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).

The sudden death in London (from what is believed to have been a stroke) of the controversial former Finance Minister PROFESSOR KIGHOMA MALIMA (57) on August 6 caused a shock in Dar es Salaam as his name had rarely been out of the news headlines for several months, following revelations about serious deficiencies in revenue collection while he had been Finance Minister last year. President Mwinyi subsequently appointed him to the post of Minister for Industries and Commerce. The Professor then announced on June 9 that he had resigned from the government. The next day he was in the news headlines again accusing his successor as Minister of Finance, Lt Col. Kikwete, of being engaged in malicious acts bent on character assassination against him. A week later he announced publicly that he would pay immediately Shs 5.2 million in tax liability which he had incurred on two used cars he had imported from Belgium. Having lost his bid to become a CCM presidential candidate, he then sprang a further surprise when, at a congregation of Muslim workers, he announced his resignation from the CCM. On July 16, in Tabora, he announced that he was joining the National Reconstruction Alliance (NRA) party and was, soon afterwards, chosen as its presidential candidate. Both President Mwinyi and Prime Minister Msuya sent condolences to the family and expressed great sorrow at the news of his death.

DR. AMIR HABIB JAMAL died on March 21. He was a senior Minister in every post-independence government up to 1986 and elected as an MP with big majorities in every election from 1958 to 1980. He was Minister of Finance 1965-1972, 1975-77, 1979-80 and 1980-83 and held many other senior positions. Mwalimu Nyerere described him in a moving speech as ‘a person of absolute integrity dedicated to selfless service; he was never a ‘Yes man’; he argued for the measures he felt necessary or opposed others which he felt were mistaken; he groomed for leadership those who worked with him; he was a Tanzanian of whom we can be proud’ (Thank you Naseem and Firoz Manji for this notice – Editor).

JUSTICE AUGUSTINO SAIDI who died on April 22 was the first Tanzanian Resident Magistrate and the first Tanzanian to serve as Chief Justice after independence.

GERRY FINCH was in Tanzania from 1951 to 1963 and served as a District commissioner in Chunya. Prior to that he was an officer in the King’s African Rifles. He and his wife acted for many years as hosts of the popular annual ‘Tanganyika Reunions’ in London.

FREDDY JACKSON served in Tanzania from the late forties until the mid-fifties; he became DC in Handeni and Manyoni.

ROBERT PATTERSON was in Tanzania from 1974 to 1960 and served as District Commissioner in Kisarawe. (Thank you Mr Durdant-Hollamby for the above three notices – Editor)

ROBIN (RALPH) ELWELL-SUTTON has died at his home in Provence. He was Headmaster of a number of secondary schools in Tanzania in the 1950’s (Thank you Randal Sadleir for this notice – Ed).

GEORGE WARREN SHAW OBE was a former British Council Representative in Tanzania who served also in Yugoslavia, Brazil, Nigeria, Ghana and Germany; he died on the evening of June 6th.

AMIR JAMAL who died in March in Canada was one of the earliest members of the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), served in many cabinet positions after independence.

BILL TULLOCH was in Tanzania from 1951 to 1963 and served as a District Commissioner. He wrote a children’s book Kishanda and the Elephant based on the friendship between his daughter and an orphaned elephant calf. After Tanzania he tried several business ventures but became best known as a successful racehorse owner.

JOHN OWEN, Director of National Parks (1960-70) was described in The Guardian (March 6) as the outstanding conservationist of his time who was largely responsible for forming the magnificent national park system as it is today.

Former holder of several ministerial posts Mr NSILO SWAI died at the age of 69 on October 10th. He was buried at his farm at Mkuu Machame in Kilimanjaro Region – Daily News.

JOSEPH NYERERE, younger brother of Mwalimu Nyerere, described in the Daily News as ‘an outstanding nationalist’. He resigned from his post as Secretary-General of the TANU Youth League in 1970 to become the first national leader to opt for life in an Ujamaa village.

I K PATEL, banker and philanthropist, held various posts in Barclays Bank including director of banking operations at Dar es Salaam in the sixties before moving to Britain.