Late
Ambassador
Paul Bomani's Web Site
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TUTAKUKUMBUKA DAIMA
Curriculum vitae
Background
Speech
Quotes
Gallery
Funeral
 Mr.Lazaro Benjamin Bomani pose for the photo while attending one of the function chaired by his granddad. |
| Quotes |
| Quote 1. However , politics as a way of life did not appear feasible in the last two years of the dcad, nor indeed before 1952 when the initiative came from Mwanza. Yet the lack of country-wide political consciousness in Dar es salaam was more than compensated for by the organizational strength and political activities of the branches upcountry. These, it will be recalled , were the rural areas from which mass support had to be drawn. Thus the expansion of the Association into the provinces and the existence of dynamic leadership to keep alive and expand the activities of the Association in the rural areas from 1945 through the period of reaction from headquarter, made certain the growth and the expansion of the Association even without direction from headquarter. Nowhere in Tanzania was this more true than in Sukuma land with its provincial centre at Mwanza. Alongside the upsurge in association after 1945 there grew up producers co-operatives for the marketing of cotton. The Lake Province Growers Association which was organised by Paul Bomani in 1949 and which became the Victoria federation of Co-operative Unions in usukuma, incorporating all the co-operatives, was a most important political force during the transition from TAA to TANU and during the struggle for uhuru after 1954. The co-operative movement sought to gain control of the marketing of cotton hirherto monopolized by indian businessmen; this monopoly entailed exploitation of the African farmers to whom the Indian invariably paid unfair prices. In evitably the co-operatives were drawn into political issues although their dual purpose was primarily economic. The co-operatives used tehri dual purpose to insulate themselves from proscription. For example, where TANU was banned in usukumaland in 1954, the co-operatives were not banned . The refusal of the government to register the co-operative movement before 1951 only served to aggravate the situation and helped Paul Bomani to awaken the farmers to their disabilities and to alienate them further from the government which had initiated the post-war development of cotton whose marketing they themselves wanted top control. Top | |
| Quote 2 The political grievances of the farmers which the Union articulated were he same as some o those that the TAA aired. But the Union led he TAA in expansion into the rural areas since, from the very beginning in the Lake Province, it was organized by farmers for the marketing of their cotton. Soon after it was registered, Bomani toured the rural areas where before 1954 he had drawn a membership of 30,000 into the movement. TAA had only a membership of about 3,000 and the secretary of the Association did not begin to tour the rural areas before 1953, a year after Bomani had done so. Bomani's successful tours in the heart of Usukumaland, paved the way for the leaders of the TAA in Mwanza to tour country side to organize the masses for political action. In 1952 Bomani, I.B. Munanka and S.A. Kandoro became full time officers of TAA. With the full time appointment of political of political officers ( S.A. Kandoro wa the provincial secretary and Bomani and Munaka the president and vice-president respectively) the Association in Sukumaland entered a new phase a year before the headquarter elected President Nyerere as president of the Association. Inviting Kandoro to take up the post, Bomani wrote , "Because Munanka is giving up his present employment to work for the freedom of his people, you must move from Tabora to Mwanza sothat the three of us can work for the freedom of this country." More important is that the three leaders of the TAA, Mwanza, were not civil servants which serves to show that the Association was to become henceforth a fully blown political party under the hands of men who were now committed to politicals as a way of life. Indicative of this change was the Association's proposal of a change of name to match the new phase of its political transformation. Top | |
| Quote 3 For the next two years from 1952 the new leaders succeeded in bringing the country and the towns together; there was by early 1954 a full fledged provincial organization with headquarters at Mwanza and branches all across Usukumaland. It is no wonder that Dr.Maguire concluded that by mid-1954 when TANU was formed it was no more than a mere change of name. TANU in Ususkumaland, he writes, "was basically TAA under a new name, for TAA had already achieved - in leadership, membership organization, style and ideology- the status of a full-scale political movement". Top | |
| Quote 4 Two initiatives came from men with experience wider than the ordinary peasant's. In July 1950 progressive farmers in Geita istrict formed the Buchosa Farmers Union (later the Mweli farmers Union) , its five leaders being a former agricultural instructor, and a retired policeman. The other initiative came from African traders in Mwanza town who had failed to break Asian control of cotton-buying. The key figure was the secretary of the preacher. In december 1950 Bomani arranged meetings in Ukerewe and Mwanza districts to discuss cooperation, playing on Asian unscrupulousness and contrasting conditions in Buhaya and Kilimanjaro. 'We want unity', one meeting resolved; 'we are tired of doing our work for the Asians.' Nothing concrete resulted until 1952, when Bomani studied cooperation in Uganda, toured Sukumaland collecting funds, founded the Lake Province growers Association and obtained government recognition. Three years later the primary societies were amalgamated into the VFCU. By 1959 this handled the whole crop and was also gaining control of ginning . Top | |
| Quote 5 The VFCU's first president was masanja Shija, the former sisal estate clerk who had led the Mweli farmers, while an early vice-president was Daudi Kabeya Murangira from Majita, who had sold his fishing boats to grow cotton. Bomani himself was general manager. Such activists commonly led cooperatives. Top | |
| Quote 6 Maguire's account of the origins of the VFCU is particulary revealing on this matter, for he traces the manner in which the organization grew out of a group of into the Mwanza African Traders Co-operative Society. This group was hard-pressed by the stif competition of the Asian traders and a number of their commercial ventures filed. After Paul Bomani had taken over active leadership in 1949, however, "within three years the Traders extended their concern to the marketing of native produce. Ultimately Bomani concentrated his attention on problems of cotton marketing where, it was felt, African producers were most flagrantly exploited by Asian middlemen. Top | |
| Quote 7 Thus Maguire further observes that, in spreading the movement, " Bomani worked with native authorities, more often with traders and ambitious cotton farmers, and sometimes, too,with traditional village leaders". Top | |
| Sources: - A history of Tanzania, Edited by I.N.Kimambo and A.J. Temu - East African Publishing House 1969. - A Modern History of Tanganyika African Studies series 25, By John Iliffe - Cambridge University Press. - Socialism in Tanzania Vol.2 Policies - By Lionel Cliffe and John Saul - East African Publishing House |
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