Meeting with Freemasons, dodging their late dinner

Along Post Road in Mwanza stands one of the city’s oldest buildings. It hosts the Ladha Meghji Indian Public Library—a house once used in the 1950s by freedom fighters in East Africa to organise the struggle against colonialism.

During my days as the bureau chief for The Citizen and Mwananchi in the Lake Zone, I was a regular visitor to this building. I would chat with Mr Desai—a teacher- turned librarian, who taught in many secondary schools in Tanzania, including the famous Lake Secondary School, a private school that survived the nationalisation wave. Mr Desai and I have known each other since the 1990s, when I taught History and Economics at this school.

Through Mr Desai, I came to know a prominent businessman called Shah, who was also a frequent visitor to the library. He preferred to go there in the evenings. Mr Shah was a humble but wealthy businessman, by Mwanza standards, and was also a regular reader of The Citizen.

I wasn’t aware, though, that Mr Shah was a member of the Freemasons fraternity. One day, he called and asked me to meet him at the Library at 6pm. He had an important request to make because there would be very important visitors from the East African region in the next few days.

When I arrived, Mr Shah was chatting with Mr Desai and both welcomed me warmly. I waited with bated breath. Finally, he started with the remarks: “You know I am member of Freemasons and next week we shall be launching our brand new lodge. All the top leaders of the Eastern Africa district will be here.”

The Freemasons Lodge needed coverage of the launch and their charity work at Montessori Training Centre, which belonged to the Roman Catholic Church. My understanding was that Freemasons were a secret society and I was shocked to be invited to cover their activities.

There were many journalists based in Mwanza who represented various media houses, and I had no clue why he had chosen to invite me to the event. It turned out that, as the coordinator, he had chosen The Citizen because they were keen to get coverage in an English newspaper.

Given the myths that are associated with Freemasons, I had my doubts about this unusual invitation. What if it was a trap? In the end, the prospect of a scoop was too tempting and I told myself I should attend, but on one condition—that I should be allowed to interview the Grand Master of Eastern African chapter, who would attend the launch.

Two days later, Mr Shah called me with the news that my request had been granted. The then managing editor of the Sunday Citizen, Ms Sakina Datoo, and the MCL group managing editor, Mr Theophil Makunga, were excited about the prospect of the report but somewhat worried about my meeting the leaders of an organisation considered secretive and dangerous. After consultations with Ms Datoo, we agreed that I should go and get the story.

“Be careful and keep us updated about everything…make sure you have a backup so that in case of anything, you will still be safe,” said Ms Datoo, one of the most courageous and tough editors I have ever worked with.

I had previously heard shocking stories about Freemasons, especially from Christian preachers such as the Reverend Bishop Moses Kulola, now departed. I had also read a lot of literature about this organisation and watched the documentary The Secret History of the Freemasons that was hosted by Oscar winner Nicholas Cage.

The documentary was made by the History Channel and offers an unprecedented view of one of the world’s most mysterious secret organisations—the Freemasons. It features the group’s inner workings, secret rituals and revelations of the 33rd-degree Master Mason.

I also had an opportunity to watch Freemasons: The Silent Destroyers, which depicts the organisation as a cult of selected men with hidden agenda. Also on my list was Rites and Wrongs, a documentary by the UK’s ITV—a fascinating documentary that goes behind the bricked-up windows of the Masonic temples to reveal the secrets of the craft.

The ITV documentary poses the question: “Why does anybody need to throw a rope around your neck and present you with a sharp blade to reinforce their obligations?” I had also done an undercover investigation on the Freemasons to establish who the real members were in the 1990s—and produced an exclusive story about the “Who is Who” in the fraternity.

After all I had read and seen about Freemasons, I was finally face to face with the real thing—meeting those considered the most secretive and deceptive of men and, above all, masters of conspiracy.

The meeting did not only come at a time I did not expect it, but it came as an invitation from a man I would never have put down as a member of this organisation—a humble, law-abiding and wealthy man.

I went to this meeting not only full of questions but also doubtful and fearful of the unknown. To get a clearer picture, imagine that you are going to dine with people considered to have mysterious powers and rumoured to believe in human sacrifice to consolidate their power.

You are meeting people who reportedly manipulate the political system in any country by mysterious means. You are meeting people who supposedly worship naked at midnight as they gather in their lodges.

If there’s one thing that I have learnt as a journalist, it is to follow the story to the end and keep my readers well informed. This has sometimes landed me in trouble with the authorities—especially when chasing a story affecting the “untouchables.”

I have talked to many people about Freemasons, and there have been just about as many versions of who they are. To some, Freemasons are a secret cult. To others, it is an exclusive club of well educated, influential and considerably rich men around the globe.

The Mwanza Lodge

Along the rough and dusty road to the richest suburb of Capri-point in Mwanza city, just a few metres from the famous Hotel Tilapia, stands a building that is often closed until midnight. Members gather here for their traditional meeting—especially on Monday evenings.

The building stands just few metres from the shores of Lake Victoria and it smacks of a ghostly, abandoned residential house. But, what happens inside this building is the subject of many debates, rumours and far-fetched stories about the nature of Freemasons in Dar es Salaam and Mwanza—especially after the death of Bongo Movie star Stephen Kanumba.

On the day the new building was to be launched, I was invited to cover the charity works prior to the occasion and interview the top leadership of the organisation.

Facing Freemason members

On a warm evening on May 19, 2007, I was deep in conversation with the top leadership of the Freemasons in Mwanza. My first question to the deputy Grand Master of the Eastern Africa District, Mr Walter Obado Ookok, was why the organisation was often associated with dirty and mysterious activities.

Choosing his words carefully, he tells me Freemasons had no link at all with devil worship. He insisted that the group was a charity club on a mission to develop man spiritually and physically—and make him better. But how do you accomplish that if you are not a religion? The Masonic members can, it appeared. “We have no connection with the devil,” Mr Ookok, the only black man in this gathering tells me. “We believe in the Supreme Being.”

The mission of Masonry, he says, is to teach a man a duty he owes God, his neighbour and himself. Charity work and community involvement are important parts of Masonic life. “Freemasonry is not affiliated with any religious group, but members are required to profess belief in a supreme being,” says Mr Ookok, who is the first African to rise to the highest rank of leadership within the fraternity in East Africa. “It is true that the public doesn’t understand what we are and our mission…some have associated us with devil worshipping cults but this is not true.”

This was a rare event. The fraternity, which operates secretly and especially so after the first and second world wars, has rarely granted an interview to the media in Tanzania since 1904, when it was first established in Zanzibar before taking root in Nairobi two years later. Worldwide, the masonic fraternity was started 300 years ago.

I wanted to know whether women are allowed to become members. It turned out there are six conditions to joining the Freemasons fraternity. As other members listen keenly, he lists them. You must believe in the Supreme Being, be above 21, be a law abiding citizen, be able to afford membership fees and be free of financial constraints at the personal and family levels.

The sixth condition is that women are not allowed to be members of the fraternity.

The Deputy Grand Master tells me that the fraternity believes in three main fundamentals of life—brotherly love, relief and truth. The third principle is the foundation of every human virtue.

Brotherly love teaches all Freemasons to regard the entire human species as a single family created by an Almighty Being. “We teach members to love each other, to hate poverty and to seek the truth about the connection between the Supreme Being and man…this is not worshipping the devil.”

Freemasons do not have a written or oral divine book. They have no theology or philosophy. There are holy gatherings, according to the Deputy Grand Master, that take place 10 times a year, but no divine book is used.

“We allow the Holy Bible and Quran plus other religious books to be used during our meetings…this is because we respect all people and their faiths,” he adds.

Outside the walls of Masonic lodges, many people believe there are worship activities taking place secretly, but the Deputy Grand Master, who is number two to Sir Andy Chande, tells me there is no holy book that governs these men. All they have are agreed rules. But Christian evangelists I spoke with earlier believed that Freemasons—like Mormons—have their own bible.

Going by my own survey, there is no such thing, even in the Western world. I have seen the books of Mormons, Scientology, Buddhism and many more. If Freemasons have one, then it must be a top secret, stashed away somewhere.

Why do Freemasons operate secretly? In answering this question, the Deputy Grand Master tells me that it was because of the suffering of Masonic members in Europe during the World War I and World World II.

He adds: “We have been operating secretly because of our history, especially during the First and Second World wars—when most of our members were killed in Europe …but we are changing and becoming very open to the public. ‘This is why most people have misunderstood our mission but we are hopefully moving closer to the public.”

It was not only Freemasons who suffered during that period, though. Adolf Hitler killed six million Jews in the infamous Holocaust with the support of the top leadership of the Catholic Church.

I again asked the deputy Grand Master where the strength of Freemasons is in Africa. Freemasonry, he tells me, has been growing among influential people, including senior politicians who have joined it in the past few decades. He adds: “We have been getting more influential people across the continent, with West Africa being the stronghold in terms of growth…some of our members are heads of state, prominent politicians, business people and highly educated people.”

Freemasons define their set of beliefs as “a system of morality”, using the metaphors of operative stonemasons’ tools and implements, against the allegorical backdrop of the building of King Solomon’s Temple, to convey what is most generally defined as “a system of morality” veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols.

I want to dig into the matter some more but ran out of time. It was time for members to do what had brought them to Mwanza—open the new Lodge. It seemed that I had stayed too long, though our conversation lasted only an hour—sometimes interrupted by incoming guests or a “ ‘what on earth is going on here” look from some of the members who didn’t know who I was. When I phoned my editor, after the interview, the first questions she asked were: “Are you safe? How did it go? Did you eat the food?”

I never ate on the excuse that I was hurrying to file the story and that the deadline had expired. I have continued reading a lot of literature on Freemasons, including the famous novel by Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol—which is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the myths and mysteries associated with this organisation.

If you cannot read, you cannot lead and I believe in reading and research to gain more knowledge—which is the most powerful tool in life.

I love reading the Prologue of Dan Brown’s Lost Symbol, which starts with a 34-year-old initiate who gazed down at the human skull cradled in his palms. We are told that the skull, which was hollow like a bowl, was filled with blood-red wine. Dan Brown writes:

“As was tradition, he had begun this journey adorned in the ritualistic garb of a medieval heretic being led to the gallows, his loose-fitting shirt gaping open to reveal his pale chest, his left pant leg rolled up to the knee, and his right sleeve rolled up to the elbow. Around his neck hung a heavy rope noose—a cable tow as the brethren called it. Tonight, however, like the brethren bearing witness, he was dressed as a Master.

“The assembly of brothers encircling him all was adorned in their full regalia of lambskin aprons, sashes and white gloves. Around their necks hung ceremonial jewels that glistened like ghostly eyes in the muted light. Many of these men held powerful stations in life, and yet the initiate knew their worldly ranks meant nothing within these walls. Here all men were equals, sworn brothers sharing a mystical bond.”

If you read The Lost Symbol, you will definitely ask some questions about things like red wine served in a human skull, heavy rope noose or cable tow hanging on the initiate’s neck and many more. All these just deepen the truth and reality about Freemasons.