Cheche: Reminiscences of a Radical Magazine

5. Not So Silent A Spark

5 Not So Silent A Spark Karim F Hirji “If I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. If I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.” - Don Hector Camara - 54 Chapter 5 Campus Activism The academic year 1970/71 begins with a huge gap in our ranks. About fifteen senior comrades had graduated three months earlier. Yoweri Museveni and Eriya Kategaya are in Uganda. Charles Kileo is a teacher in Tabora. Andrew Shija is a TANU cadre. They had inspired and guided us. I miss the infectious spirit, cheerful demeanor and unblemished dedication of Comrade Shija. Many regular faces at USARF/TYL activities are absent. It is a relief that Issa Shivji remains at the Hill as a tutorial assistant in the Faculty of Law. Though, he will soon depart for further studies. Nonetheless, USARF and TYL have a full calendar of events on the campus. Abdulrahman Babu, the rare erudite and committed socialist in Mwalimu Nyerere’s cabinet, speaks on capitalism and imperialism to a capacity crowd. According to him, an economic policy based on multi-sectoral planning, state control (not just formal ownership) of major enterprises, and focus on the internal market points the way forward for Africa. Gora Ebrahim lectures on the Middle East. His signature style entwines humor and sarcasm with a load of informative material and critical analysis. USARF holds a campus wide march to protest the impending sale of British weapons to Apartheid South Africa. Representatives of African liberation movements give speeches and the USARF statement is read out. We collect funds for these movements. The general student body holds a demonstration in town on the same issue. Ideologicalclassesgoon.InoneGoraspeaksonhistoricalmaterialism and I, on the application of the scientific method to social analysis. After the class, we have a contentious exchange. I feel his approach is narrow and dogmatic. He thinks I am a Trotskyist in disguise! We have a cordial meeting with Frene Ginwalla in her office. She stresses open debate on social and economic development, and socialism in particular. African and foreign news in The Standard are no longer framed in the typical Cold War terminology and perspective of the Western media. Debates initiated by USARF and TYL take place. Henry Mapolu’s long analytic letters appear occasionally in this newspaper, generating a lively exchange. Henry, Nizar Visram and I get a joint book review column. Every other week, we take turns to write a review. I submit the first one that explores G William Domhoff’s exceptional work, Who Rules America?, a meticulous study of the class structure of the American society. The facts he amasses demolish the myth, trumpeted by the right-wing staff and students at the Hill, that the USA is a meritorious, equal opportunity society. With not so silent a sparK 55 detailed data, he shows that the main sectors of the society including education, media, and the service and manufacturing sectors are controlled and dominated by a tiny elite that also owns a large portion of the wealth of that society.1 In time, and to our dismay, we gather that the official reaction to Cheche No. 2 has not been a favorable one. Initially, there was a positive review of this issue in the party paper, The Nationalist. This is followed six days later by a highly critical “letter to the editor” that is no ordinary letter but has official blessing, and may have been written by the editor, Benjamin Mkapa, himself. It takes our magazine to task for not examining the concrete aspects of the socialist endeavors in Tanzania. Cheche is criticized for dealing with events and abstruse theories relating to far away places and distant times without showing their relevance to the local conditions and problems. It is castigated for unfairly dismissing the products of the current education system as “reactionary bureaucrats and technocrats.” The message seems to be to avoid foreign ideologies and adhere to the Tanzanian version of socialism. There is a germ of truth in what the critical letter says, but then it concedes that it is too soon to judge a journal after just two issues.2 We are paid a visit by Mwalimu’s personal assistant, Annar Cassam. The message is to tone down our rhetoric. Henry and I earnestly argue with her, and do not relent. She leaves plainly frustrated. We learn later that her report had...