FRIENDLY FIRE FROM YESTERYEARS: Don’t you remember EA Safari motor rally?

Not many of my colleagues remember much about the East African Safari motor rally which was the rage in the 1960s! If there were two events which held the attention of Tanzanians, and were etched on their mental calendar (as it were) in those early years following political independence, then these were Independence Day celebrations (December 9, 1961) and the EA Safari rally held on Easter weekends!

The EA Safari motor rally started as the ‘EA Coronation Safari.’ Largely organised by and under the Royal East African Automobile Association (REAAA), the Coronation Rally was first staged from May 27 to June 1, 1953, to mark the coronation on June 2 of 25 year-old Elizabeth Alexandra Mary as Queen of Britain (and constitutional monarch of several other sovereign states). But, that’s another story...

The story here today’s about the EA Safari motor rally, period! ‘Coronation Rally’ was renamed the EA Safari Rally in 1960, thus distancing it from any colonial vestiges. Those were the times when the British premier of the day, Harold Macmillan, made his ‘Wind of Change’ speech in the apartheid South African Parliament, February 3, 1960! “The wind of change is blowing through this continent,” Macmillan stated, adding ominously that, “whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact...!”

So, the Coronation Rally changed with the wind, as the name was  changed again in 1974, becoming simply known as the ‘Safari Rally,’ no doubt following altercation with the Mwalimu Nyerere government in Dar es Salaam!

(It took South Africa a little longer to change its heinous, segregationist apartheid system of government to an all-inclusive government via universal suffrage in 1994! Again, that’s a tale fit to be told another day...) The early editions of the EA Rally were run in Kenya, Tanganyika/Tanzania and Uganda. They attracted an assortment of car makes, including notably British ‘Ford,’ French ‘Peugeot’ and ‘Simca,’ Scandinavian makes (‘Saab,’ ‘Volvo,’ etc) German (Volkswagen,’ ‘DKW,’ ‘Mercedes’ (these last never really distinguished themselves despite worldwide reputation as The car to own!),  apanese (notably ‘Datsun SSS,’ renamed ‘Senior Soul Sister’ by wags)...

In those early (A) days, the rally built up reputations around the likes of Bert Shankland, Joginder Singh, Briton Pat Moss-Carlson (Sister to Stirling Moss and wife to the Swede Eric Carlson, all classic motor rally buffs)...

I particularly remember one Customs official, Willy (Billy?) Young, who always seemed to hover on the fringes of the EA Safari Rally. Young was my co-worker in the original, bona fide EA Community. One day on the road to Dar Airport with me as his passenger, he hit 60 mph on the speedo and suddenly shouted: ‘Look, NO brakes’ as he furiously tried to ‘work’ a limp foot-brake pedal!

My heart leaped into my mouth, and I had to mentally swallow it back into its rightful place in the ribcage! Apparently, wily Willy had bypassed the usual foot-braking system, transferring it to a hand-operated system, which worked just as well!

I was later told that, in the wake of Africanisation in the late 1960s, Mister Young returned to England where he worked as a petrol station pump attendant! Shows you can’t have it swell all the time, doesn’t it? Cheers!