Growing Up With Tanzania

F. Hirji

Description

In Growing up with Tanzania. Karim Hirji, a renowned Professor of Medical Statistics and Fellow of the Tanzania Academy of Science, presents a multi-faceted, evocative portrait of his joyous but conflicted passage to adulthood during colonial and early-Uhuru Tanzania. His smooth style engages the reader with absorbing true tales, cultural currents, critical commentary and progressive possibilities. By vibrantly contrasting the hope-filled sixties with the cynical modern era, he also lays bare the paradoxes of personal life and society, past and present.

Sujets

• Biography
• Autobiography

Informations

• Publié par: Mkuki na Nyota Publishers
• Date de parution: 17 juillet 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789987753031
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 8 Mo

Extrait

ENDORSEMENTS
Growing Up With Tanzania is more than a personal story;
it is also that of the birth of a nation and a vision.
Rich with anecdotes and an amazing cast of real life characters,
this thrilling memoir is an aesthetically satisfying mix of
memory, musings, meditations and mathematics.
People in all walks of life, young and old, must read it.
They will never look at numbers the same way.
˜˜Ngugi wa Thiong’o
Eminent African Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Activist, Scholar
Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature
University of California, Irvine.

Growing Up With Tanzania is a refreshingly detailed memoir
that sees Karim Hirji’s evolution from ‘life in a brown cocoon’
into a world citizen in a process moulded by societal dialectics,
exemplary icons, devoted teachers and mathematics.
Brimming with love for his country, yet also reflecting his
profound pain at its current malaise, it is tempered with
solutions which stand to benefit nations beyond his own.
Zarina Patel
Kenyan Author, Activist
Manging Editor, AwaaZ MagazineGrowing Up
With
TanzaniaGrowing Up
With
Tanzania
Memories, Musings and Maths



Karim F HirjiMkuki na Nyota Publishers
P. O. Box 4246
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
www.mkukinanyota.com
Copyright © Karim F Hirji 2014
ISBN: 978-9987-08-223-0
Cover Design: Mkuki B Bgoya
All rights reserved.
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stored in a retrieval system or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of
Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, Ltd.
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International Distributor:
African Books Collective
www.africanbookscollective.comTo
Amer Mohamed El-Batashi, Isaac Marande,
Nassoro Mitawa, Abdallah Madenge,
Abdul Karim Mohamed, Ram Jogi,
Said Alawi, Juma Balozi, Abdallah Abbasi
and
Mr Calvin Brooks & Mr Fred Isaya
and
Elias Kisamo, Navroz Lakhani,
Amilo Pipi, Nazir Virji
Say what you know,
do what you must,
come what may.
Sofya Kovalevskaya
Contents
Acronyms............................................................................... x
Preface ................................................................................. xi
Part I Memories
1 Lindi Life...................................................................... 3
2 Multiple Identities........................................................... 17
3 Split Personality ............................................................. 29
4 Two Teachers................................................................ 45
5 A New World 53
6 Parallel Universes............................................................ 69
7 From Carpentry to Calculus............................................. 85
8 National Service 103
Part II Musings
9 Education and Family..................................................... 123
10 and Community ...............................................137
11 Education and Nation 153
Part III Spirals
12 Spirals of Nature ........................................................... 173
13 of Solidarity .........................................................189
14 Spirals of Separation .......................................................201
15 of Despair .......................................................... 215
16 Spirals of Hope ..............................................................229
17 of Song...............................................................239
18 Spirals of Self.................................................................249
Appendix A: Recreational Mathematics ...................................... 263
Appendix B: Images of A Life ....................................................267
Acknowledgments and Notes 273
References and Readings.......................................................... 275
Author Profile ........................................................................ 286Acronyms
AKBS : Aga Khan Boys School
DTC : Dar es Salaam Technical College
ESR : Education for Self-Reliance
HQ : Head Quarters
IPS : Indian Public School
JK : Jamaat Khana
JKT : Jeshi la Kujenga Taifa
NGO : Non-Governmental Organization
NHC : National Housing Corporation
RM : Recreational Mathematics
SES : Socio-Economic Status
TANU : Tanganyika African National Union
TSh : Tanzania Shillings
UDSM : University of Dar es SalaamPreface
To live in mankind is far more
than to live in a name.
Vachel Lindsay

I WAS BORN INTO a tumultuous time. The people of Tanzania had begun to
decisively confront colonial rule. Small and substantial struggles were unfolding
everywhere. Though the British rulers attempted to derail the process by means
subtle and sordid, the people’s resolve did not diminish. All expectations
confounded, our nation triumphantly attained Uhuru (political independence)
on 9 December 1961. It was a peaceful, dignified transition, thanks in no small
part to the wise stewardship of Julius K Nyerere. Two years later, the feudal
regime of the Sultan of Zanzibar was dispatched to the dustbin of history, and
the two neighbors joined hands to form the United Republic of Tanzania.
Over the next decade, the new nation began to consolidate itself. The
colonizers had failed abysmally to improve the life of the common person,
placed barriers against sustainable socio-economic progress, and divided us
along race, religious and economic lines. We had a few rocky moments at
the beginning. Eventually, our people bonded together to confront the major
challenges before them. Projects in agriculture, health, education, industry,
communications and culture took off. They were later synthesized into a
socialistic policy aimed at promoting social equality, accountable leadership,
and self-reliant development. In external affairs, Tanzania emerged as a stellar
champion for the elimination of racist and colonial rule, and was globally
perceived as such. It was an energetic decade of multiple achievements in
which the generally engaged populace was in a forward looking, upbeat mood.
Personal and Social
These decades of epochal change in the nation were at the same time the first
two of my life. As I look back, I find a host of narratives worthy of
an audience. The upbringing, schooling, games, foibles and tribulations of my
cohort are light years apart from what my grandchildren encounter today. When
we meet them, which sadly is not that often, they insatiably seek childhood
stories from Babu (grandpa) and Nani (grandma). This book drew its initial
motivation from the wonder they display at what we tell them; it is firstly an
extended answer to Emma, Samir and their cohort.
But I see that the major transitions in my life reflected, to one degree or
another, the state of the nation, and the changes it experienced. While the
nation was ensnared by a racially restrictive social order, I was confined within
a brown coloured cocoon. As it emerged from that order, my social horizon
expanded, and my communal and national agendas began to harmonize. Asxii PREFACE
it struggled to stand on its own, so did I. As its education system expanded,
my educational vistas grew. As one enlightened teacher inspired the whole
nation, so a set of marvellous teachers moulded my life. When the call to
serve the nation came, I was ready. It was a plunge into a rough and tough
though simultaneously delightful and mind-numbing existence. As the hopes
and dreams of the new nation consolidated, my desires took shape. From a
colonial subject saluting the British, Indian and Ismaili flags, I evolved into a
fervent Tanzanian whose heartbeat resonated with the tunes of Mungu Ibariki
Afrika (God Bless Africa).
That story needs to be told too. This book embeds my personal journey within
the evolution of the society at large. As I trace my path from Newala to Lindi
to Dar es Salaam, Kibaha and Ruvu, I recall my family, friends, teachers and
schools, picture my surroundings, describe my adventures, note my religious and
secular activities, and allude to the movies, books and songs that mesmerized
me. Simultaneously, I elucidate the uplifting and the disquieting aspects of my
life, and reflect on race relations, morality, education, nationalism and politics.
And, in the process, I convey my understanding of how the local and national
socio-political environments affected the trajectory of my life.
Contents
The book has three parts: recollection (memories), reflection (musings) and
a meditation on the spirals of life. The first eight chapters comprising Part I
essentially follow the stages in my formal education. A special emphasis is
placed on my education in maths. I do that because it later became the central
pillar of my professional life. The bulk of the life events I relate occurred before
July 1968, th