Dr ALISON REDMAYNE, a dedicated and meticulous anthropologist known chiefly for her ethnographic and historical research among the Hehe and neighbouring peoples of Tanzania, died on 20 February 2013, aged 76. During the 1960s she produced a small but important body of research which remain the standard works on the precolonial and colonial history of the Hehe. She also made tape-recordings of a large corpus of oral tradition and musical performances in the field which are now preserved and digitised in the British Library. Her careful description of Hehe resistance and eventual submission to German military force highlighted an episode of enduring significance to the history and historiography of Tanzania and colonial violence. Alison was adopted as a member of the Hehe royal family, and used her Hehe name (Mung’anzagala Gisakamutemi Msengidunda Semugongolwa) with considerable pride. The people of Iringa and Mufindi will remem­ber her for her deep knowledge of their past and present, and for her unending devotion to their welfare.
(Abridged from a longer obituary by Martin Walsh, written for the Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford)

Dr ANDREW DAVIS, who died on January 10 aged 84, was director of parasitic diseases for the World Health Organisation (WHO) and cham­pion of Praziquantel – a life-saving drug against the tropical disease schistosomiasis. Schistosomiasis (also known as bilharzia) is a tropical worm disease and although not usually fatal, it can severely affect internal organs and, in children, lead to stunted growth and brain dam­age. Davis’s work involved the clinical pharmacology of drugs, notably Praziquantel, which he helped distribute to those in need: some 200 million people. After graduating from Durham Medical School in 1951, he reached the rank of acting lieutenant-colonel during his National Service in the Army. Davis was appointed director of the WHO bilhar­ziasis chemotherapy centre at Tanga on the East African coast in what is now Tanzania in 1962. There he investigated various preparations of the metal antimony against schistosomiasis, work that gained him his doctorate. Thank you to David Kelly for this item, reported in the Telegraph.

IAN McKEEVER, who was leading 22 Irish charity climbers up Mount Kilimanjaro, was struck by lightning and killed on December 30. His fiancée, Anna O’Louglin, 34, whom he was due to marry in September, was injured in the storm, as were up to six other members of the expe­dition. In 2008 Mr McKeever helped godson Sean McSharry aged 10 to become the youngest person from Europe to scale the mountain. (Telegraph and Evening Standard)

MARIUS DEMETRRIUS GHIKAS, Greek adventurer and coffee farmer, died in Moshi on June 10. He was buried at Korfovoun, the farm he owned for many years near Oldonyo Sambu. He attended the then Greek School in Moshi before going to Oxford for his higher education. His extraordinary life was described in Shelby Tucker’s book, ‘The last Banana’ published in 2011 and reviewed at the time in TA (highly recommended – Editor.). The book describes him as follows: ‘With his fierce hazel eyes and Yul Brunner dome that he boasted was his best feature, he belonged to an elite minority at Oxford who came from ‘the colonies’ and dressed better than most undergraduates… their English, manifesting the peculiar veneration they felt in ‘the colonies’ for the ‘home country,’ was more precise grammatically , cleaner and more poised that that spoken by most of their British contemporaries’. He ran the family coffee estate and the family financed the construction of the Moshi Hotel, the largest privately-owned hotel in East Africa at the time. Ghikas became quite rich. But all this wealth evaporated when foreign- owned properties in Tanzania were nationalised in the sixties and early seventies. Ghikas lost everything and became what is described in Swahili as fukara hohehohe (destitute beggar). Almost all the other 150 Greeks in Moshi left the country as did the many other Greeks who were prominent in the very successful sisal industry at the time. In his final years he led a penurious, hand to mouth existence. (Thank you Shelby Tucker for letting us know about this – Editor).

CAMPBELL WHALLEY, who was born in 1937 in Peru, became a Game Warden when Tanzania was Tanganyika. At the age of 22 he had been the first man to follow on foot the epic trek by John Hanning Speke which established to the outside world that Lake Victoria was the source of the White Nile. He later pointed out to the young Jane Goodall the use by chimpanzees of tools, an observation which she developed to win eventually a reputation as the world’s greatest expert on the primates. After working in the deepest gold mine in South Africa, Whalley joined a team of geologists employed by the Canadian millionaire Jack Williamson, who was challenging the De Beers monopoly in diamond mining. He later established the Mwadui Mine which still produces diamonds today. He gained such a reputation as a wildlife expert that he later escorted many celebrated visitors around Tanganyika’s game reserves, including Ernest Hemingway, John Wayne, James Stewart and Elsa Martinelli. He came to know George and Joy Adamson when they came to the Serengeti, amidst much publicity, to release into the wild the three orphaned cubs of Elsa the famous lioness. On arrival Joy had started to shoot game just before the young lions were released. Whalley pointed out to her that this was no way to teach the young lion cubs to fend for themselves and confiscated her gun. He was rewarded by her reference to him in her best selling book ‘Living Free’ as ‘an obnoxious game warden’ – From the Daily Telegraph via the ASAUK Newsletter.

IAN BUIST, who died on 27 October 2012, spent most of his career working for the economic and social development of the Third World, with a particular emphasis on East Africa. Born in 1930, he joined the East African Department of the Colonial Office in 1952 and remained in that department for nine years, with a two-year gap in 1954-6 when he was seconded to pre-independent Kenya. There he served as deputy secretary to the first multi-racial Cabinet, before being posted to Kitui as a district officer, where he acquired a life-long love of Africa. In 1961 he transferred to the newly-formed Department of Technical Cooperation and in 1962 was posted to Dar as First Secretary (Technical Cooperation) in the British High Commission. Tanganyika had become independent a few months previously and one of Buist’s tasks was to help organise the transition from the former British administrators to their African successors. He was in Dar during the army mutiny and recalled the critical moment when the then Prime Minister, Rashidi Kawawa, delivered a hand-written note to the High Commission requesting British military intervention.

Buist was involved in the talks with Kenya and Uganda about the future of the East African Common Services Authority and in 1964 was posted to Nairobi again, to help negotiate the treaty which established the East African Community in 1967. He returned to London in 1969 and was Under Secretary at the Overseas Development Administration (now the Department for International Development) from 1976 until his retirement in 1990, when he was awarded a CB (instead of the more usual CMG or CBE). (Thank you to John Sankey for this – Editor).

ANTON TURNER (38) a former Army Captain, died instantly when he was charged by a bull elephant as he led an expedition in Tanzania three years ago. On November 9 2012 his father collected his Queens Gallantry Medal at Buckingham Palace from the Queen. It had been awarded in recognition of his heroism in saving the lives of a film crew which included three children. His father recounted how his son had refused to move out of the elephant’s path. He shouted to try to drive it away but the elephant did not give up. Because Turner stood there, it gave the others the opportunity to get away and hide or take cover. He had been working for the CBBC series ‘Serious Explorers’ in which was recreating Dr David Livingstone’s journey across Africa – London Evening Standard.

Jennifer Longford, née Stevenson, has died at the age of 82. After graduating in English at St Andrew’s University she trained as a teacher and was posted to Tabora Girls’ School in 1955. She fell deeply in love with the country and made lifelong friendships, notably with fellow teacher Peggy Fowler (later Elwell-Sutton) who recently died at the age of 98. On Christmas Eve 1955 Jennifer was invited to dinner at the Governor’s Lodge in Lushoto. Sir Edward Twining’s private secretary, Michael Longford, opened the door to her and, he later wrote in his book The Flags Changed at Midnight, “as soon as I saw Jennifer I knew at once that this was the girl I was going to marry.” He proposed in a rainstorm ten days later, and on their marriage in June 1956, he took up a post as District Officer in Tabora to enable her to go on teaching. They later moved to Mahenge and then to Lindi, where Michael was District Commissioner, finally returning to England with their three children in 1962.

Jennifer continued to teach at her local secondary school in Surrey, but she and Michael never lost their love for and interest in Tanzania.Later Jennifer returned for a visit, the highlight of which was being reunited with some of her former pupils. She was delighted to be asked to teach her eldest grandson Swahili before he went to work at an orphanage in Arusha, and last year her silver wedding present to her elder daughter, Ruth, was an unforgettable trip, with her husband, to the country where Ruth was born. Michael died in 2005, after 49 years of very happy marriage. Jennifer continued to live in their Surrey cottage, with friends and family nearby, until her own death in March 2012.

ERIC YOUNG OBE, a former member of the British diplomatic Service and a journalist, has died aged 87. After a series of eventful postings around the world his last posting was as High Commissioner in the Seychelles. He was there when there was an attempted mutiny by the army and the main island of Mahe was under curfew. With the Union flag flying on his official car he went out to see how the British tourists and residents were coping with the situation. He soon found himself at a roadblock with a group of Tanzanian troops pointing their AK47’s at him. However, his fluent Swahili got him through with an escort to accompany him around the island. Not long after a huge explosion went off behind his house where Young was serving drinks. The Russian ambassador looked at Young and winked saying “that will be my boys arriving here” and Young replied in fluent Russian: “they are late.” It turned out to be engineers blasting a mountain to make way for a new road. Thank you John Sankey for sending this from The Times – Editor.

STEVEN KANUMBA, aged 28, popular actor and star of numerous local “Bongo” films, died on 7th April during an argument with his girlfriend Elizabeth Michael (known as Lulu) who was later charged with his murder. More than 30,000 mourners attended the funeral in Dar-es-Salaam. President Kikwete tweeted his condolences and was reported to have delayed a foreign trip when he heard the news of Mr Kanumba’s death. He praised the “talented young man who was playing a big role to develop the movie industry and marketing Tanzania abroad”. Nicknamed “The Great”, Mr Kanumba was a household name in Tanzania and had also recently become popular in Ghana and starred in Nigeria’s Nollywood films.

MAJOR BRUCE KINLOCH (90), who was born in India, was awarded the Military Cross while fighting in Burma during the Second World War and later served in Kenya before becoming Chief Game Warden in Tanzania from 1960 to 1964. He launched the College of African Wildlife Management at Mweka before retiring, and wrote several books on the fight to save East Africa’s herds of game.

BERNARD VERDCOURT who has died aged 86, was a botanist at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew for several years. He also made contributions to two distinct fields of East African natural history. He was responsible for almost one third of the great ‘Flora of Tropical East Africa’ which covers 12,500 species. He was also, unusually, an expert on non-marine molluscs – snails and slugs. He began his distinguished career at Amani in Tanga Region under the eminent botanist P J Greenway. Thank you John Sankey for sending this and the one above from the Daily Telegraph – Editor.

PETER YEO died on 30 July at his home in Leicestershire. He served as a District Officer in Mwanza and Musoma from 1959. During his interview for the job he was asked what changes he anticipated if Tanganyika became independent. Not in his life time was the answer. It happened after 18 months! Later, in Tanga Region he trained local courts officers and after leaving Tanzania he worked at the International Co-operative Training Centre, Stanford Hall. The Plunket Foundation published his book on Cooperative Law and one on basic Economic Concepts. He wrote for Tanzanian Affairs on various developments in the then highly influential cooperative movement. Thank you Marlene Yeo for this – Editor.

Dr Hildebrand Shayo, Senior Lecturer (OUT) and Fund/Asset Manager- NICOL National Investment Company Limited (with John Nyoka) has sent us a tribute they have written on the distinguished journalist who contributed so much to broadcasting in Tanzania and Africa, DAVID GERALD WAKATI, who died in November. Extracts: “David had a glorious record of service to the country and press. He was not only a gifted presenter; he was also a brilliant orator who spoke with frankness, and with a very good sense of humour. He will be remembered for his commitment to the cause of excellence in journalism and his contributions to promoting the freedom of the press in Tanzania. We really have lost a true champion of the highest traditions of Tanzanian journalism.

“Do you remember the stamina he had in broadcasting? He broadcasted the whole night while the body of former Prime Minister Edward Sokoine was in Karimjee Hall where people were paying last respects. Personally I knew David Wakati in the late 50s when I was in middle school. His morning BBC news bulletin in Swahili was to us a time keeper. Once it was finished we would rush to school to be on time. If you were late, before you got the lashes, the teacher would shout at you, “didn’t you hear David Wakati this morning?”

CHRISTINE LAWRENCE died on January 7 aged 80.
She played a pivotal role in the early days of the Britain- Tanzania Society when she did an immense amount of work on the administrative and financial side working with Bishop Trevor Huddleston and Roger Carter. She kept closely in touch with very many BTS members and with others connected to Tanzania and proved invaluable in locating and recruiting people to contribute to Tanzanian Affairs. She herself wrote numerous book, film and TV documentary reviews about Tanzania on a wide variety of subjects. She was present at virtually every meeting of the Society and was an active member of the committee. She played a leading role in organising society meetings and plying participants with refreshments.

At her funeral, Society member Keith Lye read out a tribute he had written:

‘Christine Lawrence made a massive contribution to many disadvantaged and impoverished people, particularly in Africa and Britain.

After completing a two-year course to become a child welfare officer, she went to run the Mahiwa Young Farmer’s Training Centre, in southern Tanzania, which had been set up by Bishop Trevor Huddleston, then the Bishop of Masasi. One of Christine’s most remarkable achievements, long before Women’s Lib, was to introduce courses at the centre for girls, the college having previously been exclusively for boys.

On her return to Britain in 1970, she worked for 20 years at Friends House, where she made many friends among the Quaker community. They shared the same ideals, especially in supporting projects to help people in what we then called the ‘Third World’. She made a return visit to Tanzania in 1972 and worked at a farm school on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro.

When we were working together, she was a stickler for detail. Like others, I got my knuckles rapped whenever I generalised or was imprecise. Christine was a most able and efficient person. Inspired by her deep Christian faith, she touched the lives of many people and she will be very much missed.

The funeral was held at the small and very attractive Gospel Oak Methodist Church in London. The BTS was represented by the Fennells and David Brewin.

The popular satirist ADAM LUSEKELO, whose columns in various newspapers over the years amused and sometimes shocked readers has died aged 56. The Citizen on Sunday said that he had a way with words and the use of simple and entertaining language. ‘Look at the names of his columns – Light touch (Sunday News), Punch Line (Daily Mail), Eyespy (This Day) – they all smacked of naughtiness. He rebuked the men in power and got away with it… he had no qualms about describing some of the politicians as ‘Bull crap,’ ‘trash comedy’, ‘baloney’, ‘empty talk’. Lusekelo was the BBC correspondent in Dar in the 80s and 90s and he had in recent years established himself as a Radio 4 presenter (for programmes including Africa’s Fourth Estate, 2005; the Living With Aids series, 2006; A Voyage On Livingstone’s Lake, the story of the MV Ilala boat on Lake Malawi, 2009; and Africa at 50: Wind of Change, 2010). He was buried with a chief’s honours, next to his father’s grave in Rungwe.

Emeritus Professor MICHAEL LATHAM OBE was born in Tanzania in 1928 and studied medicine at Trinity College in Dublin. One of his books, Kilimanjaro Tales: The Saga of a Medical Family in Africa, combined his and his mother’s accounts of their early life in Tanzania. From 1955 to 1964 he was a district medical officer and director of the nutrition unit of the Ministry of Health in Tanzania, and was awarded the OBE in 1965 for distinguished service. He joined Cornell University in 1968 after four years at Harvard, and remained there for over 40 years as a highly respected nutrionist. He was a cofounder and co-chair of the advisory group of the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action and one of the first people to recognise the risks and campaign against the widespread marketing of powdered baby formula milk in developing countries. In 2007, the African Nutrition Graduate Students Network presented its first lifetime achievement award to Dr. Latham for his work to improve nutrition in Africa, and in 2008 he was awarded an order of merit from the United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition.

The EARL OF OXFORD AND ASQUITH (94), the grandson of Prime Minister HH Asquith, died on January 16 , 2011. After serving in Libya he was moved to Zanzibar in 1963. He said later that it had been a mistake to grant independence to the country in 1963 as it was clear that it had been suffering from underlying instability due to racial antipathies. He found the Arab politicians unreliable in both judgement and in action – The Times.

The Anglophile German historian and diplomat FRITZ CASPARI (96) died on December 1. After a distinguished career in Germany, Britain, Portugal and America, one of his final jobs was responsibility for German diplomatic relations with the Third World and the UN. In the Obituary in the Times (Thank you John Sankey for this – Editor) reference was made to the death in a plane crash in Tanzania of his eldest son Hans Michael who was serving in the UN. Thank you John also for the note you sent following the death on December 12 2010 of FATHER KIT CUNNINGHAM who spent 10 years at a Rosminion School in Tanzania.

Jonathan Hill, son of the Permanent Secretary for Home Affairs immediately before and after the independence of Tanganyika, has written to us to record the death of his father, DENYS CHALLMERS HILL OBE. He was in the Colonial Service in Tanganyika from 1940 to 1962 and, while holding various positions in the administration, he was involved in the Groundnut Scheme, a road to the (then) new Serengeti National Park, the distribution of famine relief during the war period and surveying the Ruaha Game Reserve.

Remmy Ongala, fondly known as “Dr Remmy” died in December at the age of 63. Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Dr Remmy moved to Tanzania in 1977 and joined the Orchestra Super Makassy, until leaving to form his own group Super Matimila. At the height of his popularity in the 1990’s, Dr Remmy was a regular performer at the Womad music festival in the UK.

Dr Remmy’s songs were always thoughtful and often controversial, dealing with subjects such as poverty and Aids. His song Mambo Kwa Socks, a plea for safe sex and for young men to use condoms, was banned by Radio Tanzania, but he continued to perform it at concerts. Kifo deals with the mercilessness of death, saying no matter how rich a person, bribery cannot postpone it.

In 2001, and after suffering a stroke, Dr Remmy became a born-again Christian and stopped performing his dance music, although he did recently make some appearances as a gospel artist. He is survived by his English wife Toni and four children, with whom he lived in a modest bungalow in an area of Dar-es-Salaam named in his honour “Sinza kwa Remmy.”

Abou Ally Semhando “Baba Diana” (50) also died in the same week following a motorcycle accident. Abou Ally was drummer with Dr Remmy’s band Super Matimila, and at the time of his death was manager of the popular band African Stars-Twanga Pepeta.

MARY BOYD, one of the stalwarts during the early and middle years of the Britain Tanzania Society died on August 19. Friends and colleagues have been paying tribute to her outstanding work for the Society:

Trevor Jaggar, former Executive Secretary, writes: ‘Mary did, indeed, contribute to the BTS in a major way over many years. I believe she was introduced to the society by Roger Carter, also a member of the Society of Friends. Archbishop Trevor Huddlestone used to joke that the BTS was run by a Quaker Mafia! She was instrumental in arranging the AGMs at Westminster Meeting House. One of her biggest contributions was the arranging of receptions for visiting Tanzanians at what was then the Quaker International Centre in Byng Place. She used to do several of these each year and was responsible for everything to do with them.’

Liz Fennell, former BTS Chairperson: ‘It is sad but she died peacefully, with relatives going to see her every day. The funeral was held at Swinbrook, a village in Oxfordshire. There will also be a memorial service at the Westminster Quaker Meeting House later in September.’

Elly Macha, now Executive Director, African Union of the Blind, in Nairobi writes: ‘It is with profound grief that I learned of the passing of Mary Boyd who was one of the most active persons in the BTS. I met her first at a BTS meeting in 1997 when I was studying in Manchester. From October 1998 to March 2003 I was at Leeds University pursuing a PhD degree. My living expenses in Leeds were a big challenge. Mary Boyd and Liz Fennell worked so hard to fundraise for my living expenses there. She coordinated all the donations from different people for me. She visited me in Leeds several times for moral support and encouragement. To me Mary was a friend, a mother and a mentor. She was an inspiration to all those who knew her. Last year Liz Fennel and I visited Mary in her nursing home in the South of England. She was so excited to see me again after six years. We remembered my graduation day at Leeds in July 2003. Mary was there to celebrate with me that great day. Mary’s life was the epitome of courage, vision and deep-faith in the human spirit, which transcends mere physical limitations and goes far beyond an individual effort in achieving what she believed in. To the members of her family and friends, I extend my profound condolences. May God rest her soul in peace.’

BTS Treasurer Betty Wells writes: ‘For the annual meetings and at other times she provided accommodation for people to stay. She arranged and organized a Garden Party during the early days. Her connection with Tanzania was through being guardian to two children who attended the Quaker school at Ackworth, because their mother was working in the German embassy in Dar es Salaam. Her main job was as a Social Worker in the London area. I am grateful to former BTS Treasurer Christine Lawrence for passing on this information to me.’

PROFESSOR JWANI MWAIKUSA (58), a leading constitutional lawyer who was also a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Dar es Salaam was murdered at his home in Salasala, Dar es Salaam in July.

His son, Baraka, said that moments after his father drove back home, two armed people forced their way through the gate and ordered the one who opened the gate to show them the father (Prof Mwaikusa). The professor’s nephew, who was also present, could not control his anger, and engaged one of the gangsters in a fight. The nephew was shot dead, and this prompted the second gangster, to shoot the Professor. A neighbour who came to find out what was happening was also killed. A few days later four suspects appeared before the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court charged with 11 counts, including the killing of Prof Mwaikusa.

His colleagues described him as a person who contributed immensely to the scholarly leadership of the University’s legal department. He was described as a fearless law academic – always an example to follow for all those who sought to pursue the political and human rights of individuals and the general sanctity and respect of constitutionalism.

Veteran politician and national leader RASHIDI MFAUME KAWAWA – Simba wa Vita (83) died on December 31 at the Muhimbili National Hospital.

Announcing the news President Kikwete said the nation had lost a great son who sacrificed a lot for the liberation and development of his country. He declared seven days of mourning in honour of the man who had served as Minister of Defence, Prime Minister, Second Vice-President, and Secretary General of the CCM.

Mzee Kawawa, who was preparing to travel abroad, had reported to hospital for a malaria test. The results indicated that he did not have malaria but, on his way home he suddenly felt ill. At the hospital doctors found that his blood sugar was approaching zero and his two kidneys had completely failed. Then came cardiac arrest.

Mzee Kawawa was born near Songea as the son of an elephant hunter and his first job was as a Public Works Department accounts clerk. In 1951 he realised a long-standing dream by becoming a social worker and he joined a mobile film unit engaged in government literacy programmes. When it was decided to use the unit for educational filming, he was chosen as the only Tanzanian leading actor. Then he became a star in two more films, which added greatly to his popularity.

Then, in 1953, he was given a much more stressful job. He later described his time in central Tanganyika, working among Kikuyu detainees held during the Kenyan Mau Mau movement, as “the greatest challenge of my life.”

The Tanganyika independence movement was then underway. When his civil service employment prevented him from full participation in the struggle his decision to use the unions to further independence led to his resignation in February 1956 to devote his time to the organisation of the labour movement. Kawawa became President of the Tanganyika African Government Services Association and, after that, helped found the Tanganyika Federation of Labour (TFL) and was elected its first General Secretary in 1955.

In September 1960, following his first appointment to cabinet rank, he resigned from the TFL to concentrate on politics. When Mwalimu Nyerere resigned from the post of Prime Minister of the independent Tanganyika for a brief period in 1962, Kawawa replaced him until his return to office.

After 1964 Kawawa held the office of Second Vice President of Tanzania, serving as Nyerere’s principal assistant for mainland affairs, and as leader of the National Assembly.

He played a very important role during the villagisation programme of the 1970s which became one of the most difficult undertakings the government had undertaken. As the principal assistant to Mwalimu Nyerere, he ensured that the task was accomplished although it is much criticised today.
He was strict and did not tolerate civil servants who did not do their job.

Many Tanzanians believed that Kawawa would succeed Nyerere after the latter relinquished the Tanzanian presidency in 1985 but, his unwavering commitment to a state-controlled economy caused him to lose popular support to the more pragmatic Ali Hassan Mwinyi, who eventually became President.

In recent years Mzee Kawawa continued to play a significant role in Tanzanian politics and was unwavering in his support of Mwalimu Nyerere. One example was seen in 1995 when he strongly supported Nyerere’s wish that his protégé, Benjamin Mkapa, should be nominated as the CCM presidential candidate in spite of strong opposition within the party.

Thank you Bobby MacIvor, former wife of Derek Bryceson, who was Minister of Agriculture under Nyerere in the 1970’s, for sending us this personal tribute – Editor:

‘It needs only a short search in my mind to bring back a picture of Rashidi, memories come again to me, clearly and vividly. I can see a short, fairly stout and broadly smiling man, often laughing out loud. This was at the time of the lead up to Independence for Tanganyika. I knew then that I had met a man with an enormous amount of energy and enterprise and enthusiasm.

My random memories of Rashidi then, are not to quote histories written of all that had happened on special dates, but to try to show my own picture of him and the many sides to him. There was the ebullient Rashidi, the inspired, inventive Rashidi and the ambitiously determined Rashidi. He planned and implemented many of his ideas. Ideas to help his country make progress.

With Julius Nyerere as President, Rashidi must have found someone who had, I believe, chosen him to make a good balance in the leadership. Leadership for the Christian and Moslem peoples of a large country.
When I lived in a house at Msasani Bay, next door to Julius and Maria and their family, my husband, Derek Bryceson and our son and daughter would often meet them on the beach. The wide expanse of the wonderful Indian Ocean, made for us all, a tranquil and beautiful place to be. Julius sometimes called us to come and sit with him on his verandah if he was alone. He would tell us about his thoughts and ambitions and how Rashidi particularly was an extremely valuable and important person to him. A person who could help share the great and heavy responsibilities they had to carry with others in government and outside it.

I left Tanzania with great sadness after a divorce from Derek in 1974. I left behind so much, but took with me not only some personal possessions, but many treasured memories. One of the sharpest of those was of Rashidi.
After more than forty years and in a very different life in England, I sometimes think to myself of Rashidi. Rashidi in another form. As a Tanzanite, sparkling, strong, firm as a rock with a value which has no doubt.’

MICHAELA VON FREYHOLD, who died in January in Bremen, was a sociologist and anthropologist who came to Tanzania in 1968 and taught in the Sociology Department at the University of Dar es Salaam and later at the Institute for Finance Management. Her book Ujamaa Villages in Tanzania: Analysis of a Social Experiment (Heinemann, 1979) is by far the best study of the early years of ujamaa, based as it is on thorough fieldwork and observation in four villages in Tanga Region, but also placing what happened in the historical and political economy framework which she developed in her lectures, and showing how young government staff sent to do the government’s bidding, which they were not particularly comfortable with, in villages which they little knew or understood, were placed in an impossible position. The case studies show that there were many villagers who were prepared to give ujamaa farming a trial, but that they were repeatedly frustrated by unsympathetic action from government officials or forms of aid that they had not asked for and which for them were not priorities.

Michaela also wrote, less successfully, about the new breed of managers that took over factories and parastatals from 1967 onwards (her sympathies almost entirely with the workers), and on women with young children in rural areas. On leaving Tanzania she became Professor for the Analysis of Third World Development at the University of Bremen – . Thank you Andrew Coulson for this – Editor

BISHOP GRESFORD CHITEMO (82), who was born in Kilosa, died on All Saints Day 2009. He served as the first bishop of the Diocese of Morogoro from 1965 until his retirement in 1987 and from 1988 to 1995 he was head of African Evangelistic Enterprise, based in Nairobi. He was a spell-binding preacher, and hundreds in many different countries came to faith through his ministry. He was courageous in defending those in trouble and confronting oppression, even in high places, and missionaries found him an accessible and sympathetic listener, who yet had the wisdom and confidence to make his own decisions. He built especially warm relationships with coastal Anglicans whose tradition was very different from his. Thank you Roger Bowen for this – Editor.

Professor Emeritus DAVID KIMBLE has died aged 87. He started work at the University of Dar Salaam in 1962 as Professor of Political Science and within the year he had set up, and found funds for the Institute of Public Administration – a completely new direction then for an African institution. He also established a programme of training for diplomats from newly independent countries at the Institute – from ASAUK Newsletter No 57

St. Stephen’s Church in Gloucester Road, London, not far from his basement flat, was filled on 21st August last year, for a service of thanksgiving for the life of THOMAS RANDAL SADLEIR, a founder member and, at one time, a committee member of the Britain-Tanzania Society who died on August 11 at 85 years old.

Those of us who knew him realised how much we were going to miss his larger than life personality but it was fascinating to hear from his grandson Nicholas a fund of highly amusing anecdotes which entranced the congregation and, secondly, from his son Gerald, who had clearly inherited his father’s eloquence.

I first met Randal 45 years ago when the wife of an officer at the Ministry of Agriculture’s HQ in Dar es Salaam suddenly collapsed with a brain tumour and the couple had to leave Tanganyika. The officer had been producing a popular weekly radio programme called Mzee Simba (modeled on ‘ the Archers’), and I had been producing a monthly magazine called Ukulima wa Kisasa (Modern Farming) which was circulating in Musoma and surrounding districts. I was told to leave Musoma and report to Dar es Salaam immediately to take over the radio programme and to develop the magazine to cover the whole country. The journey, by Lake Steamer and train, took nearly three days and I was told on arrival to have my first radio script ready ‘by Thursday.’

It did not take long to find the person who would be able to help. He had started the first Swahili newspapers in Tanganyika and had become editor of both of them, as well as most of the government’s public relations material. It seemed that everybody knew him and, in the media world, he knew everybody. Although he was about the same age as me, he soon became almost a father figure and played a major role in preserving both my career and my sanity.
Many obituaries have been published.

The Daily Telegraph wrote: ‘He was one of the last generations of colonial administrators; at 27 he was the youngest district commissioner (in Handeni) and stayed on, at the request of President Nyerere, for 13 years after independence. Speaking to a nationalist rally in the early days, Nyerere had declared that Kutawaliwa ni fedheha and Sadleir probably saved him from prosecution, and the country from probable turmoil, by pointing out to the authorities that this meant “It is a disgrace to be ruled” rather than “We are ruled disgracefully”. The two became close friends, drinking companions at the Cosy Cafe, and Sadleir acted as an intermediary between Nyerere and the new Governor, Sir Richard Turnbull, assisting at what proved to be an unusually harmonious transition.

Randal was he was fond of the old Irishism: “If you’re lucky enough to be Irish, then you’re lucky enough”. On his death, one of his many friends remarked: “If you were lucky enough to know Randal, you were lucky enough.”

Mwalimu Nyerere noted ruefully that Sadleir’s sympathy for the nationalist cause before independence was matched only by his forthright opinions of Nyerere’s Government after it. Sadleir was always an unconventional spirit. Mwalimu Nyerere, in rare understatement, called him “unusually individualistic”, while Lord Twining, the then Governor, remarked that he would never make a civil servant because “you are neither civil nor servile”. To diehards in the colonial establishment, Sadleir was an Africanist eccentric; but his integrity, humour and generosity of heart were universally recognised.
In the Swahili language he discovered a lifetime’s fascination that he translated into a real affinity when he served as a very young officer in the King’s African Rifles. Around campfires, Sadleir spoke to his askaris and mastered their tongue, creating a bond that went far beyond command. In Africa and its people he found humanity and, he said, never again felt quite so at home.

He remained an admirer of Nyerere the man, long after his abilities as a ruler were being brought into question. He left Tanzania in 1973, still incurring official disapproval — he pointed out that the ruling TANU party took a tougher line on law and order than the colonial administration.

Cyril Kaunga, at one time head of film making in Tanzania, writes from Tabora: ‘I remember one day in 1959 when he was going on a picnic, with some of his staff, to Bagamoyo. I decided to join the group in order to see the place where our “grandfathers were sold and chained to iron poles” as he put it. He was always jovial with a high sense of humour. As he went to start his Peugeot car Randal noticed that he had no ignition key. Yet the car started and when we asked how he could start it without the key, he looked at us with a side look and said “I am a conjurer, you know.” We learnt later that the car had one button only for ignition and engine start. After visiting the slave market place we expressed anger and hostility at what we had seen. Randal in his Anglicized Kiswahili remarked, “Hii ilikuwa biashara shenzi kabisa” He spoke Kiswahili using English pronunciation – funny but always interesting to listen to. He was endowed with human qualities of high value. He was sympathetic to the poor and their struggle in the fight against the deadly enemies of our nation. Randal Sadleir is dead in body. To me he continues to live forever.’

The first edition of his fascinating book ‘Tanzania. Journey to Republic’ revealing as it did, a remarkable power of memory, soon sold out. It is a very good read and will ensure that he is remembered – David Brewin