ALLY KLEIST SYKES 1926 - 2013

Ally Kleist Sykes na Mohamed Said picha ilipigwa siku ya Eid El Fitr 19 September 2009 nyumbani kwake Mbezi Beach Ally Kleist Sykes na Mohamed Said picha ilipigwa siku ya Eid El Fitr 19 September 2009 nyumbani kwake Mbezi Beach ‘’Bwana Ally Sykes (1926 - 2013) alisoma kitabu changu Uamuzi wa Busara wa Tabora na baada ya kukimaliza alinipigia simu na tukawa na mazungumzo ya muda mrefu akilaumu kuwa uandishi wa wanahistoria wa Tanzania pamoja na mimi tumeshughulishwa sana na kuandika mchango wa Mwalimu Nyerere katika harakati za kudai uhuru wa Tanganyika na kusahau kabisa mchango wa wazalendo wengine. Katika kukikosoa kitabu changu akasema nimemweleza Said Chamwenyewe nusu nusu kwa hiyo sikuwatendea haki wasomaji wangu na hata hao wazalendo ambao mie nilitaka kuwafufua na kuwarejesha katika historia ya kupigania uhuru wa Tanganyika. Bwana Ally Sykes akanambia inahitaji kitabu kizima kueleza yale yaliyopitika kabla na baada ya yeye na marehemu kaka yake Abdulwahid Sykes kujuana na Julius Nyerere mwaka 1952 na wakafahamiana na kati yao ukajengeka udugu na mapenzi makubwa si baina yao tu bali hata na mama zao na wake zao udugu uliodumu hadi uhuru unapatikana. Akamaliza maneno ya kw akusema inahitaji mwandishi makini sana kuweza kuandika historia ya kweli ya uhuru wa Tangnayika. Mimi nilikaa na Ally Sykes na tuliweza kuandika maisha yake. Ni historia nzuri ya kusisimua sana. Kitabu nilikipa jina ''Under The Shadow of British Colonialism the Life of Ally Kleist Sykes'' lakini wachapaji walipokipitia wakasema kibadilishwe jina kiitwe ''Unfulfilled Dreams .’’ Mswada huu bado haujachapwa hadi leo takriban miaka 17 baada ya kumaliza uandishi. Naweka hapa chini utangulizi wa kitabu chake kama ulivyo katika mswada. Introduction My name is Ally Kleist Sykes. I was born in Dar es Salaam on 10 th September 1926 from Kleist Sykes Mbuwane, the son of a Zulu mercenary, Sykes Mbuwane and Bibi Mruguru bint Mussa who my father married in February 1923. My father’s other name is Abdallah but he never identified himself by this name. This is the name written on his tombstone, which today identifies his grave at the Kisutu Muslim graveyard in Dar es Salaam. I was named Ally after my father’s elder brother Ally Sykes, or Kattini Mbuwane, as he was known back home in Mozambique. My grandfather is from the Shangaan a Zulu clan, which originated from South Africa but settled in Mozambique. The reason, which caused the Zulu migration to Mozambique, was to run away from civil upheavals caused by the reign of Shaka, the Zulu King. My father was the second child; the first one was Ally Kattini who was born from Mbuwane’s first wife back home. My uncle Kattini was blind. When Mbuwane came to Tanganyika he came with him but he was later sent back home. The village, which my people settled, is known as Kwa Likunyi. I had the occasion to visit the village of our origins in 1952 and I was able to trace some members of our family. At that time the country was under the harsh rule of the Portuguese. I will narrate the story of my travel to trace my people later on. The history of my family begins at a village called Kwa Likunyi in the then Portuguese Mozambique about a hundred years ago. I learned most of the history of my forefathers from my father, Kleist Sykes.  Kleist Sykes was born in Pangani in 1894. His mother, my grandmother, was a Nyaturu from Central Tanganyika. My father always considered himself as an aristocrat of sorts and had his own exceptional way of carrying himself. He behaved and even dressed differently in comparison to other Africans. He was always immaculately dressed and all his existing photographs show him in suit and tie. He considered himself a modern man, a man of the times. He was very conscious of his Zulu origins and loved and longed for the country which he never set foot on.  My father sentimental and melancholy used to talk about his father, Sykes Mbuwane, who he never even knew because Mbuwane my grandfather, died soon after my father was born. My grandfather, Sykes Mbuwane, the Zulu mercenary and warrior from Inhambane died in Uhehe. Mbuwane died crossing River Ruaha returning from the campaign against Chief Mkwawa. He had seen cows crossing and he thought the water was shallow. Measuring himself up the Zulu warrior and others attempted to cross the river and were swept away and drowned. My father’s narration about his people was stories of wars and power of the white men over Africans. He used to narrate to us this history when we were young. I now can understand why that part of history was important to him. That history was the only thing he could hold on about his people and tribe.  Kleist was sentimental and melancholy because apart from us, his children he never had a living relative in Tanganyika. Whatever relatives he had were left behind in Inhambane, Mozambique at the turn of the century even before he was born. Part of that history and indeed the history of our family has also been recorded together with the history of Tanganyika itself.  Kleist preserved this history through his own pen. And it was from Kleist’s pen that many years after he had passed away that we now have an accurate account of those days long passed. Before he died on 23 May 1949 my father left behind his memoirs in his long flowing Germany handwriting picked from a Germany school he attended in Dar es Salaam, as a child in early 1900s. These memoirs [1] were later revisited by Abdulwahid my elder brother with his daughter Aisha Daisy Sykes, then an undergraduate student at Dar es Salaam University under the tutelage of Illife the renowned historian from Cambridge University. A month before he died on 12 October 1968 Abdulwahid had had already assisted Daisy to complete her research assignment of prominent Africans in Tanganyika for a history seminar on the life of her grandfather. The aim of this project was to document the life history of our father, Kleist Sykes and his achievement in politics, education and business. It was from his diaries, personal papers as primary sources and with the assistance of Daisy that Iliffe was able to research and write accurately on African Association and early colonial politics.[2] This work was submitted to the History Department of University of Dar es Salaam in September 1968. It was later published in 1973 in a book edited by Illife.[3]  It is a pity that Abdulwahid who was the main informant on the biography did not leave to see the fruits of his work. Prior to publishing of my father’s biography, little was known about the founding fathers of the African Association. Dar es Salaam 24 March 1997 Kushoto ni Ally Sykes akiwa na miaka 17 na kaka yake Abdulwahid miaka 19 wakiwa katika unifomu za King's African Rifles (KAR) katika kikosi cha Burma Infantry Vita Kuu ya Pili 1938 - 1945 [1] A.D. Sykes “The Life of Kleist Sykes,” University of Dar es Salaam Ref. No. JAN/HIST/143/15. [2] See John Illife: A Modern History of Tanganyika, Cambridge University Press, London, 1977; Also “The Role of the African Association in the formation and Realisation of Territorial Consciousness in Tanzania.” Mimeo, University of East Africa Social Sciences Conference 1968.[3] Illife Modern Tanzanians, (ed), East African Publishing House, Nairobi, 1973.