Biography ya Ukoo wa Shaidi

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REMEMBERING ELANGWA SHAIDI: THE FIRST INDIGENOUS CHIEF OF POLICE

Sunday, November 17, 2024

0754 744 557

1. Introduction

To most policemen in the country, the name Elangwa Shaidi rings a distinct bell. Ask any one, and back comes the answer; “He was the First African to head the Police Force in the country".

Elangwa Shaidi did, indeed, succeed Geofrey Wilson, a British citizen, as the First Black Tanganyikan Police Commissioner in 1962 and was Tanzania's Fist Inspector General of Police after Tanganyika had merged with Zanzibar in 1964.

After an illustrious police career spanning several decades, Elangwa retired from the Force which he managed to change into a modern law- enforcement machine. In view thereof, "Mzee wa Atikali" has found it prudent to craft this Special "Atikali" in his honour and also bearing in mind that most of our young "Bongolanderz" (Gen Z) do not know him.

 

2. Birth Date & Place

Elangwa Msangi Narundu Shaidi was born at Vudee Village in Pare District on Thursday, January 21, 1915.

 

3. Early Days

Elangwa's childhood days were mostly spent at home with his relatives helping his parents to look after cattle, goats and pigs before joining a mission school.

 

4. Educational Journey

4.1 Primary education

After reaching the country's compulsory school starting age, Elangwa was enrolled in a primary mission school.

 

4.1 Elangwa Passes his exams

In 1929, Elangwa completed his primary education and passed his exams with flying colours hence he was selected to join Lwandai Central School at Mlalo, Lushoto District for further education. Lushoto presented him with the first experience of living away from his parents. Though it hit him hard to a certain extent, he drew encouragement from the parents to continue with his studies which prepared him to measure up to one of the most responsible positions in the country.

During the four year life spent at Lwandai Central School, Elangwa and his fellow  students had to do everything by themselves. This included cultivating crops such as maize for their own food. Every evening there were about two hours allocated for manual work whereby every student had to work in the school shamba. The two hours  were split in such a way that while others were ploughing, a group would be doing carpentry and others masonry or music. Elangwa  once narrated : “At least we had a chance to learn many types of skills,”

Elangwa passed relatively well from the Central School in Lushoto in 1933 after completing four years. With the success he had gained in the school, he returned to his home village for pre employment vacation. He stayed at home for about two months helping his parents with his old work of looking after cattle, goats and pigs.

 

5. Employment

5.1 Elangwa as a Clerk

In 1934, Elangwa got his job first as a clerk with the Moshi Trading Company but within two years he had worked his way into such other fields as storekeeper and later salesman. His salary was a meager Tshs 15/- a month or 50 cents a day.

 

5.2 Elangwa Resigns

Dissatisfied with the salary he was getting, though it had already risen to 21/- a month in 1936, Elangwa resigned in that year. He secured another job with the Pare Native Treasury. However, his ambition was to join the colonial police force and had, in fact, applied to join the force. He worked in the Treasury for two months while waiting for a reply for his application to join the Police Force. In maintaining colonial power, law and order, the British administration had established the Police Force on August 25, 1919 to perform police duties,  national security activities and to conduct judicial, administrative and prosecution activities in areas where there were no executive officers and district commissioners.

 

5.3 Elangwa Attends Course

When the reply came, Elangwa was instructed to proceed to Dar es Salaam for training. He therefore resigned from the Native Treasury. Thus, in October the same year, he went to Dar es Salaam to attend the six months training. Upon arrival, he immediately started the said training at the then Dar es Salaam training Depot and he was getting 30/- a month.

 

5.4 Elangwa Sent to Tabora

Elangwa was then sent to Tabora: "After passing out in 1937 I was sent to Tabora where I had to work as a Grade Three Constable at 36/- a month”

 It was this station that paved the way for his future. While there, he met some of his friends with whom he had been at the Lwandai Central School in Lushoto. They were studying at Tabora Boys Secondary School. He visited these friends of his on many occassions and during these visits he went through their notebooks from which he managed to learn some new things. Above all, a reading habit. He therefore bought books about police work. He narrated:

“At this point. I started learning seriously everything about police work. I learnt criminal law, court procedures, prosecution and many other relevant subjects. My studies were rewarded at the end of 1937 when I passed the Elementary Examination in Police Law and Procedure. I was happy about the results and even my boss was happy too for I was promoted to Acting Probationary Sub Inspector and my salary was raised to 42/- a month".

Because of the previous pass, his officers advised him to sit for the Advanced Police Law and Procedure Examination. This was in 1938. He accepted the challenge and when the results came out, though he did not see the papers himself, he was told that he had passed with credit.

 

5.5 Elangwa Given a Congratulatory Pat on the back

As a result of Elangwa's outstanding performance  in the said exams, many congratulations came from the officers of various ranks in the police force. More importantly, because he was so impressed with Elangwa's success, the then Acting Commissioner of Police, Mr. Leathe, went all the way from Dar es Salaam to Tabora to congratulate him personally. What a gesture!

At that time, Elangwa was under Captain Little, who was the Tabora Provincial Police Commander. The authorities promoted him to Fourth Grade full probationary Sub- Inspector at 75/- a month. It was also at this time that he started getting more responsibilities. He was given assignments to teach his fellow Africans and was also given some tough assignments like those dealing with homicide cases, leading prosecutions in court and some other CID work. All this time he tried his best to prove to the authorities that he was capable of doing what they had entrusted him to do and his efforts paid off later. He was later transferred to Kigoma to take over from one Inspector who had gone on leave.

Kigoma was in the Western province as Tanganyika then was divided into 8 provinces namely Central, Lake, Southern, Western, Eastern, Northern and Southern Highlands headed by Provincial Commissioners reporting to the Governor, and further divided into fifty six districts under District Commissioners.

 

5.6 Elangwa Transferred to Chunya

Later in 1939, Elangwa was transferred to Chunya where he did a lot of CID work in tracking down illegal gold diggers. This was the biggest crime in that part of the country at that time. Things went well at Chunya for young Elangwa.  He narrated: “I was working with people who were all very co-operative. My discipline was said to be very good,” . He worked under all conditions and he never complained to anyone. In those days, there was no transport and everything had to be done on foot. He revealed “We used to walk sometimes for two days consecutively to arrest people or take a dead body to the government hospital for autopsy. This was a very tough experience, but I had to do it to safeguard the law".

Moreover, Elangwa enjoyed the work and was very thorough in order to detect crime and the culprits. Crime detection calls for knowing the motive, and there were several questions which he asked himself before going out to start piecing up the evidence. He stated: “But in order to be successful in this field, you ought to know something about the human element and nature so that once you see a person yo can right away tell what group he belongs in".

The Second World War erupted in 1939. It was a terrible experience. Elangwa was still in Chunya at the time and he was put in charge of all the installations in the area. He divulged : "The policemen under me had to guard bridges, armoury and many other places of importance. Moreover, we had to arrest all the Germans who were in the area and had to see their safety while they were being transported out of the country. It was also during the war that I was transferred to Mbeya and thereafter I went on a two months leave leading to my marriage in 1940. I have been to many places in the country, and this was due to the many transfers I was getting after every year or two. After Mbeya I was sent to Tukuyu, Njombe, Tanga, Moshi, Mtwara, Mikindani, Musoma, Mwanza, Morogoro, Kilosa and to some other very remote stations in the country".

 

5.7 Elangwa Returns to Dsm

Elangwa was later assigned to return to Dar es Salaam and in 1952 he was promoted to Chief Inspector and was awarded a scholarship to study for six months at Hendon College, United Kingdom. On his return from the United Kingdom he was informed that he had passed his examination and in 1955 he became a gazeted officer with the rank of an Assistant Superintendent of Police. After five years in Dar es Salaam, he was transfered to Same district as the District Commanding Officer and later Morogoro where he was promoted to the rank of full superintendent and was transfered back to Dar es Salaam. In 1961, he was awarded another scholarship to undergo a Senior Officers Course in the United Kingdom at Bramshield and upon his return, he was promoted to the rank of Deputy Commissioner of Police.

 

6. Elangwa Makes History

Immediately after Tanganyika attained her independence on December 9, 1961, the Tanganyika government actively sought to reduce British influence in the security sector via africanization of the police force.

Hon. Rashid Kawawa became the Prime Minister of Tanganyika from January 22, 1962 to December 8, 1962. As Prime Minister, Hon. Kawawa took steps that even Mwalimu Julius Nyerere was not ready to take at the time. He moved the Africanization program with lightening speed.

Consequently, in 1962, he promoted Elangwa who was made full Commissioner of Police, the First black Tanganyikan Police  Commissioner, succeeding Geofrey Wilson, a British citizen. This is echoed by Thomas Maguire: "Creating a Commonwealth security?"

"Elangwa Shaidi, until 1961 the only black African Superintendent in the Police force succeeded Geofrey Wilson as the first black African Commissioner, later IGP after merger with Zanzibar".

Mzee Hamza Kasongo,  a Veteran journo, who was in England in 1962 added : "One night, Elangwa Shaidi received a phone call from Tanganyika when we were attending a party in Finchley directing him to return home as soon as possible".

The small Cadre of black Tanganyikan junior officers that had been speedily sent through British training courses from 1958- 61, were promoted. In 1962, ten Tanganyikans were appointed Regional Police Commanders in ten regions replacing the British Commissioners.

 

7. Elangwa Becomes Pioneer IGP

In 1964 after the Union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar, Elangwa was promoted to the rank of Inspector General of Police. He was thus Tanzania's First Inspector General of Police as before 1964, the highest office in the Force had always been Commissioner of Police. He was assisted by three Police Commissioners namely Edington Kisasi (Commissioner of Police, Zanzibar), Hamza Azziz (Commissioner of Police, Tanzania Mainland) and Mr. Arena (Commissioner of Police, CID).

 

8. IGP Elangwa in Israel

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Israel mounted an active campaign of aid in Africa, which took three main forms, technical help in agriculture, joint commercial ventures and military assistance. Of the three, the military assistance made the most considerable mark in Africa.

On December 22, 1964, IGP Elangwa attended a special passing out parade involving Tanzanian police officers who had successfully completed a three month training course in Israel. In attendance also was Yitzhak Rabin, the then Israel IGP, who would later become Israel Prime Minister.

 

9. Elangwa's Experience as IGP

Speaking about his experience while at the head of the Police Force in the country, Elangwa said: “I always insisted on discipline as that is the key to success. There were times when I never slept especially after having reports that there were some policemen somewhere in the country who were not performing their duties well. I always had to find the cause of their failures and how they could be rectified. These things were very difficult as some of the policemen could do things deliberately while others had genuine reasons for their failures. In this case I had to be very careful in singling out cases and take action on all deliberate failures so that they could not be repeated.Other problems concerned money. Money was the biggest hindrance and I could not achieve all that I had planned to do to improve the services of the police"

Elangwa intended to establish Police radio stations in many places in the country to ease the communication problem. Unfortunately, this was not possible because there wasn’t enough money to finance all that. Housing was another problem which was facing the policemen in the country, often forcing them to sleep three to four people in a room. But later the problem was alleviated as they started using some of the police funds, and combined with self-help activities building the houses. This eased up matters as houses for the policemen started to be built quickly.

 

10. Elangwa & TANU

Regarding how and when he joined TANU Elangwa explained : “I was a member of TANU since its inception but we had to hide ourselves at that time for fear of losing our jobs. I had a card but had to keep it secret. I bought an open Party card after it was officially announced that every civil servant who so wished could be a member of TANU. I remember very well one incident while at Kilosa when Mwalimu Julius Nyerere was there and missed transport to take him further on his tour. I wanted to give him my small car at that time but I had later to stop it because of the colonial masters". Elangwa once stated that the police force in the 1980s was  doing very well as they had modern equipment which enabled them to fight crime in a better way. But he pointed out that the standard of discipline had fallen slightly. He attributed the fall of discipline by some of the force members being not too serious in their work as that some of the policemen took lightly everything they were supposed to do and this led to many cases falling through in court which in turn gave the opportunity to the defence counsel to criticise the police force. He was of the view that it is the duty of the leaders in that respect to see that the policeman don’t come up with shallow investigations.

 

11. Elangwa Becomes a Manager

Since 1972, Elangwa was working with the Agricultural and Industrial Supplies Company Ltd, in the Fire Arms and Ammunition Department as a Manager.

He was responsible for all the arms and ammunition warehouses and their set up in each region in the country. He also had to see that people were being trained to take over responsibilities of selling firearms in all the regions.

 

12. Elangwa Appointed Court Assesor

When former Prime Minister Edward Sokoine championed a government crackdown on economic saboteurs who hoarded essential commodities for profit in 1983, many "Bongolanderz" were arrested and taken to court.

President Nyerere appointed Elangwa one of Court assessors to advise the presiding judge in those economic cases in 1983.

 

13. Elangwa Dies

Elangwa passed on in 1984.

 

14. Elangwa's Family

Elangwa lived on Longido Street, Magomeni Mikumi, Kinondoni district, Dar es Salaam. His house was near Hon. Oscar Kambona's house. Elangwa and his wife, Hawa, were blessed with 11 issues of the marriage. His daughter, Ms Sheila, was married to the late Harrith Bakari Mwapachu, former Cabinet minister. One of his sons, Captain Richard, is married to Ms Lucy Charles Shaidi, Director -National Payments Systems at the Bank of Tanzania. Captain Richard was among the crew who flew the first Boeing 787-8  dreamliner from US to Tanzania on July 8, 2018. Apart from those two, some of his other children are Hussein/Raymond, Magreth, Elangwa Mcharo, Anna, Shaidi & Linda.

 

15. Elangwa Honoured

On April 26, 2014, Elangwa was among 86 Tanzanians honoured by the then President, H.E Jakaya Kikwete, for selfless service when the Union celebrated its Diamond Jubilee. Capt Richard received the award on behalf of his late father.

 

16. Current & Former IGPs

Tanzania has had eleven Inspectors General of Police since 1964 namely Elangwa Shaidi (1964-1970), Hamza Azziz (1970-1973), Samuel Pundugu (1973-1975), Phillemon Mgaya (1975-1980), Solomon Liani (1980-1984), Harun Mahundi (1984-1996), Omar Mahita (1996- 2006), Said Mwema (2006- 2013), Ernest Mangu (2013-2017], Simmon Sirro (2017-2022) & Camilius Wambura (2022- todate).

 

17. Concluding Remarks

The late Elangwa Msangi Narundu Shaidi made history when he became the first black Tanganyikan Police Commissioner in 1962 and thereafter the First Inspector General of Police in 1964. He played a crucial role in transitioning the Police Force from a colonial institution to a national entity. During his tenure, he propounded the values of profesionalism, integrity, commitment to serve and patriotism. He also did everything in his power to improve police officers welfare. He retired after a brilliant Police career.

"Mzee wa Atikali" urges the Tanzania police force to build a Mausoleum in honour of this first black Tanganyikan Police Commissioner and Tanzania's Fist Inspector General of Police.

Alternatively, a building may be named after him. In Nigeria, Police HQ Louis Edet house in Abuja is named after Chief Louis Edet who was the first indigenous Inspector General of the Nigeria police force from 1964 to 1966. In Uganda, on November 18, 2022, the Police leadership named one of the Police housing blocks along the Katalima road in Kampala after Gen. Edward Kayihura, the longest-serving Uganda Inspector General of Police.

Certainly, there is no gainsaying that the state of the art hospital owned by TISS in Dar es Salaam "The Emilio Mzena Memorial hospital" is named after the late Emilio Mzena who served as the first indigenous head of that department from 1961 to 1975.

CP