AFRICA’S TRUBULENT TIMES: LESSONS FROM GRANDFATHER ANAELI MACHA

To continue with last week’s theme.

Gloom and pessimism reigns. Even the football contest in January has been affected via Morocco. History, however, proves all continents have gone through mud and snort and fart. Why are Europeans marking 100 years of their slaughter in 1914? They too passed through hell. Lessons.

It is not only us.

 Someone recently, WhatsApped me that we are currently governed by gangsters. Harsh? The guys that led African renaissance were so principled and focussed that they had to be stopped, instantly.  Patrice Lumumba (Congo, 1961), Ben Barka (Morocco, 1965), Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana, 1966), Marien Ngouabi, (Congo Brazzaville, 1977), Thomas Sankara (Burkina Faso, 1987), etc. Some muddled through. Mwalimu Nyerere (1962-1985) and Nelson Mandela (despite a 26 year, prison sentence), to name a few....

 We have had misfortunes. Truly.

But is it all external? Politics and governments?

Last week I asked this significant question. How does one find courage to carry on?  Where do you unearth hope to work, relax and strive?

One of my personal beliefs is to look into your own kitchen.  Roots. Inspiration through those closest. Family, friends, teachers, colleagues.

My grandfather the preacher, writer, broadcaster, linguist and philosopher  (first right) with President Nyerere President Julius Nyerere (second left) , Dar es Salaam, 1962.  Family Archives Pic

My great, grandfather, Abraham Macha was born in 1840 and died aged 95 in Old Moshi, Kilimanjaro. He lived a long life and had many children. His last kid was a well known preacher.

Reverend Anaeli Macha was born six years before the First Great War began in 1914. At the time Germans were ruling Tanganyika and many Africans had to go die for the vampire. Just like they would against Adolf Hitler in 1939. 

MACHALARI MGOMBANI MOSHI NA NYAMA CHOMA ZA ARUSHA

Dunia yetu ina kila aina za udongo.

Udongo wa Mpirani nje kidogo ya Moshi mjini unanikumbusha wa Kigoma ambapo rangi yake inakurubia wekundu. Mimea ya Mpirani ni migomba, mapera, machungwa, ndimu, maembe, kahawa na gari analoendesha dada yangu Juliana linakwenda taratibu, likikwepa mashimo shimo ya udongo huu.

“Unaona ule msikiti?” naulizwa. Nikiwa mdogo haikuwepo misikiti mashambani Moshi.  Kidesturi migombani kwa Wachagga hujazana makanisa.

“Wapo mangi wengi Waislamu siku hizi,” dereva anafafanua.

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2011 AND WHAT MY DOCTOR FRIEND SAID

I have always been around doctors or became friends with them. My own late father, Dr Hosea Macha, was a known local medic; therefore, when I was a kid growing on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, I would hear him wake up late at night to tend patients. It could be someone knocking on our door because his wife or neighbour was having a baby; or an emergency because a farmer had cut himself seriously with a machete or been bitten by a snake. My father was always working.