PEOPLE IN THE NEWS : Sir Chande: He had a sincere love for people, a heart of gold

Dar es Salaam. It was a premonition! I do not exactly understand it then, but looking back, it sounds like foreboding that he was edging towards his life’s end.

In December last year, after an interview that I conducted with him for The East African newspaper, he mused aloud about what would happen to his home should he die. He disclosed that he had spent better part of his lifetime in that house, and he had many fond memories.

He told me that should he pass on, would his wife be willing to live in that house without him now that his children and grandchildren have their lives set in Britain? That is the moment, as friend of Sir Andy Chande’s, I lacked anything to say. Human beings have a way of shutting out death as an eventuality – I stayed mum.

We reverted back to the content of the interview that zeroed in on his heydays in the formative Tanganyika from era before independence, when he was a member of Legislative Council, his work, current economic, freemasonry, politics and what-not. Although I needed to leave urgently for I had deadlines to meet, I lingered on for I sensed that he needed the company.

We were at his home in the serene lush Masaki suburbs, an unpretentious but beautiful outdoor patio in his backyard, surrounded by breath-taking greenery. Although he is a man not to be kept waiting, I had been held in the traffic for 30 minutes was a bit apprehensive but he just let it go – at least for a friend.

Unlike the usual heaping of praises for the dad that we are accustomed to, this one is an elegy, a lamentation to a candid and amiable old man with a disarming smile and piercing eyes that read through you without intimating you, from which you could sense deep honesty and sincerity. A man I have personally been very fond of.

His age (he was 88), and with ailment stalking him (he had two open heart surgeries), he had the sharpest brain and very cheerful disposition – a genuine fatherly way of making one feel most comfortable.

His mien was that of man who had reached a certain level of self-actualization – one whose shoes are too big to fill by anyone I know. It is indeed doubtful whether such legacy can be achieved single-handedly in future of Tanzania. One cannot talk about nationalization without his name coming to the fore.

The next meeting was a pure coincidence. I had availed myself for the Robert Burn’s Supper organized by the Caledonian Society of Tanganyika at the little Theater in Msasani in the beginning of March. He happened to have been an invitee to this auspicious occasion that the Scottish people celebrate their poet Robert Burns.

We had a mundane chitchat normal for old friends but I was busy taking in what was happening during the event that we had no time for “serious” talk. That was the last time I saw Sir Chande alive.

What followed were correspondences telephone calls via his secretary Claudia. Last week, when I called to know how the old man was fairing, I was told that he was unwell and admitted to Agha Khan and that he was not in a position to talk. What followed was the sad news of his in Nairobi.

But how did I come to know him? That too, was utter coincidence too. An anonymous landline call and a request to report at Kioo Industries some years back was all it took. I was reminded that “Mzee” did not condone lateness. I arrived at the venue and was shown a seat in the boardroom.

Just as it happens with a new acquaintance, one is bound to feel a bit apprehensive – I was fidgety. When Sir Chande finally appeared, he went straight to asking me direct questions about me. It was when he dropped a bombshell: “What do you know about freemasons?”

From the time I wrote the first comprehensive feature on freemasonry, we became good friends. Of course the scenario was that media, especially the so-called “gutter press’ had taken upon maligning the craft and associating it with the diabolical. Someone had to straighten up things.

Sir Andy Chande was sagely to say the least. He has gone with so much history but fortunately, he was able to shed some light through his writing. An avid reader, his grasp of the Tanzania history and his worldview were phenomenal. If one were to write about them here, it would fill volumes and volumes.

In a nutshell, Sir Chande was District Grandmaster for East Africa from 1986 to 2005. The Duke of Kent on March, 2006 honoured him by conferring him the most prestigious award of Order of Service to Masonry. He was knighted by the Queen of England in 2005.

“I am struck by his deep conviction; readiness to sacrifice and readiness to serve. His deep loyalty to family relations, traditions and expectations, ardent advocacy of fairness. He is a person with clear identity and vision.”

He was philanthropist, a trustee, industrialist had his hands in charity. He has authored several books including Transition of a Life, Collected Works, A knight in Africa, which is an autobiography, and Whither Directing your Course, a communique to the various masonic lodges in East Africa. The proceeds from these books go to the charity.