Fatma Abdullah
A few weeks before her death on January 14th, the very popular and acceptable face of Tanzanian culture in London, Fatma Abdullah (55), Minister Counsellor at the Tanzania High Commission, had been promoted to a new position of ambassadorial rank as chief of the Zanzibar Wing of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As an artist she used colour in a rich flamboyant way; in music, her first job in London had been to introduce a Zanzibar taarab group to Europe; she had been a teacher of art and visual aids and had herself trained art teachers; she was a knowledgeable guide for visitors to the Isles, She will be much missed.

Mrs Sophie Kawawa
The Chairperson of the Umoja wa Wanawake wa Tanzania (UWT) died in Moshi on February 11 1994. She was described by Prime Minister Malecela as not only a leader of women in Tanzania but also a fighter for womens1 rights in the whole continent of Africa. At the funeral in Dar es Salaam, as Mr Rashidi Kawawa spoke of their 43 years of married life together, he broke into tears and was consoled by Mwalimu Julius Nyerere.

The Rev. Canon R G P Lamburn.

Canon Roger George Patrick Lamburn, known as Robin, died at Kindwiti Leprosy Village in the Rufiji District of Southern Tanzania on 26 October 1993 at the age of 89. He spent 63 years of his long life as an Anglican missionary and died as he lived, in great simplicity and at peace.

Robin was born in England in 1904 and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge where he studied Natural Science. After a period as a curate in England he joined the Universities Mission to Central Africa and worked first in the Diocese of Masasi and then as Warden of St. Cyprian’s Theological College, Tunduru. During this period he became Education Secretary responsible for the administration of schools in the Masasi Diocese, as well as Archdeacon. Through these many positions, he became very well known and greatly loved among church people throughout Tanzania.

At the age of 57 he moved to become probably the first Christian missionary to the unhealthy and solidly Muslim Rufiji Delta about 100 miles south of Dar es Salaam. He established himself in the leprosy village of Kindwiti, near Utete, and started to dispense high church Anglicanism, medicine (with which he had much skill as a result of his scientific training) and Christian joy. He made little progress in evangelisation which he stated was his first and foremost concern, his few converts being from other districts. The breakthrough came in a remarkable way. As he was greatly concerned to invigorate the leprosy village with a spirit of self-help, people used to confide their problems in him. One day a young man came who was greatly shamed because, as a Muslim, he should have been circumcised at birth and, for some reason, this had not been done. Robin assured him that he had nothing to worry about and that he should go to the Sheikh in Utete to ask for the operation to be carried out and he, Robin, would bear the cost. The Moslem authorities were so touched at this act of charity that the whole attitude to the mission at Kindwiti changed from that time; a spirit of bitter antagonism developed into one of at least acceptance, if not of some measure of brotherliness.

Robin was awarded the MBE and the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanities and also received a medal from Pope John Paul II.

He possessed great personal charm and was an able raconteur. Right until the end his letters were entertaining, moving but frequently funny. His great sense of humour made him a warm companion. His particular hope was that the scourge of leprosy would be expunged from Rufiji by the end of the 20th century, a hope which science has made quite possible. He would have been very appreciative of anyone wishing to honour his memory with a donation to the Rufiji Leprosy Trust, set up to support this work. The Treasurer’s address is: Horton House, Horton, Ilminster, Somerset TA19 9RL.
David Gooday

(Geoff and Jenny O’Donoghue have written as follows: ‘On Tuesday morning (October 26) at 7am the British High Commissioner in Tanzania, Mr Roger Westbrook, who had arrived in Kindwiti to visit Father Lamburn the previous day, called on him. Later Father got up, had a little breakfast and then sat in his armchair to read. Later in the morning he went back to bed. At 2.30 he died quietly and peacefully while holding the hand of Father Athumani, a one-time student of his. The following day the men and youths of the village began to dig Father’s grave beneath a large tree in the garden…. Local people settled down to pray, sing and sleep beside the grave … On the Thursday the mass was held in the simple chapel next to Father Robin’s house, although the presence of over 750 people meant that the majority had to gather round outside. Then the coffin, dressed with tissue-paper garlands, bouqainvillea blossoms and a simple wooden cross, was taken and lowered into his grave).

‘It was an eerie evening for Tanzania’s political terrain; on Sunday March 21 1993 the country lost one of the very few women who significantly contributed to the country’s political profile, especially in the formative years. Lucy Lameck (59) MP for two decades, member of the National Executive Committee of the country’s post-independence ruling party, former Government Junior Minister – passed away in Moshi after battling for several months against a kidney illness. “I eat, sleep, think and talk nothing but politics” she had said in 1961. She was buried with full honours at a ceremony witnessed by Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, Zanzibar President Salmin Amour and Prime Minister John Malecela’ – Daily News.

And Prime Minister John Malecela led the mourners at an elaborate funeral ceremony for Mr Dunstan Alfred Omari MBE (71) in Kinondoni, Dar es Salaam on April 16 1993. Mr Omari was the Director of several executive boards including those of the Standard Chartered Bank in Kenya and the African Medical Research Foundation. He became well known in his youth as one of the first African District Officers in the Colonial Administration.

SIR REX SURRIDGE
In its recent obituary on Sir Rex Surridge, a former Acting Governor of Tanganyika, who died recently at the age of 91, the Daily Telegraph recalled how he had fought vehemently, in the late 1940’s, against the ‘Groundnuts Scheme’. The idea had been to plant groundnuts on a large scale in the ‘rocky wilderness’ of Tanganyika. Surridge recalled that huge tractors as big as houses were used to clear the bush; fertliser was ordered – on one occasion a convoy of lOO-ton railway trucks arrived carrying gunny bags containing what was thought to be urea but was found, after it had been spread on the land, to be cement. The Scheme was eventually abandoned at a cost of more than f19 million.

Sir Rex was standing in for two years during the illness of the then Governor, Sir William Battershill, affectionately known as ‘Battered Bill’.

CANON RONALD THOMAS COX
Father Cox, as he was most widely known, was born in 1912 and died on 23/1/01. He will be remembered well both in the Diocese of Masasi in Tanzania and also in the Parish of Ermington in Devon, UK.

After serving his curacy in Gorton, Manchester, he offered himself to the missionary society founded by David Livingstone, the Universities Mission to Central Africa, and was posted to the Diocese of Masasi in 1944 where he remained until 1972.

The full story of those 28 years can never be told but he has left a tremendous legacy in buildings, and, such was his personality, that no doubt he is even now a legend among Tanzanians. ‘Bwana Kelele’ (Mr Noise) had a powerful voice which went with his physique as well as his generous and enthusiastic Christian service to those around him, regardless of the cost to himself.

Amongst other places he served at Newala (1944), Chidya, Nachingwea (1952-56) and Mtwara (1956-62) before becoming Procurator of Masasi Cathedral in 1963 while Trevor Huddleston was Bishop of Masasi. Bishop Huddleston has said about those years at Masasi “I can’t imagine I would have achieved anything without him. He was a ‘Jack of all trades’ and a master of each one”.

Bishop Huddleston’s first priority on arriving in Masasi was to rebuild the Theological Training College, St Cyprian’s at a beautiful site on the Rondo Plateau. Father Cox was given the task of building the chapel, an octagonal building with seven stained glass windows telling the story of creation designed by Jonathan Kingdon. Bishop Huddleston writes “If of Christopher Wren’s St Paul’s Cathedral, it could be said ‘Si monumentum requiris circumspice’ (if you went a memorial look around you) so could it be said of the glorious little chapel et the Rondo, a fitting memorial to Ronnie”

Father Cox also built a new Nursing School, children’s ward end operating theatre et Nkomaindo Hospital. There were village churches rebuilt; Mtwara and Nachingwea churches; the Diocesan Library; the girl’s department at Mahiwa Farm School (now CCM); and many other smaller buildings.

Leaving Africa was a great wrench for Father Cox but he proved equal to the challenge and served the Perish of Ermington well from 1973 to 1988 when he retired. In Ermington there was undoubtedly a small corner of Masasi. He was made an honorary Canon of Masasi Cathedral end Commissary to Bishop Richard of Masasi in 1984. Without neglecting his parishioners, even inspiring them to help, he continued to work tirelessly for Tanzania and was planning a visit to Masasi in July this year.
Christine Lawrence

(Donations in memory of Father Cox will go to Masasi. P1ease send to Britain-Tanzania Society, 45 Heath Hurst Road London NW3 2RU)

The Bulletin of Tanzanian Affairs regrets to inform its readers of the death on June 4th 1990 of Sir Bernard de Bunsen after many years spent in the service of East Africa. He is chiefly remembered for his work in connection with the setting up of the Makerere University College through which so many subsequent leaders of Tanzania passed. His association with Tanzania continued until 1975 because of his involvement with the establishment of the University of East Africa of which he became the Vice Chancellor and which included the then Dar es Salaam University College.

In 1972 together with Roger Carter, he visited the then Tanzanian High Commissioner in London, Mr George Mhigula, to discuss the possible creation of a voluntary organisation linking Tanzania and Britain which resulted, in January 1975, in the setting up of the Britain Tanzania Society. Sir Bernard served the society first as its Vice-Chairman and, after his eventual retirement in 1985, as Vice President.

Sir Hugh Elliott

The ‘Independent’ and the’ Times’ carried obituaries in January 1990 on the late Sir Hugh Elliott Bt who has died, after a long illness, at the age of 76. He first entered the Colonial Service in Tanganyika in 1937.

He made one of his most important contributions to wildlife conservation in Tanganyika in 1956 when, as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Natural Resources, he greatly facilitated the work of Professor W. H. Pearsall, whom the Fauna Preservation Society had sent out to conduct an ecological survey of the Serengeti National Park. The Pearsall Report saved parts of the park from agricultural development. The ‘Independent’ wrote that it was not too much to say that it was largely due to Elliott’s behind the scenes influence at that time that present-day Tanzania owed the preservation in pristine condition of its two greatest tourist assets, the Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Crater. Sir Hugh, who was described as quiet, humorous, and sympathetic, subsequently worked in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. He was a well-known ornithologist.

He is survived by his wife Elizabeth with whom he was able to celebrate his golden wedding only a few days before his death and by their son, the ornithologist Dr Clive Elliott and two daughters.

SIR JOHN FLETCHER-COOKE died in May 1989 at the age of 77. Mr. C.I. Meek writes about him as follows:

In Tanganyika John Fletcher-Cooke was successively Minister for Constitutional Affairs, Chief Secretary and Deputy Governor between the years 1956 and 1961. Holding these offices he was obviously deeply involved in the kaleidoscopic political changes of the last colonial years and equally clearly he had his full share of controversy whenever nationalist views clashed with those of the Government as they frequently did in those hectic days. John had a taste of this within weeks of coming to Tanganyika, when he found himself in New York to put the Tanganyika Government’s case to the UN Trusteeship Council while the views of TANU were put by its President, Julius K. Nyerere. But there were many much harsher exchanges later on when the two men fiercely sparred across the floor of the then Legislative Council, John as Chief Secretary leading the Government majority and Julius Nyerere speaking for the opposition. Yet for all the real issues and sharp words between them, there was no personal animus, and each, in the closing days of the old Legislative Council, paid generous tribute to the other.

Likewise, there was a considerable song and dance raised about the creation of the post of Deputy Governor (which Sir John filled) but it was the post and not the man that was the issue. TANU suspected that the creation of the post was a device to interpose someone between the Governor and the Prime Minister, while, for different reasons, Sir John himself found it the least fulfilling of the high offices he filled with such great credit.

John Fletcher-Cooke was intellectually distinguished and his clarity of thought was as apparent when he wrote a despatch as it was when he made a speech. He had extraordinary pertinacity, which could sometimes be vexatious to those with different views, but which was a blessing beyond price to anyone against whom he spotted injustice or unfairness directed, He was a loyal friend, a perfect host, he had much wit, and was always a man of courage.

He was not a ‘Tanganyikan’, as those who spent their service there felt themselves to be, for he had been variously posted to the Colonial Office, to the UN Trusteeship Council, to Malaya, Palestine, Cyprus. He was a prisoner of the Japanese during the 1939-45 war and anyone who has read his book ‘The Emperor’s Guest’ must be astonished at the magnanimity and tolerance with which he wrote of that experience. It exposed him, like many others, to brutalities which hastened his end and yet he could write of it without a trace of bitterness.

Tanzanians should remember Sir John with some gratitude, He was far more politically attuned than most colonial administrators, he found himself frequently pressed into attitudes of conflict with TANU, and thereby became, in difficult times, an admirable lightning conductor. Lightning conductors avert damage, and he made a worthy partner of the great Governor, Sir Richard Turnbull, under whom he served.

(Sir John is survived by his third wife, a son of his first marriage and a son and daughter of the second – Editor). Mr CHARLES (KIM) MEEK CMG entered service in Tanganyika in 1941. In 1959 he was Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Chief Secretary (Mr John Fletcher-Cooke) and from 1960 to 1962 he served as Principal Secretary to the then Prime Minister (Mr Julius K Nyerere) and as Secretary to the Cabinet.

Mr. SAIDI KAMTAMWA, affectionately known as ‘Saidi Tanu’, was a relatively unknown person but the tribute to him in the Sunday News after his death in March 1989 filled a whole page of the newspaper. He was the first Tanu driver and drove the then Tanu President, Mwalimu Nyerere, all over the country (more than 100,000 miles he estimated) in the days when Mwalimu was fighting for Tanzania’s independence. During his final years he was a private businessman in Dar es Salaam. The Second World War saw Mr. Kamtamwa in the army. He served in Madagascar, Ireland, Ceylon and Burma. He started his official duties with Tanu on March 27th 1956, driving a second hand Landrover.

The deaths were also announced, in April 1989 of Mr. JAMES KIRKMAN, a pioneer of archaeological studies on the East African coast and, in May, of Sir DARRELL BATES who served in Tanganyika both before and after the Second World War.

The death has been announced of two well known persons who have had a big impact on Tanzania. They are Sir Michael Wood and Dr. Bernhard Grzimek.

Dr. Michael Wood was for several years a farmer at Ol Molog in Tanzania but made his name by starting the first ‘flying doctor’ service in East Africa. In order to combine the two tasks he is understood to have flown in and out of his farm nearly 800 times before he had to give it up after the Arusha Declaration.

Dr. Grzimek died in Frankfurt while watching tigers train at a circus. He became internationally famous because of the assistance he gave in establishing Tanzania’s Serengeti and Ngorongoro game sanctuaries and in spreading news about them around the world.

He was quoted as saying on one occasion, “Men fight and die to change borders and convert others to their way of life. My son and I must surely be right to work and risk our lives to help save the Serengeti”

They first came to Tanzania in 1957 and after learning to fly, carried out the first aerial survey of animals in the Serengeti. They counted a total of 366,980 large animals.

Dr. Grzimek campaigned ceaselessly for the preservation of wildlife. He once wrote “Men are easily inspired by human ideas but they forget them again just as quickly. Only nature is eternal unless we senselessly destroy it. In fifty years time nobody will be interested in the results of conferences which fill today’s headlines. But when, fifty years from now, a lion walks into the red dawn and roars resoundingly, it will mean something to people and quicken their hearts whether they are Bolsheviks or democrats, or whether they speak English, German, Russian or Swahili. They will stand in quiet awe as, for the first time in their lives, they watch twenty thousand zebras wander across the endless plains.”

Dr. Grzimek’s ashes were buried on May 26th in Ngorongoro crater next to the grave of his son Michael. Michael had died thirty years earlier while filming ‘Ngorongoro Shall Never Die’. Park rangers fired a gun salute at the burial ceremony. The Government has agreed to build a ‘Bernhard Grzimek Memorial Centre’ at Seronera in his honour.