Temba: Tanzanian-American who sees potential of dual citizenship

Dr Anicetus Temba has found success in the food processing systems business; his story of emigration to the United States spans back close to half a century when Nyerere’s government sent young men and women abroad for further studies, trying to curb the lack of engineers in the young nation that just gained its independence 15 years ago.

He would enrol for a degree in industrial engineering and a speciality in electro-mechanics at Mexico Polytechnic, then known as Centro National Technical Industrial.

The Kagera war between Tanzania and Uganda would wipe the coffers in the former’s treasury, and the government stopped funding Temba’s education.

 In 1980, he moved to the US, where he joined Colorado Technical University, where he attained his Master’s in Business Science with a specialisation in information technology, project management, and industrial transformation.

Walking around his luxurious home, it’s evident Dr Temba has never forgotten where he comes from; Tanzanian paintings hang on the wall; he has a special ‘African room’ where he and his buddies meet up for a little drink and conversation, and he said that is where they have a barbeque that they gratinate to a controlled temperature to achieve their desired flavour; he points out the solar-powered braiser would be effective in Tanzania and avoid deforestation caused by the need for charcoal in everyday cooking.

Dr Temba is eager to introduce his inventions in Tanzania, and he is hopeful the rumoured ‘ special status bill’ for Tanzanians in the diaspora who have taken up foreign citizenship to be recognised in their motherland is true.

He said he painfully remembers the day he lost his Tanzanian citizenship; no one was informed that an immigration act of 1995 had been passed and enforced.

He came to read of it when he was going through the revised constitution, and he promptly reached out to the embassy in Washington, DC, but he wasn’t given a straight answer.

“I felt devastated because it’s the Tanzanian government that paid for me to study abroad, and then I found out I am no longer a citizen,” he said.

Like most of his peers in the 1970s, young men with promising futures in science were sent abroad for studies; some went to England, Norway, Russia, Canada, and other countries to acquire the much-needed education and go back to revive the industrial sector that lacked skilled labour after independence, but here he was learning the new development and was left in limbo.

He still believes the Immigration Act 1995 was not advantageous to Tanzania; he said the government had spent so much taxpayers’ money to sponsor the education of its countrymen abroad and the very people who were supposed to go back to Tanzania after earning their degrees were left in foreign countries where they had no choice but to assimilate and make those countries their new home and were not even informed they would lose their Tanzanian citizenship if they took another nationality.

But in 2024, like many Tanzanians in the diaspora, he hopes for good news but is cautious not to be so optimistic, for he doesn’t know what the special status entails.

He says with the vast knowledge that they have accumulated in the West, the diasporans could play a vital role in the transfer of expertise and experience and expedite economic growth.

He was one of the pioneers pushing for recognition of Tanzanians abroad; their initial aim was to have dual citizenship recognised; that was in 1995, the very year it was revoked.

In 2016, the government was willing to look at ‘ special status’ rather than dual citizenship, with the Diaspora Council of Tanzanians in America (DICOTA) at the forefront of advocating for it.

Dr Temba is grateful for whatever recognition they can achieve from the 30 years of lobbying for their rights.

He hilariously remembers the first time he came to the US and saw an elevator; he wanted to run away from it.

He had left Tanzania when the whole country didn’t have one, so the new technology scared him, but fast forward to today, and he is one of the sought-after inventors and engineers.

A man with vast experience and accolades in America, Dr. Temba with a PhD in Applied Management, Decision Science, and Information Management Systems, could be a valuable asset to a developing country like Tanzania, and he dreams of transferring his knowledge to the younger generation.

Fear of reintegrating the diasporans back in Tanzania is still a factor; the government is grappling with refining exactly what special status’ is, and if the bill is presented and passed into law, it would be interesting to read the fine lines: would they be allowed to own land or participate in politics? The two major issues have been a hurdle from the very beginning.

“There is a study that shows most people in the diaspora have no desire to involve themselves with politics; we do not need that,” he emphasised.

He said he is however very appreciative of whatever the government provides in the ‘special status’ but most importantly is the ability to stay in Tanzania without a need for a visa.

He hopes shortly they will be able to get dual citizenship as the law can always be amended.

Dr Temba was born in Kishumundu village in Moshi 72 years ago, and he hopes to be able to invest and be part of the diaspora that can economically uplift the community they came from, but he is wary of the law and how much his investment will be protected; he doesn’t want to wake up one day and find out that the government can lawfully confiscate his hard-earned investment simply because he is now an American citizen, hence considered a foreigner.

Often he goes back to Moshi to hang out with his old friends and share a cup of local brew famously known as mbege and reminisce about the old times and catch up with new stories.

During these meetings, he feels like any other Tanzanian and his friends don’t see him as a foreigner.

The only thing is that his time to stay in his motherland is limited by the duration of his visa, and he hopes that restriction will no longer be an issue once the ‘ special status’ is approved into law.

Dr Temba runs several programs in collaboration with universities in America.

He said he works on sustainable systems; the food drying and solar power systems he develops are taught to students from across the world, and he has tried to reach out to the University of Dar es Salaam so that he can share his knowledge with Tanzanian students to no avail, but he hopes he gets that opportunity to pass down his knowledge to fellow Tanzanians.