Tanganyika's forgotten heroes (and heroines)

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Friday, 02 December 2011 21:56

By Karl Lyimo MARY IBRAHIM & MANY OTHERS Do you remember Mohammed Bouazizi? No? Perhaps you've never heard of him?  No, I think you may've heard or read of him en passant, as you were mentally – aurally and/or visually –  'roaming' in a world that is fast becoming saturated with state-of-the-art information and communication technologies! Let me jog your memory somewhat! Tunisian Mohammed Bouazizi is described as “the young man who started the Revolution in Tunisia and Egypt” at the beginning of this year, a short 11 months ago! The 26-year old unemployed university graduate immolated himself, soaked in petrol on December 17, 2010, and died in hospital 19 days later. He did this out of utter frustration and total humiliation, after the local police in Sidi Bouzid confiscated his stock of fresh fruit and petty trading equipment – while a female police officer publicly slapped him in the face! Apparently, the young man had got sick and tired of shelling out bribes to greedy extortionist officials who knew he didn't have a trading permit... Now, where did I hear/see this before? In Tanzania's metropolises where municipal askaris do exactly that to 'uncooperative' petty (Machinga) traders. About 5,000 Tunisians, mostly jobless youths, turned up at Bouazizi's funeral in respectful sympathy – “but they were prevented from marching by the Tunisian secret police!”  ['AndAnotherThing': Feb. 3, 2011; © 2011 Stanza Ltd.]. Now, where else did I see/hear of mass gatherings been arbitrarily banned...? Oh, in Tanzania, of course! But, that's another story...  The story here today's about unsung heroes inside and outside Tanzania. Mohammed Bouazizi is one of the latter, a non-Tanzanian who set in motion a major revolutionary trend in the Middle East & Northern African countries (Mena} that continues to reverberate around the world. Before you could complete saying 'May Bouazizi's Soul Rest in Eternal Peace,' the Tunisian Government of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali had collapsed under the 'Jasmine Revolution,' inspired by the Bouazizi spirit.  This is to say nothing of what went on in Egypt and Libya practically next-door... And what's going on in Yemen, Syria and Bahrain ad infinitum! It may be said the Mena populations are dissatisfied with their megalomaniac regimes and thieving leaderships which seek to perpetuate themselves and their ilk in power. That's why they move Heaven and Earth to put their offspring, kith and kin in power alongside themselves – and after them when they inevitably have to pay the Final Debt of Nature at the Altar of the Ultimate Sacrifice! Back to Tanganyika/Tanzania... Who are our unsung and otherwise forgotten heroes (and heroines)? Exactly who, for instance, discovered the precious gemstone 'tanzanite' which is unique to this country – and is mined in rustic Simanjiro, where cattle herds are more precious to the Maasai than gemstones? Who was Mary Ibrahim, whom we were told at school by our British teachers and administrators that she had pioneered the first private primary school in the Mtoni area of sprawling Dar es Salaam in the 1950s?  Who was... sorry I've run out of editorial space... Cheers! [ israellyimo@yahoo.com