Thinking of Harith Bakari Mwapachu – 3
In 1978, Mwalimu Nyerere appointed HB Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Water, Energy and Minerals. That Ministry was the largest Ministry in Nyerere’s government. Al Noor Kassum (affectionately called ‘Nick’) was its Minister at that time. Nyerere also appointed HB the Chairman of the Governing Council of the Institute of Development Management (IDM). In promoting the establishment of IDM, Mwalimu was influenced by the role of the UK Henley Management School which had been established for training a high-level class of administrative personnel. Henley College has turned into Henley Business School.
HB came to New Delhi, India, when I was there as Minister Counsellor at the Tanzania High Commission. He was on a fact-finding mission to study India’s management training systems for producing excellent administrative staff. I took him to Hyderabad to visit the Administrative Staff College (ASC). HB was warmly received at the College and offered an extensive briefing of the role of ASC. At our house in New Delhi, HB met our young sons, Hamza, Harith and Hamadi. He saw for the first time the little Hamadi, who was two years old. Hamadi had been born in Addis Ababa where I was Minister Counsellor in Tanzania’s Embassy. You could see the excitement in HB upon seeing his nephews who left Tanzania in July 1976. Hamza and Harith were all over their elder Baba.
HB was excited to see Rose after two and half years. Little Hamadi remained bewildered about who HB was and we had to explain who he was to us all. I should also mention that throughout his life, HB had an affectionate relationship with my wife Rose. It was mutual and Rose went all out to give HB a warm stay with us in New Delhi and, indeed, for all times until when HB passed on.
On his official visit to India, I know that HB wrote a huge report of how to transform IDM to become more relevant and effective. One of his regrets and disappointments is the dissolution of IDM and its replacement by the University of Mzumbe. Regrettably, the concept of developing an administrative corps in Tanzania has weakened. HB lamented, to-date, that people are increasingly appointed to senior administrative positions without significant and relevant knowledge of administration, of its practice, and of government relationships. HB used to reflect of his past leadership of the Parastatal Organisations having established Tanzania Association of Parastatal Organisations (TAPO) which used to hold annual conferences where the Chiefs of Executive and Senior Mangers exchanged experiences, challenges and successes.
Few Tanzanians were put in positions of leading key parastatal organisations between 1970 and 1995. Fewer acquired unique knowledge of best management practices and human resources development as HB did. He established the Board of Internal Trade in July 1972 and recruited the crème de crème who had graduated with distinction in commerce from University of Nairobi like Nkya, Sanare and Abebe. He transformed the national trade system establishing national product specialist companies and Regional Trading Companies. Economic socialism worked at that time.
HB also headed Air Tanzania Corporation at a critical point when the airline was in dire straits from January 1981 to August 1986. He will be remembered for transforming and turning the national airline into an enviable state company. It was Amir Jamal who convinced Mwalimu Nyerere in appointing HB to lead the airline business. During that period, on 6th August 1983, HB hosted at his residence on Kimwere Street, Oyster Bay, wedding of Ami Ramadhan Mpungwe, a close friend of Wendo from Ihungo Secondary School in Bukoba. Ami married Anitta Mkwawa. Their wedding ceremony in the grounds of HB’s house was memorable. HB remained a close brother of Ami.
Later, under President Mwinyi, HB was appointed General Manager of National Insurance Corporation (NIC) in November 1991. President Mwinyi decided to shift HB to BIT on July 21, 1993. HB was then 55 years old. He began to think about politics. HB seriously thought about connecting with his home area of Tanga. I participated in influencing my brother to go into politics by becoming a Member of Parliament of Tanga. HB also influenced our brother-in-law Mark Bomani to seek election as President only to falter at the CCM electoral complexities. HB and a few friends and relatives like Sir George Kahama and Iddi Simba seriously thought that Tanzania needed a non-political individual of reputation and much respected lawyer to lead Tanzania and Mark Bomani fitted that character perfectly. Unfortunately, the aims of getting Mark to be chosen as CCM Presidential candidate under the new multi-party-political system faltered. On the other hand, HB was elected as Tanga MP in October 1995 and was re-elected three times until 2010 when he retired from politics. Iddi Simba and George Kahama equally got elected in Ilala and Karagwe respectively.
President Benjamin William Mkapa knew HB well from his past achievements and honesty and, thus, without delay, appointed HB Minister, first responsible for Justice in October 1995, and later, from November 2000, for Home Affairs. HB continued as Minister for Home Affairs under President Kikwete after the elections in October 2005. He was Minister until 2008.
HB was impacted gravely on the death of our Mum Julie here in Dar es Salaam on April 18, 2007. HB loved Mum in many ways. At the Muslim burial ground, he was short of words to deliver a family speech of grief and gratitude for numerous messages of sympathy. He did not give me any notice to perform the task. He told me, ‘JV, you will have to speak’. I did. HE President Jakaya Kikwete, sat on the side with us facing Mum’s grave. HB was also visibly deeply saddened by the death of Harith on October 11, 2011 who took one of his birth names and mine of Volter. In November 2016, I fell outside our house and after initial hospitalisation in Dar es Salaam, my wife and son, Hamza, decided to take me to South Africa for advanced medical check-up. Doctors discovered that I had a tumour in the brain, and I had to go through surgery. On November 16, I was operated in a Pretoria hospital. The Neurosurgeon discovered that my tumour was cancerous, and I had to go through radiation under a cancer specialist. HB rushed to support my wife in meeting the costs of surgery and radiation. He sent a reasonable sum in US dollars. Other members of the family followed in sending money. What is important to note is HB’s affection for me during all his life. He continuously, even in our advanced ages, engaged me about our lives and how I was managing in life. On learning that I was writing a book about my life, one day, in surprise at his Mwambani house, he gave me a Notebook with his writings outlining the history of the Mwapachus. He said to me, ‘JV, you will find the information in this booklet a lot of useful material for your book’.
Following the death of his very close friend, Ibrahim Kaduma on August 31, 2019 in India where he was undergoing treatment, HB was truly shocked and saddened. Kaduma’s closeness with HB made him a brother to me and Wendo during the mid- 60s and into the 70s. Visiting the Makongo home of late Kaduma, HB was in near tears as he conveyed his condolences to his departed friend’s wife and siblings. HB had no closer friend than Ibrahim Kaduma. It was not surprising to see Kaduma’s three sons at Mwambani during the funeral prayers for HB on February 13, 2021.
HB was truly our family leader. He reflected the same valour to withstand the torment of passing of our brother-in-law, Mark Bomani on 10 September 2020. Despite his walking ailments, HB used to visit his sister, Rahma, to continue to comfort her on the passing of her dear husband. I know he often phoned Rahma asking her to try to live a normal life, difficult as it is.
In the third week of December 2020, HB and his wife Sheila accompanied by their daughter Rahma and my eldest son Hamza went to Bangalore, India for thorough medical checks and treatment. He had already been told by doctors in Dar es Salaam that prostate was afflicting his health and requiring aggressive treatment. In Bangalore, he met and consulted best doctors who confirmed the prostrate challenge. He was kept there for about three weeks and his condition was improved. He was given permission to return to Tanzania but to return to Bangalore in early March 2021. Despite the threats of coronavirus, HB remained committed to travel to India. He told me of his preparedness to face surgery. Full of confidence, on his return he immediately went to his favourite home at Mwambani. Together with Sheila, they spent comfortable time. But as the expression goes, ‘man proposes, God disposes’. Almighty God had already decided about HB’s date of passing.
We still remember visiting HB at his Mwambani home from time to time. He made us cheerful, full of laughter and moods of affection. He enjoyed sitting, relaxedly, in a small hut in the house grounds on a cliff overlooking the Indian Ocean where the sea breeze was always cool and endless. He was not a man of cigarettes. However, he loved Cuban cigars especially of the Montecristo and Rome y Julieta Brands. He possessed a cigar cutting gadget for cutting off the tips of cigars and a special lighter used to light the cigars with a slow flame. He was Fidel Castro of sorts. HB had decided to move permanently to Tanga and you could see that desire by the way he modernised the sitting and bed rooms of the Mwambani Home. He asked me to buy for him a 65-inch Sony TV Screen. I did late last year and sent the TV to Tanga. He refunded me the cost. The big TV screen changed his appetite for watching TV.
HB developed a cement staircase from one end of the grounds leading down to the ocean where fishermen had small canoes and brought fish to the sands for sale. Tanga children loved to visit the area for weekend swims, loud cheers and laughter. HB also started a chicken farm at the backyard of the house and planted over 100 mango trees, the apple mangoes, and banana trees in his huge house grounds. In December last year, HB and Sheila started to harvest mangoes and fruit bananas.
Thinking of his wonderful character and charm you cannot but miss HB immensely. HB and Sheila have four children, Abuu, who is a graphic designer, Hamza, who is Chief Executive and Chief Pilot of Regional Air, Rahma, a Communications Manager of National Microfinance Bank and Elangwa who is self-employed. HB loved to be visited at his Mwambani home by all his grandchildren towards Xmas time of each year. ‘Babu, babu’, was the clamouring call to HB by the grandchildren as they ran around, some on bicycles, some especially the young girls, dancing to music on board pickup vehicles in the parking space and the large grassy grounds. HB lived his life well minus the ailments which befell on him in recent years. May God bless him and rest his soul in eternal peace.
