathering), intelligence in Policing in the United Kingdom, British, Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth, ...
, an intelligence and security service unit during British colonial rule, for Lake Province surrounding and extending beyond Lake Victoria
Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. With a surface area of approximately , Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake by area, the world's largest tropical lake, and the world's second-largest fresh water lake by surface area after ...
in the provincial capital Mwanza
Mwanza City, also known as Rock City to the residents, is a port city and capital of Mwanza Region on the southern shore of Lake Victoria in north-western Tanzania. With an urban population of 1,182,000 in 2021, it is Tanzania's second largest cit ...
.
When he was in the police department in Mwanza, Benjamin Mwambapa was a colleague of Peter D.M. Bwimbo who, after independence, became deputy director of the Tanzania Intelligence and Security Service (TISS). Bwimbo later served as President Nyerere's chief bodyguard and head of the president's protection and security unit.
In his book ''Mlinzi Mkuu wa Mwalimu Nyerere'' (Swahili edition) which means Chief Bodyguard of Mwalimu Nyerere published in 2015, Peter Bwimbo wrote about Benjamin Mwambapa as one of his colleagues in the police department in Mwanza since 1953. It was a decade that marked the beginning of the end of colonial rule in Tanganyika. Coincidentally, Peter Bwimbo's younger brother, Patrick Bwimbo, was a classmate of Godfrey Mwakikagile at Tambaza High School in Dar es Salaam.
Benjamin Mwambapa was seven years older than his youngest sister, Godfrey's mother.
Godfrey's father Elijah was a first cousin of one of Tanzania's first commercial airline pilots, Oscar Mwamwaja, who was shot but survived when he was a co-pilot of an Air Tanzania
Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) ( sw, Kampuni ya Ndege ya Tanzania) is the flag carrier airline of Tanzania based in Dar es Salaam with its hub at Julius Nyerere International Airport.
It was established as Air Tanzania Corporation (ATC ...
plane, a Boeing 737
The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington.
Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two un ...
, that was hijacked on 26 February 1982 and forced to fly from Tanzania to Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
. Elijah's mother was an elder sister of Oscar's father.
The hijacking incident was widely covered by the Tanzanian press and other media outlets including BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
,
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
and American television networks
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
,
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
,
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
, and
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
. It was one of the major stories during that time because of threats by the hijackers to blow up the plane and kill all the hostages when they were held captive for a number of days at an airport near
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and because of the hijackers' demands which included the resignation of President Nyerere. Headlines in ''The New York Times'' included “Hijacked Jetliner Arrives in Britain,” 28 February 1982, and “4 Tanzanian Hijackers Surrender; 90 Hostages Are Freed in Britain,” 1 March 1982.
Oscar Mwamwaja was also featured in an article by Leonard Levitt, “Tanzania: A Dream Deferred,” in
The New York Times Magazine
''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine Supplement (publishing), supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted man ...
, November 1982, which he wrote after he revisited Tanzania and Mpuguso Middle School where he taught almost 20 years earlier. A schoolmate of Mwakikagile, Oscar was also one of Levitt's students at Mpuguso, a school whose alumni include some of the prominent figures in Tanzania, among them Brigadier-General Owen Rhodfrey Mwambapa; Harold Nsekela, a law lecturer at the
University of Dar es Salaam
The University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) is a public university in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It was established in 1961 as an affiliate college of the University of London. The university became an affiliate of the University of East Africa (UEA) in 1 ...
, later judge at the
High Court of Tanzania
In 1964 Tanganyika and Zanzibar formed the United Republic of Tanzania. After the Treaty of the Union, the two countries continued to remain with their own legal systems including court structures. In the 1977 Constitution of the United Republic ...
and at the Court of Appeal of Tanzania, also judge and president of the
East African Court of Justice
, image =
, imagesize =
, caption =
, motto =
, established = 30 November 2001
, country = 6 member states of the East African Community
, location = Arusha, Tanzania
, coordinates ...
with jurisdiction over six East African countries constituting the
East African Community
The East African Community (EAC) is an intergovernmental organisation composed of seven countries in the Great Lakes region of East Africa: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the United Republic of Tanzania, the Republics of Kenya, Burundi, ...
(EAC); James Mwakisyala, the Tanzania editor and bureau chief of ''The EastAfrican'', a major weekly newspaper covering the countries of the
African Great Lakes region
The African Great Lakes ( sw, Maziwa Makuu; rw, Ibiyaga bigari) are a series of lakes constituting the part of the Rift Valley lakes in and around the East African Rift. They include Lake Victoria, the second-largest fresh water lake in the wo ...
who was a nephew of Brown and Weidi Ngwilulupi Mwasakafyuka and schoolmate of Mwakikagile; Daimon Mwakyembe, Director of the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) and schoolmate of Mwakikagile and Mwakisyala at Mpuguso and an elder brother of
Harrison Mwakyembe
Early life and education
Dr Harrison George Mwakyembe was born on 10 December 1955 in Kyela in the Southern Highlands Province in colonial Tanganyika (territory), Tanganyika. The Southern Highlands Province was divided into Mbeya Region and Irin ...
, a cabinet member under two presidents; and
David Mwakyusa, also a cabinet member and Member of Parliament (MP) and the last personal doctor of President Nyerere who was with him when the Tanzanian leader died in a London hospital in October 1999.
Mpuguso Middle School was one of the leading schools in the Southern Highlands Province during and after British colonial rule. Tanzania's Director of the
Criminal Investigation Department
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is the branch of a police force to which most plainclothes detectives belong in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth nations. A force's CID is distinct from its Special Branch (though officers of b ...
(CID), Geoffrey Sawaya, who played a critical role in the investigation, arrest, prosecution and conviction of the people who attempted to overthrow the government in a plot masterminded by the former Minister of Defence and External Affairs,
Oscar Kambona
Oscar Salathiel Kambona (1925-1997) was the first Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tanganyika. He was arguably the second-most influential and most popular leader in the country after President Julius Nyerere.
Kambona was born on 13 August 15 on ...
, was once headmaster of Mpuguso Middle School before he was later appointed by President Nyerere to be CID director. The treason trial took place in the early seventies. It was the longest treason trial in the country's history and one of only two. The other one was in the early eighties.
Education and early employment
Godfrey Mwakikagile attended Kyimbila Primary School - founded by British feminist educator Mary Hancock and transformed into a co-educational institution - near the town of Tukuyu, and Mpuguso Middle School in Rungwe District,
Mbeya Region
Mbeya Region (''Mkoa wa Mbeya'' in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The region covers an area of . The region is comparable in size to the combined land area of the nation state of Guinea Bissau. Mbeya Region is bordere ...
, in the Southern Highlands. The headmaster of Mpuguso Middle School, Moses Mwakibete, was his math teacher in 1961 who later became a judge at the High Court of Tanzania appointed by President Nyerere. Mwakikagile also attended
Songea
Songea is the capital of Ruvuma Region in southwestern Tanzania. It is located along the A19 road. The city has a population of approximately 203,309, and it is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Songea. Between 1905 and 1907, the cit ...
Secondary School in
Ruvuma Region
Ruvuma Region (''Mkoa wa Ruvuma'' in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The regional capital is the municipality of Songea. According to the 2012 national census, the region had a population of 1,376,891, which was lower th ...
which was once a part of the Southern Province. His current affairs teacher at Songea Secondary School, Julius Mwasanyagi, was one of the prominent early members and leaders of TANU who played a major role in the struggle for independence and worked closely with Nyerere. And his headmaster at Songea Secondary School, Paul Mhaiki, was later appointed by President Nyerere as Director of Adult Education at the Ministry of National Education and after that worked for the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
(UN) as Director of
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
's Division of Literacy, Adult Education, and Rural Development. After finishing his studies at Songea Secondary School in Form IV (Standard 12), Mwakikagile went to Tambaza High School in Dar es Salaam, formerly H.H. The Aga Khan High School mostly for Asian students (Indian and Pakistani), where he completed Form VI (Standard 14). One of his classmates at Tambaza High School was
Mohamed Chande Othman
Mohamed Chande Othman (born 1 January 1952) is a Tanzanian lawyer and a former Chief Justice of Tanzania.
Internationally he is highly respected for his deep understanding of political, legal and other dimensions relating to International Human ...
, simply known as Chande, who became Chief Justice of Tanzania appointed to the nation's highest court by President
Jakaya Kikwete
Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete (born 7 October 1950) is a Tanzanian politician who was the fourth president of Tanzania, in office from 2005 to 2015. Prior to his election as president, he was the Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1995 to 2005 under his ...
after serving as a high court judge and as a UN prosecutor for international criminal tribunals.
One of Tanzania's first commercial airline pilots, George Mazula, was also a classmate of Mwakikagile and Chande at Tambaza High School.
While still in high school at Tambaza, Mwakikagile joined the editorial staff of ''The Standard'' (later renamed the
Daily News) in 1969 as a reporter. He was hired by the news editor, David Martin, a renowned British journalist who later became Africa correspondent of a
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
newspaper,
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...
, the world's oldest Sunday paper, covered the Angolan civil war for
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
and for