Tradition Versus Modernism

The landscape under British Colony of Tanganyika was undergoing many transformations in 1950s. Dodoma, being its less populated central region, the pace was slower but discernible. These transformations contributed significantly to Hussein’s identity formation. His children, being exposed to these changes, acted as windows letting the light of changes keep Hussein in touch.

British-made goods, including guns and automobiles, as well as other consumer goods began to appear in the hands of locals with many social and economic implications. With these innovations, the concept of time and distance was changing. So, the farmers could bring their fruits and vegetables to the city more rapidly lest they rot.

Hussein did well in running the duka, partly because he was fluent in both swahili and kigogo. The locals felt comfortable dealing with him. More importantly, Hussein’s Ismaili syncretic trait to embrace innovations, diversity, human-divine belief system, etc., significantly helped him to be adaptive. Listening to the villagers express the challenges of mobility and walking for miles carrying their produce, he bought a used Bedford truck to transport their goods from village to village.

One day, a chief of a remote village tribe needed to transport his goods from Dodoma. Hussein refused to transport his goods, knowing well that it was always risky to go to areas that had no roads. The chief swore that there was a road leading to his village. Hussein believed him. Deep down he doubted his own belief based on the chief’s testimony. Doubts are sometimes not verifiable as much as beliefs are not. But to believe is easier than doubting because belief leads to action while doubt ends with inaction. Doing is better than not doing. Also, guilt is associated more with doubting than with believing even though the latter is proven to be false.

There was no road but a narrow trail leading to the chief’s dwelling. Hussein chugged the truck along the narrow path brushing and hitting thorny bushes and tree branches. When Hussein’s truck returned from the trip with the passenger door wide open, Hussein’s face was as pale as a white cloud. Fear was written all over it. He jumped out of the truck in a frenzy and shouted that there was a snake in the door. The workers dismantled the door. Some of the workers stood alert with rungus (hard wooden sticks, with ball-like endings) that wagogos carry as weapons. As soon as they saw the snake appear from the door, they struck it.

The snake was identified by tribesmen as very poisonous. It had slipped itself into the truck’s door while Hussein was navigating his truck through the forest trail.

Hussein’s transport business had its own difficulties. Repairs were a never-ending task. As much as motor vehicles began dotting the town scene, so did emerging class of drivers and mechanics. They were new to the trade and could upgrade their skills only by using the vehicles in need of repairs as guinea pigs. Hussein’s fascination with automobiles resulted in him buying of a black pre-1950 Oldsmobile and Ford Pilot. The former was an oval bowl-shaped car made of steel, and the latter was a small station wagon that had spoked wheels, brown and beige wooden body, and a V8 engine that was a synonym of speed.

All three vehicles were constantly undergoing repairs. The problems were simple, like a weak battery or dirty spark plugs. These simple problems eluded the so-called emerging class of mechanics.

One was Juma Langro (one-legged). He walked with wooden crutches. His workshop was under a mango tree across Hussein’s house. He always smelled of oil, and his clothes were always covered with grease. This appearance probably legitimized his claims. He also appeared confident in his mechanical skills. He was rarely able to fix the problems, which were essentially those related to the batteries or plugs. To overcome the problem of starting the car, he would ask Hussein’s sons to use a metal “S”-shaped handle that would lodge on the front of the flywheel on the engine. It was a dangerous feat, as the handle would sometimes fly, missing the kids’ faces.

There was another Ismaili mechanic in town called Amar. He had a proper garage attached to his house. There were always cars parked at his garage, which never got fixed probably due to the unavailability of spare parts or a deficiency in his skills. He seemed to be very frustrated at not being able to fix a lot of cars. He would therefore often resort to drinking due to being hard on himself. When intoxicated, he would beat his wife who would run to Fata for emotional support.

The demand for Hussein’s Bedford truck grew as villages around Dodoma needed to transport their agricultural produce to sell them to the merchants. Alternatively, the villages’ chiefs decided, obviously with the advice of the British, to have a trade fair in the villages on different days of the week. During that time, the merchants would visit a scheduled village, sell their wares to them, and buy their grains and peanuts, hides, honey, and beeswax. These merchants then sold the produce to the wholesalers in Dodoma, such as, Jaffer Ladak and Nasser Damji, who in turn sold them to the British exporters.

The following event dampened his drive to continue the village ventures. Hussein’s driver was one day returning from a village fair when the truck rolled over and three people died. The British Court sued Hussein. The investigation initially revealed that the failure of the brakes caused the truck driver’s inability to negotiate a turn. Hussein hired his own investigators on the advice of his lawyer. They found that the driver had gotten drunk. Hussein won the case but lost the emotional battle, knowing that three lives were lost.

Hussein’s duka was not only a convenience store selling essentials like oils, soaps, fruits and vegetables, spices like turmeric and ginger, but it was also like an informative hub for picking up gossip, news, and current ideas. Locals also came to sell their goods.

One of the items that Hussein acquired through these exchanges, was a .22 calibre shotgun. Along with some locals, he started hunting deer and kangas (or fowls).

One evening, he sat down to clean the gun assuming it had no bullets. His family gathered around him to watch. The gun went off. Luckily, it was pointing towards the tin roof. Hussein did not try to repair the hole in the roof as a grim reminder of the gun’s power and lethality.

Guns tipped the scale for the British and other European countries in successfully colonizing the world in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The swords, spears, and arrows used by the natives were no match for the power of the gun. The speed and distance with which a gun-fired bullet travelled in time rendered the combat tools of natives, of the countries being colonized, obsolete. This empowered the British, in particular, to govern the colonized people with their laws and systems. The engineering feat of the British translated into roads and transport network for the goods and commuters to flow with ease. This, in turn, spurred the British economic growth. Their bridges and buildings were superbly constructed. The latter housed their command centres as well as their bureaucratic and legal frameworks. The British introduced laws and contracts for the people to abide by. These laws continue to operate in many countries even in the present time.

Besides automobiles, trains and guns, the British were introducing electricity and light bulbs. Until then, before the electricity reached Dodoma region, Hussein depended on locally made koroboi, a small metal container holding kerosene and a roll of soaked wicker. The flame from the protruding wicker would faintly light up a small area. Hussein also bought some British made kerosene lanterns that he would light at night. There was one lantern called Petromax. It had a small balloon shaped wicker that, like a chandelier, hung above an alcohol or spirit chamber that he would light with a matchstick. Once the wicker would start glowing, he would then pump the lower chamber that held kerosene. The fumes from the kerosene would cause the wicker to glow like a star in the dark sky and light up the whole room. This was a magical moment for him and his children. He was awed by the way a small pocket-size wicker lit up. Light from the lanterns seemed to extend the days into the night. Thus, the nights appeared shorter. The light seems to impact the concept of time as people started going to sleep late.

But light also enhanced the darkness of the night surrounding it. This resulting growing consciousness of darkness due to the existence of light was most likely diminishing the ability of eyes to see in the dark. Until then, the local tribes could see their surroundings faintly in the dark. Light is like knowledge in that the more one acquires, the more that person becomes aware of ignorance (darkness).

The ensuing brightness also generated a sense of security as darkness veiled crawling scorpions, centipedes, and snakes. For the safety of the children, Hussein also resorted to adopting hedgehogs, cats, and dogs in the house. The hedgehogs kept the snakes and scorpions away. They were not very social but drew children’s attention a lot. Just petting them turned them into little thorny balls for hours. The children patiently watched them until they emerged from their slumber. They would repeat this again and again. This tag and wait game were one of many past time activities that kept the children busy. The cats were more fun as they chased the crumpled paper balls and tossed them using their paws with lightening speed. The mice did not stand a chance against their speed.

More importantly, the light enabled Nizar to satisfy his urge to read books on religion at night to compensate for the vacuum left by the snatched opportunity to pursue secular education. Like Nizar, many local African children who did not get the opportunity to attend secular schools, ended up studying religion at Christian seminaries or Muslims madrassas. This duality in education led to fissures between secular and religious world views which eventually surfaced and marred political development everywhere in Tanganyika and the colonized world in the fifties. This major divide seems to have contributed significantly towards thwarting the fertilization of civility in the colonized societies.

While Nizar went on to become a religion teacher, Firoz immersed himself in music. Firoz spent his time learning to play all kinds of musical instruments, including the harmonium, saxophone, violin, accordion, and trumpet. He was gifted. He became a lead musician for the community events. He most likely inherited the gift of music from Hussein and Fatma. He also played sports well, especially soccer. He played for the local town team. The only Asian Ismaili in the whole African team.

Hussein’s third son, Mansoor, being brilliant, was falling through the social and educational cracks. The society could not channelize his energy and creative impulses. He always thought out of the box. This caused conflict in his mind. On the one hand, he had an intuitive mind. On the other hand, there was no platform to launch his ideas from. Frustration led him to be socially non-conformist. He resorted to smoking marijuana to calm his conflicting mind. This further isolated him from the family and the Ismaili community which lacked the elasticity of wide spectrum to accommodate geniuses. Mansur was pressured to look for a job and earn his living contrary to the inherited entrepreneur spirit. He worked all day as a labourer for a Pepsi dealer earning just one shilling. At the time, a British pound was equal to twenty shillings. Upon reaching home, he threw the shilling on the dinner table and walked away defiantly. He never went to work again. He turned against usurpers and their enslavingtendencies.  He even contemplated joining the maomao freedom movement led by Jomo Kanyata to unseat the British in Kenya.

Shiraz, Parin, Mohamed, and Diamond, having watched Nizar’s shattered dreams, became more studious and hardworking at school. Parin excelled in her class. Hussein gifted her with a lady’s bike. He probably recalled his missed childhood education opportunity. By rewarding Parin, he defined his pro-education stance. Mohamed’s acquired passion for physics and Chemistry, sports, and story telling later spurred him to pursue studies in Enginnering. He also excelled in story telling, a trait most likely passed down to him from Mathonya’s sungura or rabbit stories.

But schooling could affect students in several ways. Teachers played a key role. A good math, science, or arts teacher relays enthusiasm in students to learn. Otherwise, the children could be distracted. Shiraz, most likely, either as a distraction or pure adventure, rode Parin’s bike to a small village fifty kilometers away, called Bahi. This village had an incredibly unique landscape. There was a large tract of land covered with a lot of sand. Walking on it was like walking on the sand dunes in the desert. This sand patch was surrounded by small shops owned mainly by the Ismaili traders. One of Hussein’s relatives’ family, Ali Mohammed Mawji, lived there with a duka attached to their house. Hussein realized after a while that Shiraz was missing. There was no phone or a way to find out where was he. He showed up next day riding on the back of the relatives’ truck with Parin’s bike.

Nizar also converted his hurting into ensuring that his younger siblings did not repeat his fate. As a religion teacher with fervour, he tried to impose the Ismaili belief system and practices on his younger siblings. Diamond was particularly more impressionable. He was punctual in observing religious practices. He later went to study religion and philosophy. He seemed to have inherited his religious inclinations from Hussein and Fatma. This religious torch was passed to them from their ancestors and catalyzed by the migration and newness of the colonization.

Hussein always got up early. His father had told him that “those who start the day early win the race”. He always woke up at 4.00, meditated until 5.00, and said his dua before unbolting the duka doors to allow the early morning sunlight to shine on the goods he sold. He would then burn the incense for good omens. He probably did it to rid the duka and his home of the insects. It smelled holy.

He preferred to meditate at home in the early mornings before the sunrise. He felt at peace with himself and less fearful. He believed very strongly that God was there to protect him and his family as long as he was a good man. He thus never tried to control or restrict the boys in seeking adventures. He also believed that by praying, he was perpetuating vibes of peace in the world. He was poor but felt content and grateful. In the evening, he, and his young family, like other Ismailis, would go to Jamatkhana, a community center, to pray and socialize almost daily.

The new Jamatkhana was opened by Prince Karim, the present Agakhan, and his brother, Prince Amin, in 1954. It was a very conspicuous building patterned on British neoclassical design. It was built in the center of the town with a silhouetted tower. It was the tallest structure in the town. Four huge clocks were embedded on all four sides of the tallest points of the tower. The clocks were visible from all angles of the town and their chimes could be heard every hour. This Jamatkhana building contributed significantly to the high self-esteem of the community and Hussein’s family. The invisible impact of fine art and architecture on the community associated with them was enormous. It enhanced their image and the sense of belongingness. Its lush garden provided a refreshing serenity in the middle of commercial busyness.

The Jamatkhana platform offered important social and mingling functions. The firmans, or directives of the Imam, which acted as vehicles for socioeconomic reforms, were disseminated here. It allowed for information exchange related to businesses and job opportunities.

Latently, the young boys and girls scanned their preferences as well. Everyone descended upon the social hall after the prayers to socialize. The young boys and girls would go for a stroll near Jamatkhana before and after the prayers. The surroundings were dotted with local vendors selling roasted peanuts and fried cassava, sugary popcorn balls, kashata (colorful coconut pastries), etc. Going to Jamatkhana was fun and exciting. There was a sense of belongingness. An oasis in the desert of apprehensive transition.

But the overwhelming religiosity tended to burry many social ills under the carpet. For instance, there was a vendor of snacks, name Kasamali Jingo (dumb). He was a pedophile and preyed on children in exchange of spiced potatoes and liver. He was never reprimanded. Also, there were no psychology or sociology tools to address many domestic or school related abuses.

Hussein’s faith in God and the Imam probably strengthened his resolve to face the challenges of operating small businesses.

Being good, fair, and kind, Hussein embodied some elements of piety mindedness entangled with his belief system. When two local African ladies, binti (daughter of) Maguru and binti Hamisi approached him for help in credit facilitations towards their start up of a phombe or locally brewed beer joint, he could not but oblige. He sold them on credit solid blocks of jaggery or sukari guru. It was an essential ingredient in making phombe. It was made by fermenting white millet, which is rich in sugar content. With the jaggery, he sold them yeast and qumuta (a long cone-shaped filter made from palm leaves).

In the absence of cinemas, theaters, libraries, and social clubs, these were the only outlets to socialize and temporarily forget the difficulties of everyday life. These ladies regularly paid their debts. So, Hussein let them borrow more. Hussein and the phombe joint owners could not fathom the impact of changes silently creeping to replace and erode the traditional manual labour-oriented enterprises.

At that time in the Fifties, two Khoja Ismaili families opened two cinemas called Remsons Theatre and Paradise Theatre. These cinema houses featured English and Indian movies. Did the cinemas impact the phombe business? Possibly.

The projecting technology was able to capture actors’ emotions, expressions, and responses in an enacted story on the large screen for a large number of people to watch at the same time. These projected emotions mirrored the audience’s real emotive life but in a more amplified form. Individuals started identifying themselves with their favourite actors. This totally revolutionized the realm of entertainment, education, and businesses. When English and Indian movies were being projected, many people tried to peep behind the screen to see what was going on. Some people would get up from their seats with hero supporting gestures during the fighting scenes. More significantly, the movies evoked a plethora of emotions, ideas, and imaginations. Many movies depicted scenes with beautiful Western and Indian actors as focal points and agents of good versus evil. In the minds of the audience, which consisted of local Africans and Asians, the criteria of beauty, family relationships, and good and bad began to undergo significant changes.

One noticeable impact of movies was a growing self consciousness. The hero identity of self was both moral and egoistic.  It was moral because the heroes were always good.  This goodness in them propelled them to emerge as winners. Egoism or self consciousness was enhanced with the heroes’ good looks, and which defined the realm of beauty.  When tragedies confronted the actors, tears rolled down the odeance cheeks.  Not so in the case of villains. This erroneously led to the belief6 that humans are free to chose, resulting in the feeling of guilt. Motivational speakers thus unknowingly exacerbate the guilt in self.

The shutting of phombe joints consequently posed a major loss to Hussein as he could not recover the loans he had advanced to the joints.

The abundant imported beer and alcohol from Britain was yet another reason that may have contributed to the demise of local phombe joints. Hussein probably saw a new opportunity in this transformation. He extended his dwelling to house a bar to sell imported beer and alcohol. He called his bar, Wanyawsi (for and by blacks). The Masai tribesmen started frequenting the bar.

The Masais were a nomadic people that roamed between Kenya and Tanganyika. They are very conspicuous, tall, agile, and fearless. They would dye their skin with khusi or Ocher, a red mineral grounded to a fine powder, mixed with cow fat. The men would carry spears to protect their large herds of cattle. They would wear long shawls, or shuka, with one side open, revealing their penises, especially when it was windy. They amassed their wealth during the fifties buying and selling cows and goats. They were major suppliers of cattle hide for leather manufacturing in England.

When Masais frequented the bar, they would dance after a few drinks by jumping with their motionless hands on the sides. Firoz had just bought a German made Grundig tape recorder and audio player. It had a spool of brown ribbon on one side. He would then carefully pass one end of the tape through a writing and reading head onto an empty spool and would invite Masai tribesmen to sing. He would then play it back. The Masais would go into frenzy and ecstasy. They would start jumping and dancing. In the excitement, some would even faint. The Masais were as bewildered by this new magical technology as Hussein and his family. It was good for the business. Science and technology were beginning to change and redefine everyone’s self-identity. As much as they were excited about the emerging video and audio technologies, cars, televisions, etc., it was evoking magic-like wonder and awe in them. How were the voices and images captured and stored?

Hussein started flourishing again but with a few mishaps. Hussein had hired a couple from Mwanza to take care of the house chores. With eight kids growing up, Hussein and Fatma needed help. One night, after working for a few months, the couple vanished with a cash box containing a lot of money he used for the village fair. Hussein was more hurt by his weakness in trusting others. Now he did not have any money to visit the villages.

Thievery was an emerging symptom of the widening gap between the rich and the poor caused by the British categories of capitalism and free enterprise. Its success in Europe and England was concomitantly related to literacy and the moral underpinnings of wealth trickling down to all levels of society. These categories became misfits in the colonized society. Scant literacy level of the African subjects of the British added to the widening gap between the rich and the poor. Also, dictatorship presupposes governance of people with no literacy. That remained the legacy of many countries even after independence.

Thievery was more of an easier means to acquire the British imported essential goods like a radio for news and entertainment, or a bicycle to get around, or a watch to live by time in the changing world, etc. It was also an attempt to feel the emerging black self-assertion and the power of money and things than to elevate one’s poor status permanently. One can have more wealth by stealing, but the assertion of one’s power to create fear in others who were advantaged was more empowering. Power and money have blinded many generations in the past and will continue to mesmerize them in the future. It was extremely difficult to be perpetually conscious of humans’ short span of earthly existence. Political and economic well-being were two of the four axioms of leading a good life, not necessarily a meaningful life. The other two were health and knowledge.

Most Asian businesspeople hired korkoroni or night watchmen who would sit outside the shop attached to the dwelling. Thieves, in many instances, observe their targets for days before executing their intent.

During the monsoon rainy season, the thunderstorms were deafening. The rain would pour on the thin aluminum roof of the mud house that Hussein and his family lived in. The mud walls absorbed a lot of moisture. A significant amount of moisture would result in their cave-ins. Yet the mud walls offered relief from scorching hot days. The evaporation effect cooled down the house. The aluminum roofs sometimes tended to leak, especially after a hailstorm.

These metal roofs would alert the family if thieves were attempting to access an opening in the house. The aluminum roof was a deterrent but was also a nuisance.

During one rainy night, Hussein woke up and saw a big hole in the wall. He at once rushed to see if the cash box was there. He again went into despair. At that time, Nizar, and Shiraz, who were still noticeably young, started following the footstep marks visible on the unpaved roads due to the rain. Firoz drove the truck in search of thieves and ended up getting it stuck in the mud. He abandoned it and walked home. Mansur and Diamond attempted to scour the streets with no luck. Mohamed, Nargis, and Parin stayed with parents, calming them down

Nizar and Shiraz followed the footsteps to a small house. They peeped in to see the thieves counting the money. While Shiraz waited outside, Nizar fetched the police. When they were apprehended, only a few hundred shillings were found on them. At that time, Hussein realized that he had transferred all the cash to the safe deposit box fixed on the wall in his bedroom the previous night.

Interestingly, all the members of the family responded to the critical situation differently according to their individual propensities, most likely inherited or acquired. In that case, is an individual’s action faulty or wrong? It is certainly wrong to harm others. But there is nothing wrong with marrying or befriending a person one cannot get along with.  There is therefore no fault or mistake if and when marriages or relationships sour. One can thus safely concur that human life span presupposes epistemic limitations and unpredictability.

Luckily, Hussein or his family were not attacked physically as in the case of an Ismaili family of Abdul Rasul in Handali village. He had adopted a few local orphaned children. He and his wife were physically violated during the theft. He moved to Dodoma after that incident.

Badru was the eldest brother of Fatma. He lived in Dar es Salaam. He was very robust, short, and viewed himself as self righteous. His life was checkered with fights against many gangs. One day, he was viciously attacked by the thieves and had to drag himself, with open wounds, to a hospital nearby. He was not afraid to lose his life. He maintained that “Fear is our enemy because it enslaves us.” He would say, “Take risks. Taking risks is better than being just an observer.” “You are graced with one life to live. Always stand up for the truth and justice.”                      

Hussein was making decent money in his businesses, but he could not hold onto it. Some Ismailis as well as some locals would approach Hussein for loans to start their enterprises. Hussein had that soft spot in him. His concept of human had a religious content in which a person is created in the image of God. This engineered attempt at zinething a human, especially after the two world wars dissipating millions, was a response to not only reclaim human dignity but also to lock the wars for good. The persons’ circumstances are the result of their luck. With help they can better their lives. Hussein ended up with zero debt returns.

This did not dampen his spirit. He decided to leave Dodoma and move to a small village, called Mbabara, fifteen miles away. He would not take the children with him lest they miss school. Just before moving, a major life-changing event took place. He came home riding a bike one day and collapsed in front of his house. Fatma rushed out and knew the cause at once. She took kerosene and rubbed it on his whole body, every part of which was covered with the stings of killer bees. He was visiting shopkeepers in the town when he and others were attacked by killer bees which had nested in the ceiling of the new Jamatkana. Later, he found out that two people had succumbed to death.

Mbabara was a tiny village about 15 miles from Dodoma. Hussein and Fatma started a duka and moved there. It was the only convenience stop in the area providing essentials for sustenance, such as oil for lamps and cooking, salt and sugar, soaps, combs, and khangas (colorful long cotton sheets that the tribe members used as loincloth). Hussein made friends easily; he spoke the language of Wagogos and would sit on a godo (a stool made from a tree log) every evening and greet the passersby. Soon the tribe members started confiding in him and seeking advice from him on everything. He was referred to as mtemi (chief). During his conversations with the locals, he realized the need to start a flour mill and a grape farm. The villagers stopped traveling far to get their corn and millet milled. Their staple food was ugali (cooked dough) with mchuzi (stew) or merenda (okra mashed with peanuts and cassava leaves or spinach).

One night, he was awakened by the commotion outside his shop. The Wagogo tribe members in Mbabara village were out running and making loud noises to draw the attention of many angry elephants. The villagers were trying to drive them away from trampling the crops and fields. Poachers probably angered the elephants. When elephants perceive danger to their cubs, they would run wild over anything and everything. The elephants in such a mood could trample all the crops on the farms, resulting in major losses to the farmers.

The guns and greed are a lethal combination in feeding the hungry markets for tusks and ivory as well as lions’ and leopards’ skins. To add to the looming ecological disaster, the British elites hunted and captured them as a past time.