Relatives of the late Ali Sykes carry his coffin during the burial ceremony held at Kisutu cemetery in Dar es Salaam yesterday. Sykes was one of the founder members of TAA and TANU parties. PHOTO | VENANCY NESTORY
What you need to know:
The late Ali Abdallah Kleist Sykes, 87, who died in Nairobi on Sunday of heart failure, was a key figure in the fight for independence and was one of the 17 people who founded the Tanganyika African National Union (Tanu), the party preceding CCM. He carried card number 2, with number 1 being possessed by Tanu founding chairman the late Julius Nyerere.
Dar es Salaam. President Jakaya Kikwete yesterday led former presidents Ali Hassan Mwinyi, Benjamin Mkapa and other senior CCM and government officials as well as hundreds of mourners to the burial of Ali Sykes, one of the co-founders of Tanu at the Kisutu cemetery.
The late Ali Abdallah Kleist Sykes, 87, who died in Nairobi on Sunday of heart failure, was a key figure in the fight for independence and was one of the 17 people who founded the Tanganyika African National Union (Tanu), the party preceding CCM. He carried card number 2, with number 1 being possessed by Tanu founding chairman the late Julius Nyerere.
In his condolences President Kikwete qualified Mzee Sykes’ contribution for the fight for independence of the country as “immeasurable”.
“If not for the courage of Mzee Ali Sykes and his colleagues to fight for independence the country’s history would probably have been different,” Mr Kikwete said in the condolence message sent to the family.
Reading Mzee Sykes eulogy, CCM deputy chairman-Mainland Philip Mangula said the independence icon served in the colonial army (King’s African Rifles) but later quit and subsequently joined the fight for the freedom of the country from colonialism starting with the Tanganyika African Association (TAA) and then Tanu.
Judge Mark Bomani, who was also present at the burial and who knew the deceaced, said the late Ally Sykes will be remembered for his personality as he was a man of all people.
“For us who knew him 50 years ago, we will remember him for his contribution to the development of this nation,” Judge Bomani said.
Former Attorney General and Prime Minister Joseph Warioba also mentioned Mzee Sykes as one of his key advisers and confidant who fought for justice. “He was one of the three people remaining, after the death of Mwl Nyerere, who really knew well the history of the struggle for independence of this country because they were quite in the middle of it all,” Mr Warioba who is also the chairman of the constitution review commission noted.
