Thinking of Harith Bakari Mwapachu
Fast forwarding to 1975, at HB’s house on Kimweri Road, Oyster Bay, Sheila, two years old as a wife, noticed at night that HB was not in bed. She woke up and checked in the bathroom. HB was not there either. She walked down the stairs to the sitting room. She found her husband in gaze, sleep walking and uttering things which were not clear. Sheila took HB’s hand and walked with him back to the bed. She came to know about HB’s syndrome and made sure of locking the bedroom doors at night and removing the keys.
At Tabora School, HB’s best friend was William (Bill) Manning, a British half-cast whose parents were based in Kyela.
Bill took an engineering degree from the University of Nairobi and rose to become the Chief Executive Officer of Mwadui Diamonds Mines Limited. Bill’s sister, Julie, also a Tabora Girls School student, joined the Law School in Dar es Salaam becoming the first woman lawyer in Tanzania and East Africa. Kaduma, on the other hand, sat for A ‘level exams in 1961 as an independent candidate. At Makerere, HB and Kaduma studied economics along with another mutual close friend, Charles Nyirabu.
HB took close care of me at Tabora School for three years, from 1959 when I joined Standard Nine. I remember, in December 1961, during my holidays at home in Dar es Salaam, and HB had then completed Form Six studies, he had privately told Dad his concerns about what he considered to be my lack of seriousness in studies.
He informed Dad of my excessive interest in time consuming Calypso music of Harry Belafonte and forming a Calypso Band Group. One evening, Dad summoned me to his bedroom. Dad’s health was then clearly poor.
He had gone through a complex heart surgery at Hammersmith Hospital in London in April that year. He disclosed to me his displeasure over what HB had told him about my lack of serious focus on education.
I defended myself. I told Dad that my brother HB was overly studious and did not live a life of a youth. I promised Dad of doing well in my O’Level examinations in 1962. But that was HB, a man of books and no girlfriends. But HB was genuinely attentive to my studies.
When Dad died on 17 September 1962 at Princess Margaret Hospital, now called Muhimbili National Hospital, HB took over the leadership of the Mwapachu family at a young age of 23. He had just joined Makerere College in early July. He received the sad news of Dad’s passing on arrival in Mwanza to spend a few days in Mum’s homeland. He decided to buy a railway ticket and travelled to Tanga. Of course, Dad was already buried in Pande Ndumi.
But he knew how much Mum needed him even for a few difficult moaning days. Rahma and I were busy preparing for our Cambridge School Certificate Examinations and were not allowed to travel to Tanga to be with Mum.
Our mother Julie had moved from Dar es Salaam to Tanga, our ancestral home. It was a difficult period for our Mum given that she now had the responsibility of caring for the young Wendo Mtega, Tunu Bugumba and Jabe Jabir, who were still in primary school. Our last-born brother, Razak, had died, negligently, by being injected with an adult anti-malaria dose, at the Government Hospital in Mwanza in July 1960. He was only three years old. He was buried at Mabatini in Mwanza.
During the few days that he spent in Tanga, HB decided, in consultation with Mum, to sell the family car to raise funds to support the budget for building a good house for Mum and the family in Tanga. Mum agreed.
So, HB drove the family car all the way to Arusha to Uncle Ali where he asked Uncle to get a good buyer. Dad had already acquired a plot along the Mombasa Road, opposite to St Anthony Church at Chumbageni. Uncle Ali sold the car and the funds obtained together with funds paid to Mum by Government as death benefit on her husband’s passing, literally met the full cost of building a modest house, which Mum lived in from 1977. She had rented the house for several years to earn some funds to live on.
After graduating from Makerere College with a B.Sc. Economics (Honours) in March 1965, HB was appointed Operations Officer at the National Development Corporation (NDC).
At that time, the General Manager of NDC was a French socialist named Monsieur Foudhon. The Assistant General Manager was a British man named Skinner, who was HB’s immediate boss. Late Fulgence Kazaura joined NDC from Cambridge University in July 1965. He was appointed Development Officer.
HB and Fulgence were a team of brilliant young economists. HB was quick in settling down in Dar es Salaam. NDC allocated him a house in Hana Nassif Estate, Kinondoni. Wendo and I used to stay with HB at his house.
Wendo was in a boarding Luandai Middle School several miles from Lushoto town. Tunu also studied at the same school but for the girls. I joined the University College, Dar es Salaam, in July that year to study for a law degree. At this same time, HB borrowed funds from NDC and bought a beetle Volkswagen car. I still remember its registration Plate Number, TDE 859.
Following dismissal from University College on 22 October 1966 because of students demonstrating against policy and decision on National Service, my brother HB kept me at his house until February 1967.
Mwalimu Nyerere announced in January that we could be employed. I applied for a job as Personnel Manager of Tanzania Breweries. Mwalimu Nyerere did not mention when he would allow us to re-join the College.
He did so in April when I was in Nairobi at Kenya Breweries going through an on-the-job training from mid -February. Mwalimu directed parents to submit letters of apology for the misbehaviour of their children.
HB helped Mum in writing and signing the letter of apology addressed to the President. I re-joined the College in July 1967.
In April 1967, Clement George Kahama was appointed General Manager of NDC replacing the French expatriate.
To HB, George Kahama was a brother-in-law having married Janet Bina, our cousin, in March 1965. HB did not have the opportunity of working with Sir Kahama since at that time he had been admitted to a one-year post-graduate management programme at Arthur D. Little (ADL) Management Institute in Boston, Cambridge Massachusetts, USA. Another Tanzanian, George Mbowe, who became the first General Manager of Tanzania Investment Bank, also joined the ADL Programme with HB.
HB initially attended a Six Week Summer Training Programme in Marketing at Harvard Business School. That Programme gave HB solid knowledge in marketing.
The US connection opened great understanding of HB and George Mbowe. They became very close corporate managers. Regrettably, HB missed the wedding of his sister Rahma to Mark Bomani, which took place in August 1967 and HB had gone to the US. On his return from the USA in April 1968, HB was appointed Assistant General Manager of the newly established Tanzania Tourist Corporation led by Mr Mawalla. During that time, HB worked closely with ADL Consultants in preparing a Tourism Plan and Strategy for promoting tourism in Tanzania. In 1970, he was included in the team of McKinsey Consultants in reviewing the management structure of State Trading Corporation (STC). Part of the result was HB being appointed STCs Director of Policy Analysis.
In June 1969, HB married Alice Brown, daughter of a half-caste father from Iringa and a mother from Himo, Moshi. She was a medical doctor educated in Russia. Her parents lived in Duga, Tanga, in a house which was close to where Mother Julie lived from 1962 to 1964.
Alice who had agreed to convert to Islam and picked the name of Lulu, died on 12th October 1970 at Aga Khan Hospital owing to pregnancy complications. HB went through a difficult period of loneliness and sorrowfulness. However, I had got married to Rose Omari in November 1969 through an Islamic wedding in Tanga which did not involve HB.
My wedding ceremony took place in Tanga on Saturday 9th October 1971 when our first -born son Hamza was one year old. HB attended the ceremony which was heralded by best Taarab music band called, ‘Lucky Star’ led by Shakila. Late Amon Nsekela, Executive Chairman of the National Bank of Commerce, late Ibrahim Kaduma and my youth friend late Peter Shimiyu attended the extravaganza all-night celebration. During that period of missing Alice, HB met and befriended Hawa Ali Lekaranga in Dar es Salaam. Hawa was a girl from Moshi, who was half a Mmasaai and half a Chagga. In a brief affair, she became pregnant and Abuu was born on 4th March 1973. For several years, Abuu was brought up in Moshi by his grandmother.
HB’s love affair with Sheila, daughter of the first Tanzanian Inspector General of Police, Elangwa Shaidi, started in 1972. HB used to transport Sheila to Maryknoll Sisters Secondary School in Morogoro, where Rahma had studied.
He finally married Sheila in July 1973 after completing Form Six studies in November 1972. In one incident, when driving Sheila to Morogoro, back to school, in his personal car, they met with a terrible accident near the Ruvu bridge. Sheila was unhurt but HB broke his hip and was brought back to Dar es Salaam and admitted to Muhimbili Hospital. A surgeon friend, Dr Nkinda, took care of HB and his recovery was quick.
