Saturday, April 6, 2013
















The life and times of Sir George Kahama


It’s very rare for politicians to admit their blunders. But it has been different for the long serving public servant Sir George Kahama. Sir Kahama has admitted his political blunders recently through a book, titled ‘Sir George A thematic history of Tanzania through fifty years of public service’, on his carrier which has been authored by his son, Joseph.

Things which Sir George Kahama said he could not accomplish include failure to run Zanzibar into a hub of economic activities in the East African region. The lagging upgrading to Dodoma as capital so that the government could shift its seat from Dar es Salaam is another target that Sir Kahama lefty office without accomplishing. The third issue is on the formation of a national cooperative bank.

In an interview with this paper recently, Joseph Kulwa Kahama, who authored the book, said he was moved to publish the book as a way of appreciating his father’s contribution to the nation which dates back since before independence. According to available records, Sir Kahama started to serve the country in 1957.

“I am sure that the book will be interesting reading to many Tanzanians with quest to know what former leaders did. There are a lot of things which people can learn from this book with regards to ways in which he (Sir Kahama) deftly and faithfully served his country,” the author noted.

Mr Joseph said another reason which pushed him to author the book is his quest to keeping the history of the nation. He believes that the nation’s history is owned by its people and what happens within a nation becomes history but if it is not documented there is danger that it can lost with deaths of those who accomplished what shaped the nation.

“The service and the decisions made by my father in the various positions he occupied while serving our Tanzanian government for over 50 years is an essential part of our nation’s history,” Mr Joseph maintained.

Elaborating on the content of the book, the author said the book documents the economic relationship between Tanzania and that of friendly and more economically developed countries like China.

“The book focuses on improved strategies in Tanzania’s mission for economic growth by interacting closer with nations such as China. By understanding their economic development strategies we can properly and careful utilize our natural resources and lead the country becoming middle income country in the next five to ten years,” the author said.

But Sir Kahama himself says such a plan looks like a dream but in a way he believes that dreams can be turned into reality. For one thing he hopes his three failed dreams will be executed one day. He compared his dreams with that of Frederick Douglas and Martin Luther King on their predictions of black American people will sit on the same table with children of the while people in America.

“I wanted Zanzibar to be like Hong Kong as a channel through which to tap foreign investments and spark of an era of economic revolution…. my deep understanding of both China and Zanzibar inspired that dream in me which I called the Zanzibar dream,” he said.

On his other two dreams, Sir Kahama said during his tenure he was determined to form a cooperative bank which would work together with all SACCOS organisations in the country as shareholders.

“It’s my hope and wish that Tanzania’s cooperative organisations still see the importance and the necessity to form such a bank which would provide an excellent banking framework for their financial operations,” Sir Kahama said.

Mr Joseph started writing the book since 2006 believing that it will be completed and launched before this eyar. He little know about the by global economic recession which affected his work. The main financier of the project is the family foundation - ‘Kahama Foundation’, which was not spared by the economic crisis.

“Kahama Foundation decided to apply its own resources without seeking financial aid to write this… it has been our belief that we should try to avoid sponsorship basing on an English proverb that ‘he who pays the piper, calls the tune,” Joseph said.

The author could not forget to acknowledge some key players in his work that includes Kgalema Motlanthe the South Africa vice president, Prof Ted Maliyamkono, ambassador Juma Mwapachu and advocate Nyaga Mawalla.

He said Mr Motlanthe read and reviewed the entire manuscript of the book and graced it by writing a recommendation for the book. Prof Maliyamkono was the key researcher and consultant behind the manuscript.

In an interview with this paper a co-writer, Advocate Nyaga Mawalla, said the book is well researched that would leave a reader satisfied with the detailed report. Mr Mawalla said he has bought 200 copies of the books which will be distributed to Universities and some schools which are under Mawalla Trust Sponsorship.

Mr Mawalla said the book has been written in English but they are in final processes to translate it into Kiswahili. The Kiswahili version of the will hit the markets later this month. Translation has been tasked to Fr Stefano Kaombe of Visiga Seminary.

In his remarks during the launch President Jakaya Kikwete hailed what Kahama Foundation has done. He said that was noble undertaking as it is time now for other people to write books on how former leaders served the country.

This is fourth book on lives of former leaders that President Kikwete has launched since he became president four years ago. Other books include that which talks about Mzee Rashid Mfaume Kawawa, Sir Andy Chande, and the Karimjee’s family.

THE FIRST BLACK AFRICAN TANZANIAN DOCTOR
DR JOSEPH RUTAKOREZIBWA MUTAHANGARWA
 SHORT HISTORY:
He was born in a Chiefly Family in Kiziba, Kagera region in Tanzania. He was the first Tanganyikan to complete the medical course at Makerere.
His Dad was Chief (Omukama) Karutasigwa Mutahangarwa.
Dr Joseph gave his Chief inheritance to his Brother Chief Lutinwa and decided to go to school instead. His Family members were Mboneko, Mutafungwa, Kaiborola, Kituntunu, Kaijanangoma, Kafamba, Mutabora and many others.
He was not the first born.
He enjoyed mostly celebrating X-mass with his Family, singing x-mass carols etc.
He liked school a lot and he was A student throughout, he liked science subjects. He went to Tabora Boys Secondary school, then to Kisubi in Uganda, through Makerere he completed at Mulango Hospital in 1940 and got married the same year in Kampala to Josephine Kirege(Original from Uganda).
He arrived in Dar es Salaam in the same year to serve his internship at Sewa Haji Hospital (now Muhimbili National Hospital). His work there was highly regarded. The rudiments of hospital care in Tanzania date back to 1888 when Germans created a medical service for German East Africa (as Tanganyika, mainland Tanzania, was then known). Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH), the pinnacle of health care in postcolonial Tanzania, evolved from Sewa Haji Hospital, which opened in 1893 as a donation by a local Indian merchant. The British renamed it Princess Margaret Hospital in 1956, then at independence from Britain, President Nyerere's Government renamed it Muhimbili Hospital. The first Tanganyikan to complete Makerere's AMO program, Joseph Mutahangarwa, began his internship at Sewa Haji Hospital where in 1942 he performed the hospital's first major all-African surgery. Today the successor institution, MNH, serves as the teaching hospital for MUHAS.
In April 1942,  Dr J. Mutahangarwa was posted in Shanwa, a remote station in Shinyanga with no railway connection nor telegraph service. This appointment made him the first African Medical Officer to be in charge of a station in the Tanganyika territory. He managed the hospital with an entirely African Staff. He found however that he had inherited a crisis, an epidemic of cerebrospinal-meningitidis had brocken out during that year. The total number of CSM cases in the following year were in excess of 600 patients and 109 deaths. The CSM epidemic continued through-out his 3.5 year tenure however cases and deaths gradually decreased. A smallpox epidemic erupted in the aread during 1944-1945, and he oversaw the vaccination of 86,604 people in a district with very poor transportation, while at the same time running a 38-bed hospital and an outpatient clinic, and organizing clinical trails of traditional medicines for the treatment of tuberculosis.

Despite Mutahangarwa initial pride and optimism, his years at Shanwa were unhappy. He struggled to manage on his small salary (less than 400 Tshs a month), was pestered by bureaucrats, drown in paperwork and isolated from other professionals. In 1951 he quit government service and moved to private practice.

Among his contemporaries were the gifted Dr. Francis Mwaisela from Mbeya and Dr. Raymond K.
His daughter Dr Jenner Mutahangarwa became a Doctor, studied in Cuba and now living and married by an Ivorian in Ivory Coast, Abidjan.
He had seven children, Joseph, Janet, Patrick, Julie, Jenner, Angela and Regina.
Among them Regina who is the last born became a mid Wife, The oldest Captain Joseph was in Tanzania army but now deceased, Patrick was a business Man deceased as well, Julie is married and now a grand mother lives in Arusha, Janet is a former member of Parliament married and is now a grandmother lives in Dar, Regina married to a Kenyan Professor lives in Nairobi and Angela lives in Canada with her family married to an Ugandan.
He was proud of being an African and Tanzanian.
He was so kind, generous and loving Man, very sociable.
He listened to people’s problems and helped a lot of people by solving their problems.
He passed away in 1966 in Mbarara, Uganda where he had settled in his last days of his life.
He was Diebetic.
I am The Late Dr Joseph’s Grandson and my Dad is Patrick Mutahangarwa who passed away in 1996.
I studied in England in 1993 to 1996 and worked for Volkswagen Group of Company after my studies before I came back home in 1999. Now I live together with my beloved Grandmother Josephine Mutahangarwa, the wife of The Late Dr Joseph Mutahangarwa.
I work for TANDAN FARMS LTD as Sales and Marketing Manager. We deal in Farming, Live stocks and Meat processing at Jesus Town, Vikindu Village, Mkuranga District, Coast Region in Tanzania.
My Mum is called Mrs Eva Mutahangarwa(Original from Uganda) living in UK at the moment and i have three Sisters. The eldest is called Patricia, and other two young Sisters are Julie and Jacquiline Mutahangarwa.
I live in Dar, single parent with three kids, one boy and two girls.
Patricia lives in Kossovo, woking for UN, Julie is married to a Ugandan living in UK and Jacquiline has just completed her ‘A’ level exams this year, she also lives in Dar es salaam.