Veteran journalist AIDAN CHECHE (64) died at Muheza on August 10 after a long illness. He was News Editor of Radio Tanzania at the time of independence and later worked for the BBC, Reuters and Radio Deutschewelle. In his final months he participated in translating the Bible into modem Swahili.

In January 1964 there was a mutiny among troops of the Tanganyika Defence Force at Colito Barracks, Dar es Salaam and the government called for help. Britain’s 45 Commando embarked in haste in the carrier Centour and 2 Troop, led by MAJOR DAVID SCOTT LANGLEY, who has died at the age of 74, flew ashore in Wessex helicopters. Using a loud-hailer, Langley called on the mutineers to surrender. When they refused a 3.5 inch rocket was fired over the closed gates to the guardroom. It hit an overhead wire and rebounded, narrowly missing Langley. The mutiny was quelled in less than two hours. Langley accepted surrender from a Tanzanian Lieutenant Colonel who had been one of his cadets at Aldershot. Langley received a C-in-C’s commendation. The commander of the operation, COLONEL PATRICK STEVENS, (76) also died in August 1998 -from the Times Obituaries.

MICHAEL WISE who died recently has been Reviews Editor of ‘Tanzanian Affairs’ (ably assisted by John Budge) for the last two years. His wife, Angela, has kindly sent us the following words: ‘Michael first went to Africa in 1957, to a post in the library of the Royal Technical College in Nairobi, later to become the University of Nairobi. He moved in January 1962 to a similar post at the new University of Dar es Salaam. This started off in a building in Lumumba Street and Michael was closely involved with the Chief Librarian in the planning and development of the new university library on Observation Hill. Seven happy and productive years followed, the later ones as Deputy Librarian. He made the most of every opportunity to see more of the country and its people, climbed to the crater of Kilimanjaro and formed enduring friendships. Links with Africa and Tanzania were not broken when he moved to a post in Wales in 1969. Many Tanzanian students were entertained at his home near Aberystwyth; he drew on Tanzanian contacts for contributions to the books and journals he edited on international librarianship; and this year it gave him great pleasure to meet again many old Tanzanian friends on a return visit to Dar es Salaam.

GUY YEOMAN (78), described in the Times as ‘veterinary surgeon and explorer’, died on August 3, having developed a lifelong passion for the sources of the Nile and the people of the Rwenzori mountain ranges. He had become fluent in Swahili while recruiting troops for the war in Burma in 1942 and was devastated when the troopship Khedive Ismail was sunk while on passage from Mombasa to Ceylon on February 12, 1944 with the loss of 1,511 lives, almost all African troops of his own regiment. His work on the cattle disease East Coast Fever in Tanzania was the basis of the thesis which won him his fellowship of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. His book The Ioxid Ticks of Tanzania (jointly written with Jane Walker) was published in 1967 and his successful disease control schemes are still largely in place in Tanzania.

Nigel Durdant Hollamby has informed us of the recent deaths of DENIS THORNE MABEY BENNETT (73) who was DC Kilwa when he retired in 1961, ARTHUR PHILIP HUGH LOUSADA (81), who was DC in Kwimba and Bagamoyo and ERIC LOVELOCK (81) who achieved a reputation as a rainmaker in Tanganyika and retired from the Colonial Service to begin a teaching career in Britain.

President Mkapa and Mwalimu Nyerere were among those who attended a mass at St Alban’s Anglican Church in Dar es Salaam on May 16 for the late Archbishop Trevor Huddleston KCMG (84), President of the Britain-Tanzania Society and former Bishop of Masasi who died on April 20. In his letter of condolences President Mkapa said that the people of Tanzania remembered Rev. Huddleston with particular fondness and gratitude for the tremendous pastoral and development work he did in southern Tanzania in the early ’60’s. A memorial service was held at Westminster Abbey on July 29.

Rev Huddleston went to Masasi in 1960 and stayed until 1968. In its obituary the ‘Times’ said that the years which followed were as happy as any in his life; he was able to establish many new facilities – a hospital and a teachers training college were two examples.

THE RIGHT REVEREND EDMUND CAPPER OBE (89) spent 25 years in Tanganyika serving as Bishop of Masasi. From 1958 to 1962 he was Provost of the Collegiate Church of St Albans in Dar es Salaam. He confirmed an old man who remembered Livingstone pass by on his last journey of exploration, shortly before he was found dead at Chitambo. In the absence of clergy many village churches were run by African lay catechists. At one such church Stradling announced that he would sing Evensong, and that the catechist was to read the lessons. Just as the service was starting the catechist said in an agitated whisper. “Whatever shall I do? A goat has eaten the first lesson” (Thank you Randal Sadlier and Paul Marchant for sending this information from the Times and the Daily Telegraph – Editor)

JULIA CARTER died on January lst. She and husband Roger, who were married for 57 years, spent five of those years in Tanzania and when they returned to Britain they started the Britain-Tanzania Society. Julia served as Trustee of the society’s Development Trust. The March 27th issue of ‘The Friend’ described her as a deeply caring person with a natural ability to stand alongside others, to share their pleasures and achievements and to understand their problems and anxieties. She worked for a time in family planning in Tanzania and a former Tanzanian High Commissioner wrote ‘we have always regarded Julia as part of us’. A large number of members of the Society, including representatives from the High Commission, were among the 180 friends present to celebrate her life at a memorial meeting held in Settle on January 14th.

The April issue of the journal ‘White Fathers-White Sisters’ contained two obituaries. FATHER ARNOLD GROL (74) who, during a long period of missionary work in Tanzania supervised the construction of the Sumbawanga Cathedral, has died of a heart attack; SISTER MARGARET TANSEY (83) who died on December 18 served for 30 years in Tanzania including a period when she ran the student’s hostel at Kipalapala (Thank you John Sankey for this information -Editor).

RICHARD A JOSSAUME FIAGE was an agricultural engineer much involved in the Groundnut Scheme in Tanzania in the late 1940’s. He kept careful records of his experiences and his son Chris has donated his collection of slides, photos, cine films and books to the Institute of Agricultural Engineers – they are held at the Cranfield University (Silsoe College) Library.

MRS CHRISTINA MUGAYA BURITO NYERERE, the mother of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, has died at the age of 104. Mwalimu has been quoted as saying that even on his 75th birthday she still treated him as her child.

EMIL SENGATI (70) who died after a long illness on March 8, was a long time civil servant and was the first African to hold the post of Town Clerk before independence.

BISHOP MAURICE SOSELEJE (80) of Masasi Anglican diocese, one of the first Tanzanian church leaders, died on January 10.

(Apologies for the error in the last issue. Dr Joseph Taylor OBE FRCS was mistakenly referred to as Dr David Taylor -Editor).

DR. ENNIFER HIGHAM (62) died of cancer on November 15. She was a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Foreign Languages at the University of Dar es Salaam from 1976 to 1984 and for the following four years served as a VS0 volunteer at the Foreign Languages Institute in Zanzibar. She was a tutor on several education courses for teachers from Tanzania. Donations in her memory may be sent to the Provincial Overseas Mission, Scottish Episcopal Church, 21 Grosvenor Crescent, Edinburgh EH12 5EE.

DR. ZEBEDAYO MPOGOLO (50) Director of Operations and Financial Services of the Capital Market and Securities Authority (CMSA) who had been in the forefront in preparations for the establishment of the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange, died on September 30.

LAWRENCE, CARDINAL RUGAMBWA died on December 8. At a Pontifical Requiem Mass in St. Joseph’s Cathedral it was said that he would be remembered for his humility and his tireless efforts to promote Christian unity.

GOSBERT RUTABANZIBWA, who died on November 21, was one of the first Africans to hold a senior post in the Tanganyika Government after independence, when he succeeded Ronald Neath as Chief of Protocol. He was a man of great ability and charm and later served as Tanzania’s High Commissioner in India and Canada and as Ambassador to the USA. He retired to his farm near Bukoba where he lived a life of simplicity. Not for him the ostentatious display of people who have used office to acquire great wealth. One of his sons, Patrick, is the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Minerals. A daughter, Hilda, is a Borough Architect in Hackney – Trevor Jaggar.

SOLOMAN OLE SAIBUL (62) former Minister for Tourism and Natural Resources died of prostate cancer on October 30. He had been earlier the first African Chief Conservator of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority. Thousands of people attended his funeral at Lemara village near Arusha.

SIR JOHN SIJMMERFIELD (76) started his career as a crown counsel. Amongst the cases he prosecuted in the 1950’s were the so-called ‘lion murders’ in Iringa and Mbeya in which the killers had been snatched as children by witch doctors who had then coached them to carry out murders while dressed in lion skins. Later, in Dar es Salaam, Summerfield successfully prosecuted Julius Nyerere for libelling a district officer. Years later they met unexpectedly in London; Nyerere greeted him like a long lost brother.

DR DAVID TAYLOR OBE FRCS who died on November 21 became well known in Tanzania (and other countries) as an eye surgeon. He first went there in 1953 as the Officer In Charge of the Berega Hospital in Morogoro Region and was from 1957 to 1970 the Medical Superintendent at the Mvumi Hospital, Dodoma. He was also involved in the development of the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre in Moshi – Mary Punt.

MOHAMED VIRANI (68) has died in Dar es Salaam of kidney failure. He was a prominent businessman, a top motor rally driver and a key sponsor of the Young Africans (Yanga) Soccer Club – East African

Dr. RUTH ELLMAN, who, with her agriculturalist husband Antony, had a long standing association with Tanzania, died on June 6 after a courageous struggle against cancer. She taught at the Muhimbili Medical School from 1967 to 1970 and from 1994 to 1996 conducted research on malaria and anaemia at the Amani Medical Research Institute. This research is leading to important advances in the search for low cost approaches to prevention and treatment of malaria including the use of insecticide-treated bednets and combinations of herbal and modem remedies. There will be a memorial service later this year and a fund is being established in Ruth’s memory to carry forward the medical research she initiated – details from Antony Ellman, XXXX.

OSCAR KAMBONA (68) has died in London. Originally a close friend of Julius Nyerere and Secretary General of the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) which brought the country to independence, Kambona held five ministerial portfolios in the post independence government. He was the son of the first African Anglican priest and in 1957 was admitted a member of Middle Temple in the UK. He and his wife Flora were the first black couple to be married in St Paul’s Cathedral; Julius Nyerere gave the bride away. He played the main role in the army mutiny of 1964 and was quoted in the obituary in the Daily Telegraph as saying “After I had calmed down the soldiers I went to fetch the other leaders (who had been in hiding) in my Landrover to bring them back to the city”. Mwalimu Nyerere praised him for his bravery but within a year, had fallen out with Nyerere because, according to the Telegraph, of the latter’s enthusiasm for socialism on the Chinese model – and for the one-party state. Kambona went into exile in 1967 (for 25 years) and plotted against Nyerere from abroad. When multi-party democracy came back to Tanzania in 1992 Kambona set up his own party TADEA but this has enjoyed little support, (Thank you Kim Keek and others for providing this information – Editor).

MOHAMED AMIN died in the highjacked Ethiopian Airlines plane which crashed in the Comoro’s on November 23 1996. ‘New Africa’ described him not only as a photographer of quality – he was named British cameraman of the year and built his East African ‘Camerapix’ into the foremost picture agency in Africa – but also as an entrepreneur and a fixer. New Africa wrote that ‘at the beginning of his career he had been thrown into jail and tortured in Zanzibar for photographing Russians training soldiers of the Zanzibar Liberation Front’ .

New Zealander GEORGE HART (86) who died in December 1995, worked from 1951 to 1985 with the Church Missionary Society and the International Leprosy Mission in the Dodoma region.

The death of former CCM Secretary General and cabinet minister HORACE KOLIMBA (57) on March 13 under extraordinary circumstances was mourned throughout the country. Mr Kolimba had earlier obtained massive publicity by criticising the CCM party for its lack of vision and clear guidelines and had then been attacked verbally by several party colleagues for making such remarks in public. Summoned to Dodoma to explain his views to the party’s Central Committee he collapsed during the meeting and then died three hours later. To avoid any allegations of foul play, President Mkapa ordered a post-mortem which found that he had died due to a rupture of the aorta, a natural cause of death.

MARY LEAKEY (83) the archaeologist who died on December 9 in Nairobi and who lived for many years at the famous Olduvai Gorge, was noted for the scrupulous scientific approach she always applied, which added veracity to the important discoveries of her husband, the anthropologist Louis Leakey and herself. After his death in 1972 she found three trails of fossilised hominid footprints 3.6 million years old at Laetoli which showed that man’s ancestors were walking upright at a much earlier period than most anthropologists had believed.

PHILIP LOUSADA (81) who died recently was a District Officer/District Commissioner in Tanganyika from 1959 until independence – (Thank you Liz Fennel/for this information – Editor)

ESTER NYAGALU (111), the mother of former Prime Minister John Malecela died on December 29 in Dodoma.

MICHAEL MACOUN CMG, OBE, QPM (82) who died on March 24 was in the Tanganyika Police for most of the time between 1939 and 1958 rising to the position of Acting Commissioner. His first job, as he was fluent in German, was the internment of German residents at the beginning of the second world war and evaluating the extent of Nazi influence in the country at that time (thank you Geoffrey Cotterell for this information – Editor).

CHIEF EDWARD WANZAGI (86), a former Chief of Butiama in Mara Region died on March 9. He was the half brother who brought up Mwalimu Nyerere in the latter’s early years.

GEORGE BAKER (79) who, during the second world war was the official British Admiralty photographer, spent 16 years from 1946 in the administrative service in Tanganyika. In 1957 he served in Britain’s delegation to the Trusteeship Council of the UN and his last job before he moved to Sierra Leone was as head of government information services.

Former cabinet minister AMRAN MAYAGILA (64) who served as Minister in three ministries during his 15 years as an MP died on November 26 after shooting himself in the head. His widow said that two days before his death he had complained about severe chest pains.

Others who served in Tanganyika/Tanzania and who have passed away recently include former administrative officer IAN AERS OBE, agricultural research specialist (who worked on wheat improvement at Tengeru for many years) BRADFORD HOUSTON and former community development officer JOHN WORTHINGTON.

The first conservator of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and author of the famous wildlife book ‘Ngorongoro, The World’s Eighth Wonder’, HENRY ALBERT FOSBROOKE (90) died and was buried in front of his house, perched on a crater rim at Duluti, 15 kms from Arusha at the beginning of May after a long illness. He came to Tanzania in 1931 and had also worked in Biharamulo, Kondoa and Arusha.

A former Principal Secretary in the President’s Office, Central Establishments and in the Ministry of Agriculture, DAVID ALBERT MWAKOSYA (74) died of cancer in Dar es Salaam on June 18.

SIR GEORGE PATERSON, OBE (89) served first in Tanganyika in 1936 as Crown Counsel. He became an excellent big game hunter. He served again in Tanganyika, this time as Solicitor-General, after war service in Eritrea and Kenya.

The Chairman of the 14-member Committee which organised the 1964 Zanzibar Revolution, COL. SEIF BAKARI, who subsequently held a number of important posts in the Zanzibar and Union governments and was, just prior to his death, advisor to President Amour on defence matters, passed away on August 20.

NEVILLE FRENCH CMG who has died at the age of 75 spent 14 years in the administration in Tanganyika, completing his career there as Principal Assistant Secretary for External Affairs. He was later expelled from Rhodesia by Ian Smith for alleged spying and found himself Governor of the Falkland Islands from 1975 to 1977 just as Argentina was beginning to make her military intentions clear by pestering the islands with low-flying jets and circling warships.

MRS LUCY ELIZABETH CROLE-REES (1911-1996) first came to Tanzania in 1966. She was buried by her husband’s side at the Kinondoni War Memorial Cemetery on May 11. Mr Victor Kimesera, Chairman of the Board of the Music Conservatoire of Tanzania (Taasisi ya Muziki Tanzania) which was founded by Mrs Crole- Rees in 1966 and of which she was Principal Tutor as well as Manager, gave the eulogy.

A man described in The Times as one of the most eccentric and talented agricultural officers ever recruited by the Colonial Office in London has died in Mombasa at the age of 88. BRIAN HARTLEY, CMG MBE became an agricultural officer in Tanganyika in 1929. He was said to have been the first man to observe the change that came over gravid locusts when they have finished swarming before laying their eggs. On one occasion he shot two impala for the pot not realising that they were sacred to a local secret society. He believed that he had become bewitched and for 30 years afterwards was affected by sleepleaping – he would leap out of bed in the night and sometimes jump out of windows and even off a roof. Later he farmed in Arusha until his farm was confiscated in 1966 by the Nyerere government and later still, at the age of 80, he introduced camels to Tanzania by walking with a troop of them for some 300 miles from northern Kenya (Thank you Debbie Simmons for this information – Editor).

JOHN BOYD-CARPENTER (67) spent approximately 40 years in Tanganyika/Tanzania having joined Amboni Sisal as an Engineer and then later became Chief Engineer of NAFCO. He retired to Arusha in 1990 (Thank you Donald Wright for this information – Editor).

Professor ABDULRAHMAN MOHAMED BABU (72) who died at the London Chest Hospital London on August 5 was a celebrity. At one time a formidable political force who first struggled against colonialism, then introduced communism and finally became an advocate of multiparty democracy. He could be described as one of the founding fathers of Tanzania. His fiery rhetoric, incisive mind, analytical methodology and his prominence in international left wing circles made him a well-known figure on all continents. His friends included Che Guevara, Chou en Lai, Lord Brockway, Malcolm X and Pakistan’s Zulfikar Ali Butto.
He was born of mixed parents whose origin was in the Comoro’s and the Middle East. It was a distinguished religious family. He acquired a number of degrees in politics and economics and his first job was with the Zanzibar Clove Growers Association in the 1940’s. In 1957 he became Secretary General of the Zanzibar National Party (ZNP). After publishing an editorial alleging that the British had turned Zanzibar into a police state he was imprisoned for sedition. He came out a hero but in 1963 broke away from the ZNP and formed his own Marxist Umma Party which joined in seriously challenging the power of the then Sultan. After his party merged with the stronger Afro-Shirazi Party he became prominent as an organiser of the 1964 Zanzibar Revolution.
There followed several high positions in the Zanzibar and Tanzania Union governments until 1971. In April 1972 Zanzibar President Abeid Karume was assassinated. Although Babu was out fishing when the deed was done, he was tried in absentia and sentenced to death. By detaining him in a mainland prison away from Zanzibar Mwalimu Nyerere saved his life. After his release in 1978 he went to the USA to teach at university and then moved to Britain as a journalist. He entered the political arena in Tanzania again in 1995 when he was chosen as Vice-Presidential candidate for the NCCR party until he was banned because of his previous conviction. He had intended to spend his final days in Tanzania. But this was not to be. At his funeral in Zanzibar – his family obtained special permission for him to be buried at his home in Stonetown – political rivalries were forgotten as President Amour joined leaders of NCCR and other opposition parties and thousands of other mourners to bid him farewell. Babu was a man of great charm and he remained youthful in spirit. His death leaves a void in both Britain and Tanzania.

CHIEF STANISLAS KASUSURA (71) former Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly and Chairman of the National Milling Board died at his home in Biharamulo on March 25.

LT.COL. PIP FRASER-SMITH CBE (74) was awarded an MC when serving with an intelligence unit operating behind the Japanese lines in Burma during the Second World War. In Tanganyika he held many posts including DC Maasailand and Dar es Salaam and, after Independence, Provincial Commissioner, Mwanza, Regional Commissioner, Mtwara and eventually Commissioner for Village Settlements in Dar es Salaam (Thank you Randal Sadleir for this note).

NICK NYOKA (Kiswahili for snake) the Stockton-born zookeeper and owner, who was described in the Daily Telegraph as a fearless subjugator of wild animals has died. He owned ‘Cassius’ which, at 28ft. was the longest snake in captivity and also ‘Simba’ the largest captive lion in the world which he caught on the Serengeti Plain in 1959. The lion weighed 826 lbs and consumed more than 20 lbs of meat and a gallon of milk every day. It appeared in the film ‘Cleopatra’ with Elizabeth Taylor in 1963.

CANON WILLIAM (BILL) L SPENCER (80) died on March 25 at Ndanda Hospital. He first went to Tanzania in 1952 and served as a parish priest at Nachingwea for many years before returning in 1986 to St. Cyprian’s College, Lindi, where he continued to teach with devotion as long as possible. (Thank you Christine Lawrence for this note – Editor).

HUGH FRANCIS LAMPREY (67), Director of the Mweka College of African Wildlife Management (1962-66) and of the Serengeti Research Institute (1966-72) died on February 10 after a long illness. He started his African career in the Tanganyikan Game Department (1953), where he designed methods of estimating game densities which are still widely used, and for which he received the OBE and the Order of the Golden Ark. His boundless enthusiasm and sympathy inspired many people and he will be remembered for his wide knowledge of ecology and natural history and his skills as a pilot. After postings in Nairobi with UNEP and the WWF until 1990 Hugh and his wife Ros lived in Devon (Little Widefield Farm, Inwardleigh, Okehampton).(Thank you Jane Kruuk for this note – Editor).

MRS EZERINA MALECELA (62) the wife of former Prime Minister John Malecela died in Nairobi on December 27. She had been until her death a Senior State Attorney and also the Chairperson of the Tanzania Girl Guides Association.

JOHN STANLEY MARCUS VINTER (77), who served in many administrative posts in Tanganyika/Tanzania from 1947 to 1962 died on December 14. He studied Islamic Law at SOAS and was later involved in the expansion of Makerere University and in the organisation of the 1962 Republic Day Celebrations. PROFESSOR MBOYA S D BAGACHWA (45), a leading economist and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Dar es Salaam, died on April 7

The recently retired Managing Director of the Tanzania Investment Bank (TIB) Mr GIBBONS MWAIKAMBO (57) died on September 4 after a car he was driving overturned. He was appointed General Manager of TIB in 1972 – the first African General Manager of an insurance corporation in Africa. In 1981 he was elected as a National Member of Parliament. Among many messages of condolence sent to his wife, Professor Dr. Esther Mwaikambo, was one from the Britain-Tanzania Society. She was the Hon. Secretary of its Tanzanian Chapter until recently.

The broadcaster THOMAS CHALMERS (82) died in Cambridge on August 30. He was the person who, in April 1945, announced on the BBC the news of Hitler’s death. He was in Tanganyika from 1958 until 1952, setting up the Tanganyika Broadcasting Corporation.

ISOBEL BUIST was, between 1945 and 1960, one of that formidable team of Women Education Officers who established and developed the education of girls in Tanganyika (Thank you Bill Dodd for this item).