STRAIGHT TALK: Fare thee well Brigadier General Hashim Mbita

One of the last remaining African heroes has died aged 82. Brigadier General Hashim Mbita was buried midweek, two decades since he accomplished his Africa mission. So, both national and military honours were given to the fallen African nationalist.

His last mission, following a series of many in Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe, Comoros, Seychelles and others, was the dismantling of the Apartheid system in South Africa and opening that country to new era in 1994.

This was symbolised by the freeing of Nelson Mandela who had spent 27 years in jail fighting Apartheid. Towards this end, the African Liberation Committee, under Mbita, had given every of its support. Mbita held the fort for two decades as executive secretary to the Liberation Committee. In executing his duties, he criss-crossed the continent to foresee liberation struggles.

He held meetings with such leaders as Samora Machel of Mozambique, Agostino Neto of Angola, Amirical Cabral of Cape Verde, Abel Muzorewa and Joshua Nkomo of Zimbabwe and the long list of comrades who were deeply involved in fighting off Apartheid in South Africa. Tanzania, being supporter number one of the process, hosted and provided military training to freedom fighters.

Through his full knowledge, weaponry used in the struggles entered Tanzania from good friends including Cuba, China and Algeria to name a few.

He maintained good terms with friends in the West who abhorred colonialism and were ready to give their support to the struggle.

Coming from the background of journalism, Mbita fully paid off to the trust he was given by great African leaders including Jomo Kenyatta, Sekou Toure, Ahmed Benbella, Kenneth Kaunda, Sir Seretse Khama and his own Julius Nyerere.

It was sheer luck that he lived and died on bed. Given his role in freeing Africa, I’m sure he was the target of the regimes that were not happy with his efforts. This could even have involved rival liberation groups. But, he survived and lived on. Once he was done with the liberation mission, Mbita was assigned to several other tasks including being a diplomat. Above all, he was also tasked with investigating police killings of January 26-27, 2001, following a political violence in Zanzibar, in which 26 people were killed with hundreds others fleeing to Kenya and Somalia. Interestingly, his report exonerated every one, and not a single soul was made accountable, a very strange finding I hold.

Now that Brigadier General Mbita has passed on, several questions have gone through my mind. They include if Africa, and Tanzania in particular, has honoured him appropriately as compared to what he did to it.

Today’s generation, I believe, know very little or nothing of this big man, and especially the big role he played in liberating Africa. They hardly talk about Tanzania’s best days – those days when the adrenalin was pumping to hear what was going on in the frontline.

I’m not sure if Brigadier General Mbita kept a diary and even if he did, is there a way of collecting his history so as to document it in a book form? It’s time we seriously thought about this. We should not allow history to slip through our fingers.

Currently, one can hear a story here and there of what this hero did. But, with the passing of time and if no effort is made towards writing his big story, then Brigadier General Mbita could be just a smoke that passed over the sky.