43 Facts About Oscar Kambona

Oscar Salathiel Kambona was the first Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tanganyika from 1963 to 1966.

Oscar Kambona was the son of the Reverend David Kambona and Miriam Kambona.

Reverend David Oscar Kambona belonged to the first group of African priests to be ordained into the Anglican Church of Tanganyika.

Oscar Kambona received his primary school education at home under a mango tree in his home village.

Oscar Kambona was taught by his parents and an uncle, all of whom were teachers.

Oscar Kambona was then sent to St Barnabas Middle School in Liuli in southern Tanganyika not far from his home.

Oscar Kambona attended Alliance Secondary School in Dodoma in central Tanganyika.

Oscar Kambona is reportedly said he convinced the Anglican bishop to pay his school fees by reciting the Lord's Prayer in English.

Oscar Kambona was then selected to attend Tabora Boys' Senior Government School, where he first met Julius Nyerere who was already teaching at St Mary's, a Catholic school in Tabora town.

Oscar Kambona became the secretary-general of the Tanganyika African National Union during the struggle for independence and worked closely with Nyerere who was president of TANU, the party that led Tanganyika to independence.

When Oscar Kambona married a former Miss Tanganyika at a cathedral in London, Nyerere was his best man.

Oscar Kambona proved to be a charismatic leader who had great influence among the leaders of the African liberation movements based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, second only to Nyerere.

Oscar Kambona drove himself to the army barracks to talk to the army mutineers and listen to their demands.

Oscar Kambona, leveraging his popularity with the Tanganyikan soldiers, agreed to most of their demands and sent them back to the barracks.

Oscar Kambona persuaded Nyerere to seek immediate assistance from Britain should further mutinies arise.

Oscar Kambona was opposed to this fundamental change and argued that the government should first launch a pilot scheme to see if the policy was going to work on a national scale.

Oscar Kambona argued that it was important, first, to show the people that living in ujamaa villages, or collective communities, was beneficial and a good idea.

Oscar Kambona said that could be done by establishing a few ujamaa villages in different parts of the country as a pilot scheme to demonstrate the viability of those villages and show the people the benefits they would get if they agreed to live together and work together on communal farms.

Kawawa personally claims that "had no disagreement with Oscar Kambona and worked well with him as a colleague throughout" following Oscar Kambona's death.

Oscar Kambona was in favour of capitalism, though he had read about Karl Marx, and opposed to Chinese influence in Tanzania, pointing out that it was after Nyerere's first trip to the People's Republic of China that Nyerere decided to establish a one-party state.

Oscar Kambona responded to the allegations by requesting the Tanzanian government in a press conference in London in 1968 to hold a public investigation into his personal wealth and publish the findings.

Tony Laurence, in his book The Dar Mutiny of 1964 published by Book Guild Publishing states that, fearing for his life, Oscar Kambona went to live in exile in Great Britain with no financial support and took a number of low-paying jobs to support himself and his family.

Yet, during all that time, Oscar Kambona conducted himself with dignity, and with a sense of humour in spite of the hardship, and was a friend of other people who were living in exile.

Nyerere's challenge to Oscar Kambona, asking him to account for his money, was widely reported in Tanzanian newspapers and by Radio Tanzania Dar es Salaam during that time.

The destruction of his house, after Oscar Kambona left, seemed to have been some kind of warning or simply a scare tactic and it probably achieved its purpose, especially with regard to Oscar Kambona's supporters in Tanzania.

From his sanctuary in London, Oscar Kambona became a bitter critic and opponent of President Nyerere and his policies.

Oscar Kambona was even invited by the Nigerian military government of General Yakubu Gowon in June 1968 to go and lecture in Nigeria, after Tanzania recognised The State of Biafra, thus infuriating Nigerian leaders for supporting the secession of the Eastern Region of the Nigerian Federation.

Oscar Kambona was quick to remind his listeners in Nigeria, and even in Britain where he had lived, that it was he who calmed down the soldiers when they mutinied while President Nyerere and Vice President Kawawa went into hiding, "in a grass hut," as he put it.

Not long after Oscar Kambona got ample publicity during his lecture tour of Nigeria in 1968 denouncing Nyerere, he was again in the news in Tanzania and other African countries and elsewhere.

Oscar Kambona was accused of masterminding a coup attempt to overthrow Nyerere.

Oscar Kambona's testimony proved critical in securing a conviction of the accused during the treason trial presided over by Chief Justice Phillip Telfer Georges, a Trinidadian.

Oscar Kambona was the first accused and was charged in absentia.

Oscar Kambona asked one of the accused, John Lifa Chipaka, what he meant when he said - in their secret communications obtained by the Tanzania intelligence service - they were going "to eliminate" Nyerere.

Oscar Kambona was the most prominent figure on the opposition side during that time after he returned to his home country.

Oscar Kambona himself had his own "revelations" concerning the national identities of other Tanzanian leaders including President Nyerere himself.

Oscar Kambona said Nyerere's father was a Tutsi from Rwanda who was a porter for the Germans and settled in Tanganyika and that he could prove it.

Oscar Kambona said Vice President Rashid Kawawa came from Mozambique, and John Malecela - who once served as Tanzania's Foreign Affairs Minister, Prime Minister and Vice President among other posts at different times - came from Congo where his grandparents were captured as slaves before they settled in Dodoma, central Tanzania.

When Oscar Kambona returned to Tanzania, he promised that he would tell the public how much money President Nyerere and Vice President Kawawa had stolen through the years and where they hid it.

Oscar Kambona died in London in July 1997, almost exactly 30 years after he first went into exile in Britain in July 1967 where he lived for 25 years before returning to his home country in 1992 to spend the last few years of his life.

Oscar Kambona could have been one of the best presidents Tanzania ever had.

Socialism ruined Tanzania's economy and Oscar Kambona was opposed to socialism right from the beginning, although many Tanzanians believed that Nyerere meant well but pursued the wrong policies.

Today, Tanzania is pursuing free-market policies after renouncing socialism, and has adopted multiparty democracy, the same policies and kind of political system Oscar Kambona had advocated all along.

The book covers extensively the 1970 treason trial in which Oscar Kambona was implicated as the ring leader.