But there is an anomaly in the photo. One member of the Cabinet is missing. That person is ‘Sir ‘ George Kahama.
The Citizen has found out that Kahama, who died last Sunday and buried on Thursday at the Kinondoni cemetery in Dar es Salaam, had been sent on a mission to Congo-Leopoldville (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) by Nyerere. As a result he missed Independence Day celebrations and was, therefore, absent when the new Cabinet was sworn in that same day, according to Mzee Job Lusinde — the last surviving member of the first Cabinet.
“Kahama was not in the group photo because he had been sent to Congo. He was sworn in when he came back and we took another group photo with him,” Mzee Lusinde told The Citizen on Tuesday.
But The Citizen understands that the Cabinet group photo that features Kahama has not been widely and publicly circulated.
On the other hand it is the 11-man photo, with Kahama missing, which has become an iconic feature and which has been regarded as the epitome of Tanganyika’s independence struggle.
The photo in question (the December 9, 1961 photo) features members of the Cabinet in two rows. The front row has Nyerere seated with four other Cabinet members: Chief Abdallah Fundikira, Paul Bomani, Derek Bryceson and Amir Jamal.
The back row consists of six members of the Cabinet standing up; Lusinde, Rashid Kawawa, Nsilo Swai, Oscar Kambona, Tewa Said Tewa and Sir Ernest Vasey.
Nyerere talked about Kahama’s trip to Congo in one of his last public speeches in 1995. In the speech Nyerere used Kahama’s uncomfortable flight experience, as Kahama himself narrated to Nyerere on is return, to warn Tanzanians against entertaining tribal politics.
According to Nyerere, Kahama said as they were coming back from Congo the small government aircraft they were in was rocked by winds.
“Kahama says as at first he screamed ‘My God’. When it was rocked the second time, he cried ‘Mama Yangu Wee’. When the turbulence hit again hard Kahama cried ‘Mawee’,” Nyerere narrated.
“Mawee” is Kihaya for “My mother.”
“The day you find yourself in a difficult situation as a result of entertaining ethnic politics you will cry ‘Mawee’,” Mwalimu said
Kahama features, however, in a group photo of the Council of Ministers taken the day it was sworn in on September 3, 1960.
The Council of Ministers was formed by the then Chief Minister Nyerere after the Tanganyika African National Union won the August 1960 General Election.
Kahama had been appointed minister of Home Affairs, the portfolio he continued with in the post-independent Cabinet.
In the photo Kahama is standing in the back row with Kambona, Bomani, Jamal, Swai and Kawawa.
In the front row sits Nyerere, Richard Turnbull, who was the last colonial Governor of Tanganyika, J S R Cole, the Attorney-General, Sir Vasey, Bryceson, and M J Davies, who was had been appointed the Minister for Information Services.
Kahama, who had an illustrious 50 year career, often served as the butt of Nyerere’s jokes, according to Mzee Lusinde.
“He used Kahama a lot in his jokes,”Mzee Lusinde told The Citizen.
Born in Bukoba, Kagera Region in 1929 Kahama was eduated at Tabora Boys’ Secondary School. He obtained the Cambridge School Certificate in 1950. Between 1952 and 1954 he studied Business Management and Economics in the UK. Before he entered politics he was employed as Secretary-Treasurer at the Bukoba Co-operative Union (1950-1951) and then he became General Manager of the Co-operative Union.
