Newly elected Labour leader Corbyn stirs British politics

Back in the days (1960s and 1970s), it was hip, cool and trendy to be branded leftist. Communist. This was because of mainly the Cold War. You made principal choices. Condemn the murdering and bombing of innocent Vietnamese peasants or support the brutal American B52 bombers. Opposing these killings was communist; supporting was democratic. Many ordinary Americans rallied behind the Vietcong or as they used to say in racist lingo, chinks and jigs. On opposite windows were Russia, China and Cuba, communist nations allied not just with the Vietnamese but struggles of Africans to be free.

Africans in Angola, Zimbabwe (then South Rhodesia), Namibia (then South West Africa), Mozambique and so on...Tanzania was a haven for those on the side of the people. Here were offices, training and salvation camps. We took more refugees than anyone else. Watch Europeans today squabbling about that. We just helped. Period. We even went after the hated Idi Amin Dada and paid an enormous economic price. Who talks about this stuff, eh? Historians of the world, wake up!

You had at the helm, none other than Mwalimu Julius Nyerere with his divided Cabinet. In there were a few lefties, Kingunge Ngombale-Mwiru (still alive; bless his long lasting spirit) and the Mohammed Abdulrahman Babu. Kingunge’s name is so hip. As African as you can get. None of the Christian and Muslim stuff that so many of us carry (like plates of chicken and chips), yes! Plus Babu. Now. Within these guys, crawled enigma, mystery and hearsay. For example when I first heard of Babu, I was still in secondary school. His Cabinet picture, to start with. Dishevelled and uncombed hair. Being a Zanzibari made him even more mystical. Some of the older students from the islands would tell us: “You know he is so clever because he smokes weed.”

Wait. A Cabinet minister smoking bangi? That was just ill-informed gab. Decades later when I met Mr Babu in person in London, and studied him close range. I realised he had typical hair of those whose parents are a racial mix. Of Africans with Arabs, Indian or European descent. Nothing to do with smoking marijuana.

That was how revolutionaries, left-wingers, socialists and people who cared for the working poor were mis-presented by the media. The propaganda slithered down to kids like me who saw them as odd nutters. On an international scale, famous human rights campaigners and fighters like Martin Luther King, Che Guevara and Mao Tse Tung, had the worst trash. Martin Luther King chain-smoked and was supposedly a womaniser; Che and Mao equally chain-smoked, womanised and rarely washed or bathed. Reality was these leaders did not have the luxury to be “too clean” – their personal time was committed to the general population. This is called public service, nowadays. Sacrifice.

But then why such bad media coverage? Partly because they threaten big business and the super rich. You have a big mouth; we slaughter your image then bury you. Patrice Lumumba (35), Thomas Sankara (37), Che Guevara (39), Martin Luther King (39), Malcolm X (39), all assassinated before they were 40.

Last week it was “repeated history” ditto newly elected UK Labour leader. I never heard of Jeremy Corbyn (pictured) before. My introduction to the 67-year-old political veteran came through awful things dished out by the media. An impending doom if he becomes British Prime Minister via the Labour Party in the next 2020 General Election, for example.

So he won the opposition seat.

Who would equal such victory in Tanzania?

The late Dr Sengondo Mvungi, perhaps? We might sense why he was killed in 2013. Mrema? The proper opposition leader of the 1990s? Zitto Kabwe? You tell me, who.

Having been elected last week, Mr Corbyn was of special interest. On Tuesday, one right wing newspaper had him on the front page wearing a red monster hat and the sarcastic line: “Leftie who hates the royals will kiss Queen’s hand to grab £6.2 million.”

What this means is Jeremy Corbyn who the paper called “Court Jezter” and “Jezz” and “Labour hypocrite” is a republican i.e. against the monarchy system. His social principles include free tuition fees for university youths, (hell to struggling families and overseas students since 2010), allowing refugees in, supporting the Palestinian cause and less money for MPs. In demonstration of his honesty, Mr Corbyn only uses a bicycle, does not own a car, nor drink alcohol, smoke or eat meat.

Such things make leaders left wingers and red communists. Fifty years back it would have been revolutionary and heroic. In our materialistic “selfie” me-me-me era, it is neither cool nor hip but “shambles”, to paraphrase London’s Sun newspaper.