Happy birthday Tanganyika
There was a story in The Citizen on Monday, November 30, titled “German to name a street in Berlin after Tanzanian independence activist”. The story was about Lucy Lameck, who was described in the story as “Tanzania’s first female cabinet minister as well as a leading figure in the country’s independence movement”.
For some reason, I was reminded of the media coverage of the passing of Job Lusinde in early July this year. He was described as the last surviving member of Tanganyika’s first cabinet after independence. At that point, the words of South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa in a statement after the passing of the last of Rivonia trialist Andrew Mlangeni, perfectly applies here, that “his passing signifies the end of a generational history and places our future squarely in our hands”. President Ramaphosa went on to say that the baton had been passed to his compatriots to build a better country.
These stories and others came to mind as Tanganyika prepares to celebrate 59 years of political independence from British rule. Why do these stories matter? Why should they be of any significance today or tomorrow?
With the passage of time, there is an increasing distance between us and the past. Successive governments since independence have strived to build a more prosperous and equitable country. However along this journey there were times we drifted dangerously off course, we got lost, at times we were unsure of what kind of country we want to build despite a blueprint from the early years of self-rule. It is impossible to fully appreciate whatever successes or failures or challenges encountered along this journey of national building without better understanding our past. That is a guide.
But with each story from that era and any casual spectator realizes that we are increasingly ignorant of the past. There are many manifestations of this today. Most of us would struggle to say exactly why we love this country if we do not turn to mountains, wildlife, rivers or lakes.
Those politically inclined will point to our role in the liberation struggles of many countries in southern Africa. Those with an ear for music will quickly rebuff any suggestions that some famous musicians or music bands of a previous era came from a neighboring country. Some will lament at what they perceive to be government’s insufficient efforts at address misinformation on how neighboring countries use this or that tourist attraction as belonging to them and not to this country.
Young people who are the majority bank their futures into some other countries; they are impatient to get away from this country. These have no time to dwell on a past they do not know or worse do not make any efforts to know. Slowly, they become a lost generation.
They feel that they have no stake in the present or the future of this country. They have no sense of belonging here. They see themselves as sharing in the miseries but feel alienated in the success of the country.
This country inherited all the pitfalls and the fault lines of colonial rule like any other African country which was colonized. Remarkable things were achieved in building some sense of identity in the early years of our nation-building project. Over the years, with our increasing ignorance and a cavalier attitude to the complexities of building a functioning nation-state in a continent where the spectrum ranges from the so-called “failed states” to those which are failing, to those which are disappearing or disappeared and anything in between, we are allowing ourselves to take things for granted.
In a perverse way, this might be one of the outcomes of some of the success we had in the past. We hear of horror stories from other countries on the continent and somehow see those horrors as not applicable to us.
A country of hopeless and desperate people is a danger to itself.
As Tanganyika celebrates political independence, it is important that we look at the past to better appreciate the journey we have travelled so far. That way, we will be more assured of the steps we take going forward.
Happy Birthday Tanganyika.
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By Erick Mwakibete
Email: [email protected]
