Abdulrahaman A.Alli
Chairman-Tanzanian Community in Italy.
Mzee Rashidi Kawawa: Tanzania's Great son to emulate
President
Jakaya Kikwete has an audience with retired Prime Minister and
long-serving politician Rashidi Kawawa at an Independence Day reception
at State House in Dar es Salaam.
MZEE Rashidi Mfaume Kawawa who passed away in Dar es Salaam today at the age of 83, after a long battle with diabetes, is widely revered as a hero and a great son of Africa.
During the struggle for independence in mid-1950, Mr Kawawa was a threat to exploitative employers and their colonial masters, for his role as a "no nonsense" trade unionist.
It is for this reason, Mr Kawawa won the name "Simba wa Vita," which can loosely ber translated as "the Lion of War." The war aimed at restoration of dignity to Africans and conquering the people's enemies -- poverty, ignorance and diseases. It was the war he endlessly fought for throught his life.
A cheerful man with a humble person, skilled orator, with a sharp and ringing voice, Mzee Kawawa was, however, a firebrand and fearless advocate for the poor and the exploited.
He was the Prime Minister of Tanganyika in 1962, taking over from Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, the Father of the Nation, who had resigned shortly after independence in order to dedicate his efforts in strengthening the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU).
Later in 1962 when Tanganyika became the republic and Mr Nyerere was elected President, Kawawa was appointed Vice-President and after the Union with Zanzibar, Mr Kawawa became Second Vice-President.
Between 1972 and 1977, Mr Kawawa served the nation as prime minister, until he was succeeded by Edward Moringe Sokoine, with whom he swapped to become minister for defence and national service.
He devoted his career to policies designed to increase his fellow citizens' standard of living.
Born at Matepwende Village in 1926, he attended secondary school education at Tabora School.
Kawawa refused the opportunity to continue his education at Uganda's Makerere College, thus enabling his father to use the family's limited resources to educate his siblings.
Kawawa's first job was as a Public Works Department accounts clerk.
This was a most difficult period for the young man.
With the death of his father, he assumed the responsibility of supporting his younger brothers and sisters.
In 1951, Kawawa realized a long-standing dream of becoming a social worker.
He had actually inaugurated this career by organizing a literacy campaign for adults, while a student in Dar es Salaam.
On his new job, Kawawa joined a mobile film unit engaged in government literacy programmes.
When it was decided to use the unit for educational filming, he was chosen as the only Tanzanian leading actor.
He also served as a scriptwriter and a producer.
Perhaps the most important aspect of Kawawa's social worker career occurred when he was sent to Dodoma in 1953 to work among Kikuyu detainees held because of the Kenyan Mau Mau movement.
He later described his successful work there as the "greatest challenge of my life."
Kawawa joined the Tanganyika African Government Services Association, becoming its assistant general secretary in 1951 and its president in 1955.
His main task was to secure rights for government employees due to them under Tanganyika's laws.
Realizing the advantages of a nation-wide organization, Kawawa helped to establish the Tanganyika Federation of Labour (TFL) and was elected its first general secretary in 1955.
The Tanganyikan independence movement was then underway, directed by Julius Nyerere of the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU).
Kawawa's government employment prevented him from political participation, but his commitment to use the unions to further independence, led to his resignation in February 1956, to devote his time and talents to labour and political organization.
Joining TANU, he became a central committee member in 1957 and vice-president 1960.
In the meantime, Kawawa had been appointed to the Legislative Council in 1957, remaining a member until 1960.
In September 1960, following his first appointment to Cabinet rank, he resigned from the TFL to concentrate on politics.
When Prime Minister Nyerere of the now independent Tanganyika resigned for a brief period in 1962, Kawawa replaced him until his return to office.
Nyerere retired as Tanzania's president in 1985 and Kawawa actively left government service as well.
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