Sokoine, Nyerere species never die, says Majaliwa

PRIME Minister Kassim Majaliwa has showered praises on a former premier, the late Edward Moringe Sokoine, saying that the latter ‘Can never die,’ given the legend that had outlived him.

Speaking during the reminiscences mass at the Sokoine homestead in Monduli-Juu on Thursday, Mr Majaliwa said one of the vivid manifestations to that end was the massive turnout at the former premier’s residence there.

The event coincided with the commemoration, yesterday, of the 34th anniversary of Sokoine’s death. Mr Majaliwa stressed that Edward Moringe Sokoine was pretty much alive and breathing through the positive deeds that he did for the country. “

Speaking of people like the late Sokoine and Mwalimu Nyerere, these are living legends, not the type you describe among the dead,” said Mr Majaliwa, adding that he would strive to attain the same levels of exemplary patriotic service and encourage all Tanzanians to live their legacies. The Sokoine Memorial mass was led by retired Catholic Archbishop Dr Josaphat LouisLebulu, who recalled that, when the former premier was being buried at the homestead on the 15th of April 1984,

he was among the Bishops who graced the mass that Founder President Mwalimu Julius Nyerere attended. Mr Sokoine died in a motor vehicle accident along the Dodoma-Dar es Salaam highway, after attending a National Assembly session in the designated national capital. The accident occurred at Wami-Dakawa in Morogoro when the car in which he was travelling, a Mercedes Benz sedan, was rammed head on by a Toyota Land-Cruiser (J- 40 model) which was reportedly being driven by a South African ‘freedom fighter’, one ‘Dumisan Dube.’

Mr Edward Moringe Sokoine Mollel, was a historical ‘two-term’ Prime Minister of Tanzania having first served from the 13th of February 1977 to the 7th of November 1980 and then again from the 24th of February 1983 until his unfortunate death on the 12th of April 1984 (coincidentally it was also on Thursday). He was 45 years old when he died and left behind two wives and several children.

The elder wife, Mama Napono, lives at the Monduli-Juu home, involving herself in agricultural activities, growing maize, beans, sunflower and a variety of other local farm produce, but also keeping a few livestock; the cattle are mostly reared at the other family home in Makuyuni Ward. She is a mother of six out of the 11 Sokoine’s children, including Lazaro, Joseph, Edward, Ibrahim, Kereto and the last born Namelok, the only girl, who was fondly known as ‘Toto’ and who has taken up active politics.

Sokoine’s other wife Mama Nekiteto, took care of the Makuyuni house and had five children, four of whom are all female and the last born is the only male; they are Seki, Toel, Chichi, Tini and Babuu. Between 1948 and 1958, he attended Primary and Secondary Schools in Monduli and Umbwe, before joining the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) in 1961. He later took studies in administration in the Federal Republic of Germany (1962–1963).

He was made District Executive Officer of the then Maasai District, (encompassing Monduli, Longido, Simanjiro and Ngorongoro) before being elected to the National Assembly for the Maasai Constituency. In 1967, he became Deputy Minister of Communication, Transportation and Labour and later got promoted to the Minister of State in 1970. Two years later in 1972, he switched to the post of the Minister of Defence and National Service .

In 1975, he was elected to the Parliament again, this time for the new Monduli District (which covered Longido as well) and two years later, he became a member of the Central Committee of the ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), which succeeded TANU.

And during the same year, 1977, Sokoine was to start his first term in office as Tanzania’s Prime Minister, a post he held until 1981 when he took a two-year hiatus, but resumed the premiership in 1983, serving for just one year, before the untimely car accident which took his life in April 1984