OBITUARIES

NTIMBANJAYO JOHN MILLINGA (69), who died of cancer on July 12 last year, was born in one of the far corners of Tanzania by Lake Nyasa. He was educated to standard 8, had two years of nursing training and attended a nine months Political Science course at Kivukoni College in Dar es Salaam. He became well known for his work in setting up the Ruvuma Development Association (RDA) in the 1960’s which is described in an article above. He became Chairman of the Songea District Council in 1963 and in 1965 MP for the Songea South constituency. He worked in a number of areas in the country as District Secretary, Regional Secretary and Area Commissioner of the CCM party. A drawn out fight with prostrate cancer dogged his later years. However for the last decade of his life he re-engaged with the issues of production and enterprise at Litowa, successfully promoting a tile production factory and strengthening educational development. In all his working life he was greatly assisted by his wife Conrada and three surviving children.

Mbeya Rural CCM MP RICHARD SAID NYAULAWA (57) died in mid November last year having been suffering from colon cancer. President Kikwete said: “We shall remember him for his contribution in Parliament and society as well. He was in the forefront in defending the interests of his people and all the citizens”. He was a member of the party’s National Executive Committee.

BISHOP CECIL RICHARD NORGATE (1921-2008), always known as Richard, was ordained priest in England in 1950, and died in Tanzania in October 2008. After joining the then Universities’ Mission to Central Africa (later merged with USPG, but now celebrating 150 years since its inauguration) went directly to the diocese of Masasi in Mtwara Region, where he stayed for the rest of his life. In 1958 he was appointed parish priest of Mkomaindo. The hospital there was an important medical centre, and under Bishop Trevor Huddleston, a nursing school and training for rural medical aides brought new opportunities and responsibilities for the priest. In 1977 he was appointed by Bishop Hilary Chisonga as Vicar-General (in effect deputy to him) and then in 1984 he was elected by the clergy and laity of the diocese as their bishop. More than 25 years after Independence, it was unusual, to say the least, for local people to elect an Mzungu bishop, but Richard had the qualities and had earned the respect to enable him to undertake the task most capably. In 1992 he retired to live at St Cyprian’s College Rondo. The present Bishop of Masasi, Patrick Mwachiko, writes that Bishop Richard contributed a lot to the building of the present new church at Mkomaindo, and “they decided to bury him inside the church where he had worked as parish priest for so many years, but also out of respect for him and his contribution to the diocese of Masasi.” – Thank you Revd. Graeme Watson, USPG Mission Companion (1967 -77 ) for this – Editor.

PROFESSOR A. B. WESTON, who died in London on 23rd June, 2008, laid the foundation of legal education in East Africa in 1961. Colonial neglect of legal education left Tanganyika, at independence in 1961, with only two African lawyers, both newly qualified abroad. Born in Australia in 1924 ‘AB’, after combat experience as a pilot, was teaching in Toronto when Cran Pratt, the (Canadian) first Principal of the hurriedly established University College recruited him as Dean of the new Law Faculty opened in October 1961. It was a formative appointment for Tanzania and a life-changing step for AB, who (at the cost of his own research and teaching) plunged into the demands of organising the first, for long the premier, law school in the region, building a first class library, securing foreign scholarships for graduates and helping negotiate creation of the University of East Africa (1963). He learnt Swahili and left an enduring legacy to Tanzanian law in helping to compile the Swahili Law Dictionary. AB married three times – twice in Tanzania to Sandawe ladies – and had seven children. Many former students are still active as judges, professors or senior lawyers in Tanzania and elsewhere. In the Seventies he was particularly pleased to be formally admitted to practise as an advocate of the Tanzanian bar.
Jim Read

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