Tony Barros wrote: > And also like Nyerere- Mkapa did his first degree at the once prestigious > Uganda's Makerere University. > > At Makerere, Mkapa studied Literature with four other students - including > the Entebbe-born goan author- Peter Nazareth whose wife -Mary nee > Fernandes is also from Iringa- my hometown and birthplace in southern > Tanzania.
Tony, If I am not mistaken, Prof. Adolfo Mascarenhas and Glen Dias were also studying at Makerere at the same time. Glen Dias used to greet Mkapa like an old friend at mass, at Upanga church. > I used to socialize a lot with Mkapa taking him to the Dar es Salaam Institute > (formerly Goan Institute) which he loved. He told me that he loved goans > for their honesty, integrity, work ethic and being very religious. > > In the meantime, Mkapa was beginning to like the DI and meeting several goans > who would come to talk to him. He asked me to make him a member- mainly to > play badminton. Now that you mention it, I remember him playing badminton with Salus Fernandes at the D.I. Mkapa used a knee brace on one leg then. > In his foreword, he paid a glowing tribute to me. I was not aware of it and > 18 months > later,some friends from Toronto sent me a full photocopy of the well written > articles > and stories. Two years later , Mkapa became Tanzania's third President > replacing Zanzibar's > Ali Mwinyi. (like Mwinyi, he served for two terms- the new system adopted > from the US). > > And Mervyn as you rightly said, one of his first tasks after assuming the > Presidency > was to address members of the Goan Community. I received copies of the > newspaper > "clippings" from three people. Are we going to see copies of these clippings here and on the Tanzanite site one of these days? > Several goans who have visited New York and New Jersey tell me that during > Sunday > mass, he is surrounded by goans- both inside and outside the church. Mkapa lived a football field away from me in Upanga while he was Foreign Minister and attended the 8.00 am English mass every Sunday. This was the mass most Goans in Upanga attended as the priest was usually a Goan from the nearby Don Bosco youth center. Mkapa used to drive to church in a battered, light blue Volkswagen and sit in the second last pew. I would arrive a little later and sit on the last bench. Salus' brother, Francis, used to or maybe still runs the choir there. That choir in Upanga was mostly made up of Goans and gave birth to several bands in Dar. Mkapa attended the same service while he was President. The only difference was that he then had to sit in the front pews of the church as his security insisted on it. His security detail? One cop sitting besides him. I still had my freedom of being a back bencher. The newly arrived Don Bosco priests would construct their sermons extra carefully in those days. Mervyn
