I`m sure quite a few of the oldies ( ie: those over sixty
years of age ) on this forum peruse the BBC website for soccer
or other news items we can trust for veracity ... or
listen to the overseas radio short wave serviceor watch the
overseas TV news and other programs beamed to North America and the
Carribbean area.very much like our parents used to do in
the " bad " old days of brit. colonialism in the 30`s , 40`s
or even the 50`s and 60`s as the local language broadcasts (
such as Radio Tanzania) began to dominate the airwaves with a
nationalistic patriotism that was so evident in East Africa.
By chance , yesterday in Toronto ,I happened on a mini
documentary done by the vivacious Mishal Hussein of the overseas
service of the BBC ,.. physically following the footsteps of
Mahatma ( great soul) Gandhi from his early days in South Africa,
then on to graduation as a lawyer in England , his return to
India, his ever - so- strong desire to rid the subcontinent of
foreign colonial domination..by peaceful means and moral
persuasion rather than the use of violence. Despite being a man of
immense popularity with the Indian masses at that time he turned
down any promise of political office in the future ...( which
Indian with ambition would do that these days...except in the
hope of becoming an Ambani, Birla or Mallya type millionaire ?) .
She met with folk in their eighties in age who workedwith
Mohandas Gandhi in the pre-independence era and his establishment of
an "ashram" (refuge ) in Sabarmati, Gujerat where he got ordinary
folk to work ina simple manner rather than be sucked into the
materialistic manipualtions of the Brits to tighten their hold
on developing economy. Remember that the Sir Winston Churchill who
we so regularly laud for his war-time pugnacity in standing
up to the German Third Reich with ambitons to dominate the
planet , was also someone who called M.K Gandhi a naked fakir and a
sexual deviant who had no place in the Brit scheme of plans
for their " jewel in the Crown" of the Empire.
I just was sorry that I did not have a spare video-cassette
handy to immediately tape this excellently done show which lasted
for about an hour. If anybody knows of a forthcoming re-
broadcast of this program.please do let me know.
We Tanzanians should be happy that the father of our
nation of Tanganyika , Julius Nyerere, chose the gandhian principle
of non-violence in the pursuit of freedom.and the
despising of tribalism stating that all peoples of all colours
were equal regardless of their tribe or ehnic originensuing
peace and the establishment of democracy eventually after a long
period of one-party rule .
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