Growing Up With Tanzania

Karim 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: 2
• EAN13: 9789987753000
• Langue: English

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.
Ng g 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 Magazine
Growing Up With Tanzania
Growing Up With Tanzania
Memories, Musings and Maths

Karim F Hirji
Mkuki 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.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, 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.
Visit www.mkukinanyota.com for information about and purchase of Mkuki na Nyota books. You will also find featured authors, interviews, and news about other publisher/author events. Sign up for our e-news letter for updates on new releases and other announcements.
International Distributor: African Books Collective www.africanbookscollective.com
To
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
Preface
Part I Memories
1 Lindi Life
2 Multiple Identities
3 Split Personality
4 Two Teachers
5 A New World
6 Parallel Universes
7 From Carpentry to Calculus
8 National Service
Part II Musings
9 Education and Family
10 Education and Community
11 Education and Nation
Part III Spirals
12 Spirals of Nature
13 Spirals of Solidarity
14 Spirals of Separation
15 Spirals of Despair
16 Spirals of Hope
17 Spirals of Song
18 Spirals of Self
Appendix A: Recreational Mathematics
Appendix B: Images of A Life
Acknowledgments and Notes
References and Readings
Author Profile
Acronyms 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 Salaam
Preface
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 decades 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. As 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, that is, just before I began my university level studies. However, when called for, I venture beyond that time frame, especially in Part III.
In Part II, I reflect on education related matters arising in Part I. They include my informal learning within the family environment, how race and education interacted over time, the ups and downs of the national education policy, and the teaching of maths in school. That exercise leads me to ruminate on personal and social responsibility, and present my views on educational reform in Tanzania.
In Part III, I inquire about the places, people, images and ideas I was associated with in my formative years. How have those places changed? How did those people navigate through these fifty odd years? How does the outlook of my cohort differ from that of the youth of today? What messages do those transformations convey? Addressing such questions finds me floating along diverse spirals of personal and societal change, and, in a nostalgic mood, connecting with individuals, social groups and institutions on the mental and real planes.
This memoir has an atypical feature: All chapters end with a section that contains elementary but eye-opening material linked to my education in maths. These minuets show the beauty of a major love of my life - mathematics - and offer my views on how it was being taught in my days, and on how it should be taught. The title lines of these sections are set apart by the symbol ; the reader who so desires may skip them without loss of continuity.
For sources and related matters, see Acknowledgments and Notes.
Expectations
No one who writes for public consumption stands above society in a perfectly neutral frame of mind. Deep down, each author, of fiction or non-fiction literary work, projects a message. He or she seeks to influ