January 31, 2010

ADABU ZA KUOMBA DUA

Mwenyezi Mungu S.W.T. na Mtume Wake S.A.W. wametufundisha jinsi ya kutekeleza adabu za kuomba dua wakati Mwislamu anapotaka kuomba dua ili ile dua yake ipate kujibiwa. Kama ifuatavyo:

1.NYAKATI TUKUFU ZINAZOKUBALIWA DUA.
Kuna nyakati maalum ambazo Mwislamu anatakiwa atekeleze ili dua yake ipate kukubaliwa kama vile:
a) Kuomba dua kila baada ya Sala ya Faridha
b) Kuomba dua saa katika siku ya Ijumaa
c) Kuomba dua wakati wa nusu ya usiku au theluthi ya usiku
d) Kuomba dua wakati mtu kafunga na wakati wa kufungua kwa mtu yule aliyefunga
e) Kuomba dua wakati vinapopiganwa vita vya Jihadi kati ya Waislamu na makafiri
f) Kuomba dua wakati inaponyesha mvua
g) Kuomba dua wakati wa kuona L-Ka`aba.
h) Kuomba dua wakati wa kusafiri
i) Kuomba dua wakati Waislamu wamekusanyika katika vikao vya kumdhukuru Mola
j) Kuomba dua wakati wa kunywa maji ya zamzam huko Makka.
k) Kuomba dua wakati wa kutufu (kuizunguka) L-Ka`aba
l) Kuomba dua siku ya Arafah
m) Kuomba dua kwa mtu anayehiji au anayefanya umra.
n) Kuomba dua wakati wa kusimama kwenye Ssafaa na Marwa
o) Kuomba dua katika Laylatul Qadri
p) Kuomba dua kwa mtu aliyedhulumiwa
q) Kuomba dua wakati anapowika jogoo
r) Dua ya mtoto mwema anapomuombea mzazi wake
s) Dua ya mzazi anapomuombea mwanawe
t) Kuomba dua wakati wa kumfumba maiti macho yake
u) Kuomba dua baada ya kutupa mawe kwenye jamra mbili ya kwanza na ya pili.
v) Kuomba dua katika mkusanyiko huko Muzdalifah, baada ya Sala ya Alfajiri
w) Kuomba dua baada ya Adhana
x) Dua ya mtu Mwislamu akimuombea nduguye Mwislamu nyuma ya mgongo wake naye hayupo.

2.KUELEKEA KIBLA NA KUNYOOSHA MIKONO.
Muombaji wakati anapotaka kuomba dua anatakiwa aelekee upande wa kibla na anyooshe mikono yake miwili. Kama alivyosema Mtume S.A.W. katika Hadithi iliyopokelewa na Salmaani L-Farsy R.A.A. na iliyotolewa na Ttirmidhi, “


‘‘إِنَّ اللَّهَ حَيِيٌّ كَرِيمٌ يَسْتَحْيِي إِذَا رَفَعَ الرَّجُلُ إِلَيْهِ يَدَيْهِ أَنْ يَرُدَّهُمَا صِفْرًا’’

Maana yake, “Hakika Mwenyezi Mungu Hai, Mkarimu anaona haya ikiwa mtu atamnyooshea mikono yake airudishe tupu.”
Muombaji akimaliza kuomba dua yake aipanguse mikono yake usoni mwake.Na wala muombaji asipandishe macho yake mbinguni. Kama alivyotukataza Mtume S.A.W. katika Hadithi iliyopokelewa na Abu Huraira R.A.A. na iliyotolewa na Muslim, “

‘‘لَيَنْتَهِيَنَّ أَقْوَامٌ عَنْ رَفْعِهِمْ أَبْصَارَهُمْ عِنْدَ الدُّعَاءِ إِلَى السَّمَاءِ أَوْ لَتُخْطَفَنَّ أَبْصَارُهُمْ’’
Maana yake, “Waache watu kupandisha macho yao mbinguni wakati wa kuomba dua au sivyo yatanyakuliwa macho yao.”

3.KUNYENYEKEA NA KUOMBA DUA KWA KHOFU BILA YA KUPAZA SAUTI..
Muombaji anatakiwa asipaze sauti yake wakati wa kuomba dua bali iwe kati na kati. Kwani Mola S.W.T. si kiziwi, anasikia maneno yote yanayosemwa na kila mtu na anaona kila kitu. Na hata anajua nia ya mtu moyoni mwake kabla hata hajaomba dua. Kama alivyosema Mwenyezi Mungu S.W.T. katika Suratil A`araaf aya ya 205, “
وَاذْكُرْ رَبَّكَ فِي نَفْسِكَ تَضَرُّعًا وَخِيفَةً وَدُونَ الْجَهْرِ مِنْ الْقَوْلِ بِالْغُدُوِّ وَالآصَالِ وَلا تَكُنْ مِنْ الْغَافِلِينَ

Maana yake, “Na mkumbuke Mola wako nafsini kwako kwa unyenyekevu na khofu, na bila ya kupiga kelele kwa kauli, asubuhi na jioni. Wala usiwe miongoni mwa walioghafilika.” Pia kasema katika Suratil Anbiyaa aya ya 90, “

إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا يُسَارِعُونَ فِي الْخَيْرَاتِ وَيَدْعُونَنَا رَغَبًا وَرَهَبًا وَكَانُوا لَنَا خَاشِعِينَ

Maana yake, “…Hakika wao walikuwa wepesi wa kutenda mema, na wakituomba kwa shauku na khofu. Nao walikuwa wakitunyenyekea.”

4.KUWA NA TUMAINI YA KUKUBALIWA DUA.
Muombaji anatakiwa wakati anapoomba dua asiwe na shaka nayo au wasiwasi kwamba labda atakubaliwa au labda atakataliwa. Bali awe na yakini moyoni mwake kwamba Mola atamsaidia na atamkubalia dua yake. Kama alivyosema Mwenyezi Mungu S.W.T. katika Surat Ghaafir aya ya 60, “

وَقَالَ رَبُّكُمْ ادْعُونِي أَسْتَجِبْ لَكُمْ...

Maana yake, “Na Mola wenu anasema: “Niombeni nitakujibuni (nitakuitikieni)…”

5..KUTOKATA TAMAA NA KUTOKUFANYA HARAKA KUJIBIWA.
Muuombaji anatakiwa asikate tamaa bali aendelee na kuomba dua na wala asilalamike kwa kusema, “Mbona nimeomba dua lakini sikujibiwa?” Bali awe na subira. Kama alivyotufundisha Mtume wetu S.A.W. kasema katika Hadithi iliyopokelewa na Abu Huraira R.A.A. na kutolewa na L-Bukhari, “

‘‘يُسْتَجَابُ لأَحَدِكُمْ مَا لَمْ يَعْجَلْ يَقُولُ: ‘‘دَعَوْتُ فَلَمْ يُسْتَجَبْ لِي’’
Maana yake, “Anakubaliwa mmoja wenu (dua yake) ikiwa hataharakisha kwa kusema, “Nimeomba lakini sikujibiwa.”

6.KUFUNGUA DUA KWA KUMDHUKURU MOLA.
Muombaji anatakiwa aanze kwanza kumtaja Mwenyezi Mungu Mtukufu, kisha amsalie Mtume S.A.W.., halafu amuombe Mola haja yake na amalizie kwa kumsalia Mtume S.A.W.. Kama vile kusema: “(1)INNA LLAAHA WAMALAAIKATAHU YUSALLUWNA `ALA NABIYYI YA-AYYUHA LLADHIYNA AAMANUW SALLUW `ALAYHI WASALLIMU TASLIYMA: (2)ALLAAHU MASALLI WASALLIM WA BAARIK `ALA SAYYIDINA MUHAMMAD. “(3)RABBANA GHFIRLIY WARHAMNIY INNAKA ANTA TAWWABU RRAHIYMU. (4)WASALLA LLAAHU `ALA SAYYIDINA MUHAMMAD WA`ALA AALIHI WA-AS-HAABIHI AJMA`IYNA


11.DUA YA KUOMBA KUTENGENEKEWA DINI NA DUNIA NA AKHERA.
Mwenye kutaka kutengenekewa na dini yake, na dunia yake, na Akhera yake, na maisha yake na mauti yake, basi aombe dua ifuatayo. Kama ilivyokuja katika Hadithi iliyotolewa na L-Bukhari na iliyopokelewa na Abu Huraira R.A.A. kasema, “Mtume S.A.W. alikuwa akiomba dua ifuatayo, “
‘‘اللَّهُمَّ أَصْلِحْ لِي دِينِي الَّذِي هُوَ عِصْمَةُ أَمْرِي ، وَأَصْلِحْ لِي دُنْيَايَ الَّتِي فِيهَا مَعَاشِي ، وَأَصْلِحْ لِي آخِرَتِي الَّتِي فِيهَا مَعَادِي ، وَاجْعَلِ الْحَيَاةَ زِيَادَةً لِي فِي كُلِّ خَيْرٍ وَاجْعَلِ الْمَوْتَ رَاحَةً لِي مِنْ كُلِّ شَرٍّ’’
“ALLAHUMMA ASLIH LIY DIYNIY LLADHI HUWA `ISMATI AMRIY, WA-ASLIH LIY DUN-YAAYA LLATIY FIYHA MA`AASHIY, WA-ASLIH LIY AAKHIRATIY LLAATIY FIYHA MA`AADIY, WAJ`ALI L-HAYAATA ZIYAADATAN LIY FIY KULLI KHAYRIN WAJ`AL L-MAWTA RAAHATAN LIY MIN KULLI SHARRAN.”
Maana yake, “Ewe Mwenyezi Mungu! Nitengenezee dini yangu ambayo ndiyo yenye mashikamano yangu, na unitengenezee dunia yangu ambayo ndiyo yenye maisha yangu, na unitengenezee Akhera yangu ambayo ndiyo marejeo yangu, na ujaalie uhai kwangu wa kheri zaidi, na ujaalie mauti kwangu yawe ya raha kutokana na kila shari.”

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Swahili Proverbs from Life and Politics in Mombasa


Sheikh Hyder el-Kindy was a Swahili political leader whose autobiography, Life and Politics in Mombasa, has a number of great Kiswahili proverbs:

"Kweli ikidhihiri, uwongo hujitenga" meaning when truth comes, falsehood disappears. This was said in relation to Sheikh Hyder's story of standing up to a brutal overseer while on a prison chain gang.

"Mtambua ndwee ndiye mganga" meaning he who diagnoses a disease is the physician. This was related by Sheikh Hyder after the installation of the new Tamim of the Thelatha Taifa (Three Tribes) a group of Swahili clans in Mombasa. He afterwards was appointed deputy Tamim.

"Kinolewacho hupata" meaning that Anything that is sharpened becomes sharper. This was said in relation to Sheikh Hyder's ambivalence about translating subservive Kiswahili political texts for the colonial police,(he worked as a translator), which implicated his grandnephew as an anticolonial agitator.

Sheikh Hyder relates many other stories about the social and cultural history of the coast. His memoirs are a valuable source for understanding the tension between "Arabs" and "Swahili" in the colonial era, the relationship between nationalism and Islam in Kenya, colonial political agitation, and some of the attitudes of postcolonial African leaders in Mombasa.

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Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering (Book Review)


In the discourse on Islam prevalent in the popular media and academia, one frequent Manichaen dichotomy one finds is that between so-called 'liberal' Islam and 'radical' or 'Islamist' Islam. This dichotomy is predicated on a superficial understanding of Islamic philosophy and Islamic discourse, in which the theological and philosophical bases for categorization are rarely revealed. If they are, the categories are those of Western liberal discourse, which whatever their virtues as 'universal' values cannot help but operate under particular blind spots and presumptions when it comes to Islamic philosophy.

I view Dr. Sherman Jackson's intervention in Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering as an intervention aimed to correct that ignorance. As such it is one of the best books I have read that attempts the work of cultural translation: that is interpreting Islamic philosophers from the Classical period (8th-12th centuries) in a manner which respects their philosophical positions and imbues their positions with meaning and relevance for the current era.

Dr. Jackson's book is structured as a response to another theological work, Is God a White Racist? by William Jones, which argues that traditional black theodicy overprivileges the idea of redemptive suffering, and that by implication they create the idea that God favors whites. In point of fact, Jones intellectual inspiration is more rooted in Camus and Sartre than any specific theologian from the Christian tradition.

To counter this bold and controversial statement, Jackson lays out the theological positions of the major Islamic theodicies: Mutazilite, Ash'arite, Mutiridite and Traditionalist. After an introduction and first chapter dealing with black theodicy and the problem of evil, he starts by outlining the basis of Quranic interpretation and the development of classical Islamic theology. He then systematically explains the arguments of the major schools over the basis of reason for interpreting truth, the real nature of God, the problem of free will, and God's omnibenevolence vs. God's omnipotence. At the end of discussing each school of thought, Jackson addresses the points of agreement and disagreement between their approach and Jones's.

This book actually works on two levels. Even if one does not have an interest in the various currents of black theology and theodicy as such, the book is one of the best explanations of classical Islamic philosophy I have read in English. It is simultaneously extremely erudite and accessible, a difficult balance pulled off by the author through his clear prose and consistent re-explanation of previous points in order to contrast them. He is passionate about taking the reader on a journey through these beliefs yet ultimately agnostic on his own preference, leaving that to the discerning reader. He does however, urge that blackAmerican Muslims equip themselves with the philosophical and conceptual tools to in order to shape the character of the Muslim community in America. His book is meant as a tool towards that end.

If I have one critique of this book, it is that Dr. Jackson does not historically situate many of these theological debates. Nor does he problematize to any great degree significant anti-black tendencies which inhere in the writings of some Arab scholars and poets. He writes of the hypocrisy of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington owning thousands of slaves, but he does not see fit to question or criticize a great number of Islamic scholars who operated under similar conditions. This brings us to the question of the links between race and slavery in the Islamic world, an uncomfortable topic for many. And it points to the gaps between idealist conceptions of a belief or religion (for example Islam's teachings on slavery) and the actual practice of Muslims in societies with great numbers of slaves (for example 19th century Zanzibar). For more on this debate, Hishaam Aidi has an interesting article. I won't say more because the debate is complex and a bit of a rabbit hole, but suffice to say that Jackson finessed his approach in discussing these provocative issues.

For example, in one footnote Jackson argues that although there is a presumed opposition between "Islam" and "the West", there is no presumed opposition between Islam and blackness. While this is in part true, it ignores significant historical events where in fact the two did conflict (i.e. the Zanzibar Revolution). Jackson does not engage at all with Bernard Lewis's discussion of race and Islam in Race and Slavery in the Middle East. Even if one disagrees vehemently with Lewis's political stances and often reductive writing about Islam, the sources he presents bear engagement and critique with, especially if Jackson's point is to be strengthened. In the end, Jackson's analysis points to a difficulty Jackson himself raises: how in particular cases of overemphasis "blackness" or "Islamic" become neologisms, with more meaning to the person who uses them than a common agreement about their provenance and direction.

I don't necessarily see these omissions as faults per se. They nevertheless point to the need for a historical engagement with these issues. Jackson's book is a work of theology, and in this dimension is is a skillfully argued plea for Islam as a religion capable of meeting the challenge of black suffering as well as a clear explication of Islamic theodicy. It remarkably succeeds in both the academic register and as a sustained personal plea.

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January 30, 2010

Pambazuka - Africa: Google moves into Swahili

Pambazuka - Africa: Google moves into Swahili

Google has sponsored a contest to encourage students in Tanzania and Kenya to create articles for the Swahili version of Wikipedia, mainly by translating them from the English Wikipedia, according to an article appearing in the New York Times. Swahili, because it is a second language for as many as 100 million people in East Africa, is thought to be one of the only ways to reach a mass audience of readers and contributors in the region.

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January 27, 2010

(Faustine's Baraza) K'naan Song Chosen as World Cup 2010 Anthem




A song belonging to the Somalia-born artist who now resides in Canada, K'Naan, "Wavin' Flag" has been chosen as the anthem song for the 2010 World Cup.
The tune will be released in 150 countries and played during every match of the month-long tournament due to starts on June 11 in South Africa.

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Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Yemen warns against interference

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Yemen warns against interference

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(The Nation)Kenyan gov't spends Sh40 million in deportation process


Oliver Musembi and Kenneth Ogosia

25 January 2010
The government spent more than Sh40 million to deport radical Jamaican Islamic preacher Sheikh Abdullah al Faisal.

Immigration and Registration of Persons minister Otieno Kajwang’ gave the figure on Monday as it emerged that two officers had been suspended for clearing the preacher to enter the country.

Without specifying the amount, the minister said it was “in excess of Sh40 million” but defended the expenditure as warranted.

“It is the responsibility of the State to ship back the likes of al Faisal and this was necessitated by the fact that some deportees turn violent. This makes commercial airlines uncomfortable with such travellers,” said Mr Kajwang’.

Sheikh al Faisal, whose arrest and subsequent deportation triggered fatal demonstrations by Muslim youths in Nairobi, was deported last week.

The government had to hire a private jet to fly him to Jamaica after airlines declined to transport him and various other countries denied him access.

An earlier attempt to deport him two weeks ago failed after airlines refused to take him on board from Nigeria to the Gambia.

Sheikh al Faisal entered Kenya on December 24, last year, from Tanzania through the Lunga Lunga border point. He had been to Nigeria, Angola, Mozambique, Swaziland and Malawi.

Sheikh al Faisal served four years in a United Kingdom prison after being convicted of calling for the murder of Jews and Hindus.

On Monday, it emerged that two Immigration officers had been suspended for sanctioning the entry of the Islamic hate preacher.

The two, the officer in charge of the border point and his junior, who stamped the preacher’s visa, are likely to face tougher action since the region’s principal immigration officer has been asked to prepare a report on the entry of Sheikh al Faisal.

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US walking a tightrope with its Yemen policy

US walking a tightrope with its Yemen policy

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Afrabia: Is it a mere intellectual fascination or can it be realised?


by Ali A. Mazrui
There are different levels of Pan-Africanism, varying in degrees of sustainability. Sub-Saharan Pan-Africanism is a quest for the unification of Black people in Africa below the Sahara. Then there are two possible versions of Continental Pan-Africanism.

The Sub-Continental version would seek the union of Black States while excluding Arab Africa. This idea has been floated from time to time, but it does not seem to have much political support. More triumphant has been Trans-Saharan Pan-Africanism which formed the Afro-Arab basis of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU,) and its successor, the African Union (AU).

Another version of sub-Saharan Pan-Africanism is sub-regional rather than sub-continental. The sub-regional variety has produced organisations like the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) which in recent years has been more activist as a peacekeeping force than as a vanguard for economic change.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has also received a new lease on life since South Africa became a full member in the post-apartheid era. In December 1999 Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania finally succeeded in reviving the East African Community since its collapse 22 years earlier.

But by far the most ambitious idea floating around in the new era of intellectual speculation is whether the whole of Africa and the whole of the Arab world are two regions in the process of merging into one. Out of this speculative discourse has emerged the concept of Afrabia.

Two tendencies have stimulated the new thinking about African-Arab relations. One tendency is basically negative but potentially unifying: The war on terrorism. The new international terrorism may have its roots in injustices perpetrated against such Arab people as Palestinians and Iraqis, but the primary theatre of contestation is blurring the distinction between the Middle East and the African continent.
In order to kill twelve Americans in Nairobi in August 1998, over 200 Kenyans died in a terrorist act at the United States Embassy in Nairobi. Four years later, a suicide bomber in Mombasa, attacked the Israeli-owned and Israeli-patronised Paradise Hotel. There too, three times as many Kenyans as Israelis died.
Independently of the war on terror, Islam as a cultural and political force has also been deepening relationships between Africa and the Middle East. Intellectual revival is not only in the Western idiom. It is also in the idiom of African cultures and African Islam. Hot political debates about the Shariah (Islamic Law) in Nigeria constitute part of the trend of cultural integration between Africa and the Middle East.

The new legitimation of Muammar Gaddafi as a viable African leader has contributed to the birth of no less a new institution than the AU. It is sometimes startling how much more Pan-Africanist than Pan-Arabist Gaddafi has become in recent years. At least for the time being, Gaddafi is out-Africanising the legacy of Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser.

The fourth force that may be merging Africa with the Middle East is political economy.

Africa’s oil producers need a joint partnership with the bigger oil producers of the Middle East.

In the area of aid and trade between Africa and the Middle East, the volumes may have gone down since the 1980s. But most indications seem to promise a future expansion of economic relations between Africa and the Middle East. In the Gulf countries of the United Arab Emirates and the Sultanate of Oman the concept of Afrabia has begun to be examined on higher and higher echelons.
It was initially Trans-Saharan Pan-Africanism which gave birth to the idea of Afrabia. The first post-colonial waves of Pan-Africanists like Kwame Nkrumah, Gamal Abdel Nasser and Sekou Toure believed that the Sahara was a bridge rather than a divide.

The concept of Afrabia now connotes more than interaction between Africanity and Arab identity; it is seen as a process of fusion between the two. While the principle of Afrabia recognises that Africa and the Arab world are overlapping categories, it goes on to prophesy that these two are in the historic process of becoming one.

But who are the Afrabians? There are in reality at least four categories. Cultural Afrabians are those whose culture and way of life have been deeply Arabised but have fallen short of their being linguistically Arabs. Most Somali, Hausa, and some Waswahili are cultural Afrabians in that sense. Their mother-tongue is not Arabic, but much of the rest of their culture bears the stamp of Arab and Islamic impact.
Ideological Afrabians are those who intellectually believe in solidarity between Arabs and Africans, or at least between Arab Africa and black Africa. Historically, such ideological Afrabian leaders have included Kwame Nkrumah, the founder president of Ghana; Gamal Abdel Nasser, arguably the greatest Egyptian of the 20th Century; and Sekou Toure, the founding father of post-colonial Guinea (Conakry.) Such leaders refused to recognise the Sahara Desert as a divide, and insisted on visualising it as a historic bridge.

Geographical Afrabians are those Arabs and Berbers whose countries are concurrently members of both the African Union and the Arab League. Some of the countries are overwhelmingly Arab, such as Egypt and Tunisia, while others are only marginally Arab, such as Mauritania, Somalia and the Comoro Islands.
As for genealogical Afrabians, these are those who are biologically descended from both Arabs and Black Africans. In North Africa these include Anwar Sadat, the former President of Egypt who concluded a peace treaty with Israel and was assassinated for it in 1982. Anwar Sadat’s mother was Black. He was politically criticised for many things, but almost never for being racially mixed.

Genealogical Afrabians in sub-Saharan Africa include Salim Ahmed Salim, the longest serving Secretary-General of the OAU, and the Mazrui clan scattered across Coastal Kenya and Tanzania. It should be noted that Northern Sudanese qualify as Afrabians by both geographical and genealogical criteria. These four sub-categories of Afrabians provide some of the evidence that Africa and the Arab world are two geographical regions that are in the slow historic process of merging.


About The Author:


Professor Ali A. Mazrui is the Chancellor of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology: http://www.jkuat.ac.ke/



Article Source: AfroArticles.com - Article Marketing Directory

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January 24, 2010

Tanzania Mourns The Death of Former VP Rashidi Kawawa



Former Tanzanian Vice President - Rashidi Kawawa

During the Presidency of Julius Nyerere, Rashidi Mfaume Kawawa was Vice President of Tanzania. He was nicknamed “the Lion of War” during the country’s Independence struggle. He also served as Prime Minister and was once the Secretary General of the Chama cha Mapinduzi. In an official statement, Tanzania’s current President Jakaya Kikwete said that the late Vice President died at 9.20 am on December 31, 2009 at Muhimbili National Hospital, where he was admitted three days ago in a low blood sugar-induced coma.He was a diabetic patient and that led to liver complications that eventually led to a heart attack that killed him.

The Country’s national flag will fly at half mast as a sign of respect for the VP’s death. Kawawa, was the effective ruler of the country from January to December 1972 while Julius Nyerere toured the countryside. Kawawa was a strong advocate of economic statism. After his retirement, Kawawa remained a behind-the-scenes influence in Tanzanian politics. The son of an elephant hunter and the eldest of eight children, Rashidi Mfaume Kawawa was born in the Songea district of Tanganyika (now Tanzania) in eastern Africa. After primary schooling in Dar es Salaam, he finished his formal education at Tabora Government Secondary School (1951-1956), the alma mater of Julius Nyerere, leader in the fight for Tanganyika’s independence. Kawawa refused the opportunity to continue his education at Uganda’s Makerere College, thus enabling his father to use the family’s limited resources to educate his siblings.

Kawawa’s first job was as a Public Works Department accounts clerk. This was a most difficult period for the young man. With the death of his father, he assumed the responsibility of supporting his younger brothers and sisters. In 1951 Kawawa realized a long-standing dream of becoming a social worker. He had actually inaugurated this career by organizing a literacy campaign for adults while a student in Dar es Salaam. On his new job Kawawa joined a mobile film unit engaged in government literacy programs. When it was decided to use the unit for educational filming, he was chosen as the only Tanzanian leading actor. He also served as a scriptwriter and a producer. Perhaps the most important aspect of Kawawa’s social worker career occurred when he was sent to central Tanzania (1953) to work among Kikuyu detainees held because of the Kenyan Mau Mau movement. He later described his successful work there as the “greatest challenge of my life.”

Kawawa joined the Tanganyika African Government Services Association, becoming its assistant general secretary in 1951 and its president in 1955. His main task was securing rights for government employees due them under Tanganyika’s laws. Realizing the advantages of a nationwide organization, Kawawa helped found the Tanganyika Federation of Labor (TFL) and was elected its first general secretary in 1955

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