BY DANFORD MPUMILWA
I have received several emails and messages from readers of this column urging me to write about more of my memorable experiences during the Mwalimu Nyerere era.
These requests follow last week’s account of my encounter with this towering African statesman, writer and philosopher during my early years.
Here we go. One morning in August 1980, Abdallah Ngororo, my news editor at the government-owned Daily News and Sunday News, assigned me, one of the newspaper’s many scribes, to rush to the then Dar es Salaam International Airport (DIA). I was to cover the arrival of Liberia’s leader, Samuel Doe, who had seized power in a bloody coup just over four months earlier, on April 12, 1980.
The coup had overthrown Liberia’s elected president, William Tolbert. At the time, Master Sergeant Doe was only 28 years old. The killing of Tolbert during the coup and the subsequent execution of senior government officials sent shock waves across Africa and the world at large.
And it could hardly have been otherwise. Liberia began as a settlement project of the American Colonisation Society (ACS), which promoted the migration of free and formerly enslaved black Americans from the United States to Africa. Thousands of settlers, including people from the Caribbean, relocated to Liberia during the nineteenth century.
These settlers gradually developed an Americo-Liberian identity. They carried their culture and traditions with them and established their dominance over the indigenous population, creating deep resentment.
Under Americo-Liberian leadership, Liberia declared independence on July 26, 1847, becoming Africa’s oldest republic.
Some 133 years later, Doe, an indigenous Liberian and a mere master sergeant at that time, overthrew the Americo-Liberian-dominated regime.
Now he was coming to Dar es Salaam, hoping, perhaps, to receive Mwalimu Nyerere’s blessing. Mwalimu was widely regarded as one of Africa’s greatest statesmen and philosophers.
The then vice-president, Aboud Jumbe, received Doe at DIA. Speaking to us journalists at the airport, Doe said he had come to consult Mwalimu, learn from him and “drink” from the gourd of Nyerere’s wisdom.
The two leaders and their delegations held talks for an hour at State House, after which there was an informal dinner for Doe, his delegation and us scribes.
The dinner was very casual. We all sat on the carpet, including Doe, in the east wing of State House. Nobody wanted to sit at the dining table.
An hour or so later, Mwalimu Nyerere walked into our ‘dining room’. Doe and his delegation sprang to attention and saluted him.
Mwalimu extended his hand and shook Doe’s hand. He wished him goodnight but added, as they shook hands: ‘Mr President. Mind you! Mine is a civilian hand. Please do not crush it.’
And we all understood what he meant.
The author is a veteran journalist and communication expert/consultant.
mpumilwa@gmail.com
