By Mboneko Munyaga
Exactly a week ago, Mainland Tanzania buried one of its noblest sons, the late Edwin Mtei, pioneer Governor of the Bank of Tanzania (BoT), Minister of Finance, Secretary General of the East African Community (EAC) and founder of Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema), arguably, the country’s most momentous political party.
He was eulogised as the man who wrestled the bull by the horns when he offered to resign his post as Minister of Finance after he differed with Mwalimu Julius Nyerere on Ujamaa or socialist policies. Subscribing to a different perspective of economic policies, Mtei refused to betray his conscience, for which many saw, and still see him, as a hero.
Underlying that episode of the never-ending series of our national history though, is the often-lost grasp on Tanzania’s political maturity, young as the country was as a newly independent state. Many African countries of the era drifted tragically into authoritarianism, making differing with the head of state a potentially dangerous political trajectory to take.
Indeed, had Mwalimu taken the resignation as “personal affront,” Mtei could have very well ended up into detention without trial for “endangering national security.” And, that part of his history could have been very different today.
Thus, under conditions in which literature never circulated easily and freely, Mtei’s story offers a window into Tanzania’s early quality of exercising power with restraint, the noblest quality of leadership that Tanzania possessed early on.
Veteran journalist Jenerali Ulimwengu, an extended family member of the late Mtei, has stirred a storm of reactions after he revealed while speaking at the funeral that Mtei once told him that he hated “Uswahili,” a normative adjective of “Mswahili,” or according to its Arab etymological origin, a dweller or resident of the coastal areas, or the “sahel.”
In my opinion, it is a pity that many of Ulimwengu’s critics tended to link “Uswahili” with “Mswahili,” or someone who lives along the coast or Moslems because the majority of those dwellers believe in Islam. I won’t direct my energies at Uswahili as Islam, because as a faith, not all Moslems are from the coast. In fact, Jenerali himself is a Moslem.
But there is “Uswahili” basically as a general African quality and art of diplomacy and intellectual dexterity, which is not limited to people of, and from the coast only.
I will give an example. Many neighbours of the Wakerewe from Ukerewe Island in Lake Victoria, often refer to them as “bedbugs,” or “Omukerebe ni mpele,” meaning people who cannot be trusted for more or less the same reasons that some people tend to associate with Uswahili.
It was a cultural norm and etiquette among the Wakerewe to rescind any agreement between parties at any stage once they felt that the agreement no longer served their interests as a community or even as an individual.
“Kwikilizya tikuzibila kwanga” or “agreeing to something never removes the right to reject that agreement at a later stage,” is settled doctrine in Kikerewe culture.
It was that refusal to be permanently tethered to one’s words when conditions changed that earned the Wakerewe the rather derogatory nickname of “bedbugs,” meaning they could not be trusted for their word.
I have never found being called a bedbug offensive. On the contrary, it only underscores one’s own ignorance of the cultural dynamics and intellectual maturity inherent in looking at anything with both skepticism and guarded approach.
Those quick to label others “Waswahili,” have Uswahili of their own and their attitude doesn’t in anyway make them superior other than exposing their own frailties.
In any case, mourning times are meant to be moments of healing old wounds and burying the hatchet, especially among relatives. There can be no doubt that Mzee Mtei was a larger-than-life figure in his time.
However, in the end, we all go back to our Creator. May Mzee Mtei also rest blissfully in eternal peace.
