Haroub Othman: Champion of social justice

'It is not the height that one climbs that matter but the depths from which one came.'
(Alhajj Miraj Othman Mwinjuu)

INTRODUCTION

On the morning of Sunday 28 June 2009, one of the most admired academics and members of the civil society, Professor Haroub Miraji Othman passed on in sleep in his home town of Zanzibar in Unguja Island. This is news which one does not accept easily. Professor Haroub – as we all called him, was not ill. He was fit and okay. On Saturday night he had actively participated in the launching of a book titled Race, Revolution and the Struggle for Human Rights in Zanzibar: Memoirs of Ali Sultan Issa and Seif Sharif Hamad edited by Professor G. Thomas Burjess. He is the one who actually summarised the book for the audience. This book is an important milestone in Zanzibar as it opens new avenues for understanding the history to Zanzibar through the two politicians Maalim Seif Shariff Hamad, former chief minister in the revolutionary government of Zanzibar under the late Idris Abdul Wakil and current secretary general of the opposition Civic United Front and Ali Sultan Issa, a former minister for health in the revolutionary government of Zanzibar under President Abeid Amani Karume. This function was presided over by Ambassador Salim Ahmed Salim, the chair of Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation and former secretary general of the then Organisation of African Unity (OAU).

It is therefore understandable that the news of his passing was received with total disbelief. For me, Professor Othman was not only a friend but a brother, a comrade, a teacher, an academic supervisor, a mentor and many other roles. Therefore, although it pains to write about him – I am deeply grateful that our paths crossed 32 years ago when I joined the University of Dar es Salaam as an undergraduate student! Since then, we shared so much in common from human rights, equality of human beings, politics to football. I remember us rushing after a dinner at the residence of the Danish Ambassador early this year to go and watch at least the remaining half of a Champions League game!

A HIGHLY RESPECTED ACADEMIC AND SCHOLAR

Professor Othman was a highly respected academic and scholar in his own right. He was the first person to receive a doctorate degree (PhD) from the Faculty of Law of the University of Dar es Salaam. His thesis was titled State Succession with regard to International Treaties: Some Theoretical Observations on the Practice of Anglophone Africa. He taught and supervised many students. Most of his students are holding high offices in governments all over the world including that of the United Republic of Tanzania and the revolutionary government of Zanzibar. Others are professors, judges, permanent secretaries, ministers and one is a prime minister.

Professor Othman has also published widely in politics, law, philosophy etc. His works include: Liberalisation and Politics: The 1990 Election in Tanzania (with Professor Rwekaza Mukandala) (1994); Reflections on Leadership in Africa: Forty Years After Independence – Essays in Honour of Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere on the Occasion of his 75th Birthday (2000); Babu: I Saw the Future and It Works – Essays Celebrating the Life of Comrade Abdulrahman Mohamed Babu (2001); Towards Political Liberalisation in Uganda (with Maria Nassali (2002); Sites of Memory: Julius Nyerere and the Liberation Struggle of Southern Africa (2007) just to mention a few. I was honoured to have edited two books with him: Perspectives on Legal Aid and Access to Justice in Zanzibar (2003); and Zanzibar and the Union Question (2006). Working with Professor Othman on any assignment brought a lot of joy. He was very hard-working, highly resourceful and with keen interest on the details.

He as a well sought person in various consultancies. He was the type of person from whom no one bothered to ask for the CV. His name was like a brand in academic circles and his work just proved how knowledgeable he was. He thus did various assignments for the government, the African Union, the United Nations and many others.

INTRODUCING ME TO MARX, ENGELS AND THE GANG

Unlike most senior academics who have no time for students, Professor Othman was different. He did not only trust students, but showed them the way forward around academics and gave them the opportunity to excel. I was one the many beneficiaries of Professor Othman’s kind heart. He was teaching us development studies in the Faculty of Law (now University of Dar es Salaam School of Law). Professor Othman told me that if I wanted to understand the law properly, I need to approach it from the context of the society. To him, law did not exist in vacuum. He thus introduced me to Karl Marx. Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Chairman Mao Tse-tung, and others were to follow. From that time to date I never looked back. I still remember the very first book he gave me to read – Human Essence: The Sources of Science and Art by George Derwent Thomson published in 1974 by the London-based China Policy Study Group, then followed the three volumes by the British Marxist Philosopher Maurice Campbell Cornforth (Materialism & the Dialectical Method, Historical Materialism, and Theory of Knowledge). This was a good introduction to dialectical materialism, before embarking on the classics in order to be able to interpret the law and the world properly and in context. What Professor Othman had initiated was consolidated through ideological discussions with people like Professor Joe Kanywanyi, Professor Dani Nabudere, the late Omwony Ojwok, and Professor Issa Shivji.

On joining the staff of the Faculty of Law as a tutorial assistant after my undergraduate studies and knowing the academic motto: 'Publish or perish', Professor Othman was there to encourage and mentor me. He published my very first article titled 'The Palestinian Question: International Law and Self-determination', published in his book 'The Palestinian Question', published in Harare, Zimbabwe by the Palestine Liberation Organisation and the Tanzania-Palestine Solidarity Committee in 1982. It is in appreciation of this kind gesture that when I published my very first book titled Choosing Sides: A Polemical Approach to Three Schools of Jurisprudence, published by Hartung-Gorre Verlag of Konstanz, Germany in 1989, I dedicated it to him. When he asked why the book was dedicated to him, I referred him to one of the chapters in the book on the base and superstructure Debate! Modest as he was, he laughed and said he did not think that he deserved such an honour. I think he deserved more than that recognition.

SUPERVISOR AND FRIEND

The Faculty of Law of the University of Dar es Salaam Board appointed Professor Othman to supervise me in 1982. My Master of Laws (LL.M) dissertation was titled 'The Right of Nations to Self-determination in International Law: The Case of Western Sahara'. I was also assigned an external supervisor who was Hon. Mr Justice Augustino Ramadhani, the current chief justice of the United Republic of Tanzania. At that time, CJ Ramadhani was the chief justice of Zanzibar and we held our academic sessions mainly in Chake Chake, Pemba when he was on court sessions there. Unfortunately for me, my two supervisors were both keen on details and this required me to work extra hard in order to get through. Due to the meticulous nature of the supervision by the two supervisors, the external examiner Professor Dietrich Kappeler, then at the Faculty of Law, University of Nairobi, had little to say on the substance of the work.

I must admit that I am lucky to have had such illustrious lawyers as my supervisors. This supervision developed into a permanent friendship. This is because although I was just one of the many students they were supervising, they never looked down at me. They treated me as an equal which is an important lesson I learnt and value and that is how I treat all my students today.

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ZANZIBAR LEGAL SERVICES CENTRE (ZLSC)

In 1992 Professor Othman together with other two Zanzibari lawyers – Hon. Fatma Maghimbi, the current member of parliament for Chake Chake constituency and shadow minister for constitutional affairs and justice in the parliament of the United Republic of Tanzania and Mr Hassan Said Mzee, former commissioner in the Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC) decided to establish the Zanzibar Legal Services Centre (ZLSC). This was a non-governmental, voluntary, independent and non-profit-making organisation. Its major aim was to provide legal aid, assistance and other legal services to the disadvantaged sections of the Zanzibar society; to provide legal and human rights education to the public; popularise knowledge on law; and produce publications in all areas of legal concern to the people of Zanzibar.

This was a facility of its first type in the isles. Due to paucity of lawyers in Zanzibar, those with legal problems had to travel all the way to the mainland to seek for the services of lawyers. This was a luxury which the poor and disadvantaged sections of the Zanzibari society could not afford. The aim of the centre was to assist this group which constituted the majority of Zanzibaris.

Over the years, the centre has developed into a major player in the areas of promotion of legal education in Zanzibar and protection and popularisation of human rights in Zanzibar. It has since then established a vibrant office in the sister island of Pemba. Professor Othman and his colleagues invited me to serve on the board of trustees of this organisation – a position I have held for over 10 years.

ZANZIBAR ELECTIONS MONITORING AND OBSERVER GROUP (ZEMOG)

One of the major activities undertaken by the Zanzibar Legal Services Centre was organising observation of the first multiparty elections in Zanzibar in 1995. The centre established a group called Zanzibar Elections Monitoring and Observer Group (ZEMOG). Professor Othman was the chair and I was his assistant. Under this group, we stayed in Zanzibar for a period of four months – from registration of voters to the announcement of the electoral results by the Zanzibar Electoral Commission.

It is the work of ZEMOG which established Professor Othman as an institution in Zanzibar. In a country in which one must belong to a political party, Professor Othman proved that one could be independent of party politics and be fair to all. Months before elections, Professor Othman campaigned relentlessly for the constitution of Zanzibar of 1984 to be amended so as to provide for the formation of a government of national unity after elections. This was after realising how divided the Zanzibaris were. This would have been a different type of government of national unity – unlike the Dr Kofi Annan model for Kenya which has now been copied in Zimbabwe, which is an after thought in a post-electoral crisis. Professor Othman wanted a unity government entrenched into the constitution before elections are held. His efforts fell on deaf years and we all know the results – killings and a hanging muafaka! All these could have been avoided.

Through Professor Othman’s efforts, ZEMOG managed to have a very active secretariat – collecting and collating information on elections throughout the electoral season. This task fell in the hands of novelist Shafi Adam Shafi. There were electoral co-ordinators in the five regions of Zanzibar and at least two elections monitors in each of the fifty constituencies of Zanzibar and Pemba. On the eve of the elections – a week before the ballot, ZEMOG invited outside elections observers from all parts of the world including Kenya, Uganda, United States of America, United Kingdom etc. The ZEMOG report remains one the most balanced documents in the electoral history of Tanzania. As Professor Othman had anticipated, the Zanzibar elections produced a winner by 0.4 per cent with the declared winner getting 50.2 per cent of the votes and the loser 49.8 per cent!

Being fair and truthful has its price as well. Immediately after the Zanzibar elections, the ZEMOG report drafting team convened in Tanga. It was assisted by novelist Shafi Adam Shafi and Professor Kivutha Kibwana, then at the Faculty of Law, University of Nairobi, Kenya now adviser to President Mwai Kibaki on constitutional matters – who had been on the international observers in Zanzibar. Upon publication of the ZEMOG report titled Uchaguzi wa Zanzibar 1995: Taarifa Kamili ya ZEMOG, the authorities in Zanzibar reacted. They were not happy and thus began sending feelers that Professor Othman has been using donor money to undermine and fight them. He was thus unwanted in Zanzibar and he would be going there at his own risk. Logically Professor Othman understood clearly that the threats were real and not a bluff. He therefore never set foot on the isles for the next five years between 1995 and 2000. This to a very large extent affected the work of the Zanzibar Legal Services Centre as the board could hardly meet, save for a few times in Dar es Salaam. The centre was run through consultations with me doing most of the work in Zanzibar, as the other remaining board member Mr Hassan Said Mzee was busy with his work as vice chair of the Zanzibar Electoral Commission.

LOVE FOR SOCIALISM, MWALIMU, TANZANIA AND ZANZIBAR

Professor Othman was a strong believer in socialism throughout his life. This was from his secondary school days. At one point, while the chair of the school debating society, he gave the guest of honour the late Abdulrahman Mohammed Babu newspaper cuttings of Marx, Engels and Lenin as a present after addressing his group.

He was thus attracted to Mwalimu Julius Nyerere and his ideas. With time Mwalimu also noted Professor Othman’s affinity to socialism and thus they were very close. Apart from nominating him to serve on the board of the Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation, Mwalimu – before travelling to London for treatment – had accepted the offer by Professor Othman to co-operate with him to prepare his memoirs. Unfortunately this project did not take off because of the reasons we all know.

It is also worth noting that although Professor Othman could have comfortably afforded to send his only son Tahir to any western academic institution, like many in his place are doing, he chose to send him to Cuba for his schooling. This just shows that his bond with socialism both in theory and practice was solid. It is something he strongly believed in.

Professor Othman was also close to those involved in liberation struggles in southern Africa and beyond. He was therefore at home in Mozambique, Angola, Namibia and South Africa. He was on first name terms with people like Thabo Mbeki in South Africa, Nathan Shamuyarira and Ibo Mandaza in Zimbabwe and many other freedom fighters.

Professor Othman was African first, then Tanzanian and lastly Zanzibari. He served the country in many capacities over and above the work at Faculty of Law and later the Institute of Development Studies of the University of Dar es Salaam. He was the director of the Institute for many years; chair of the board of the Tanzania News Agency (SHIHATA) and also served as a member of the respected Nyalali Commission of 1990 which was appointed to collect views of Tanzanians whether they wanted to retain the one-party democratic system or move into multi-party democracy. In the Nyalali Commission, while the majority supported a federal system of the Union between Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar, Professor Othman led a minority group that supported the existing union of two governments. This minority report was appended to the main report.

It is important to add that due to his strong love for Zanzibar, Professor Othman insisted on working with the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) of Dar es Salaam in the production of the authoritative Tanzania Human Rights Report including a part on Zanzibar which was to be done by the Zanzibar Legal Services Centre (ZLSC). Sure to his word, he ensured that Zanzibar was fully and effectively covered in this report since 2006.

Again, it must be emphasised that it was his deep love for Tanzania and Zanzibar which made Professor Othman remain and work in Tanzania, while people who were less qualified than him were leaving for the so-called ‘greener pastures.’ I have no doubt in my mind that given his level of education, experience and connections, Professor Othman could have worked anywhere in the world. That open opportunity notwithstanding, he chose Tanzania as his station of life.

LIBERIA AND CHANGE OF OUTLOOK

One afternoon in early 2000, Professor Othman came to my office in the then Faculty of Law, University of Dar es Salaam. He did not waste any time and went straight to the point which had brought him. He informed me that the United Nations secretary general appointed him the UN chief technical adviser, Office for the Promotion of Good Governance, Liberia for period of one year renewable. This was an attractive offer in terms of what he could do for the African continent. However, his decision to take or to reject the offer depended on my acceptance to take over and run the Zanzibar Legal Services Centre (ZLSC) for the period he would be in Liberia.

I said I would do it with pleasure and he could take up the offer. He eventually spent almost two years in Liberia. By the time he came back, the Centre had not only expanded but had actually shifted from where he had left it in Vuga in Stone Town to Wireless near the headquarters of Umoja wa Walemavu Zanzibar. Liberia, as an almost failed state and the high level of impunity and massive violation of human rights must have had lasting impact on Professor Othman. He returned a very changed person. He was now listening more and saying less; advising and not ordering anything to be done. He was also more focused in his belief on promotion and protection of human rights. He had little tolerance on violators of human rights and articulated his views on the need to promote civic and legal education in order to raise the level of the awareness of the common people of their rights and entitlements.

I want to believe – and here I am open to correction, that it must have been in Liberia where Professor Othman made peace with his God. He became very religious on return from Liberia. He later went to the Haj in Mecca. Talking about his experience in Mecca, he was fond of telling a story of a believer who was using his cell-phone just next to the Kaaba. He jokingly said that this believer must have been talking to God! Here at home, he was the chair of the renovation committee of Ngazija Mosque in the central business district of Dar es Salaam and the committee did a good job. All said, let me add that although Professor Othman became deeply religious, he was not fanatical nor did he allow his belief to affect his ideological line of thinking. It is therefore interesting to note that notwithstanding what Islam says about death penalty, Professor Othman vehemently rejected the imposition of this punishment. Therefore, every year, under this direction as the chair of the board of trustees, the centre printed hundreds of posters and stickers as part of the campaign for the abolition of this punishment in Tanzania. Also, Professor Othman respected the rights of others to the freedom of belief. Thus, while himself a practising Muslim, he rarely discussed religious matters.

END OF AN ERA

Whenever one passes on, it is customary for people to say that the gap left will be hard to fill and the shoes are just too large for the successor. To some, this is said by the way as a tradition in order to please those present and listening. With Professor Othman it is true that he is irreplaceable. Only two weeks have passed since his passing and we are already feeling the lacunae. In our idealism, we only wish it was a bad dream and it did not happen. This is because there are questions which he only could answer. Advice, which only he could give! It is that tragic.

Professor Othman was a very busy person, with his plate fully packed. He was not only the chairman of the Zanzibar Legal Services Centre but also a board member of the Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation; a board member of the Media Council of Tanzania; board member of Southern Africa Legal Aid Network (SALAN); active member of the Zanzibar Law Society (ZLS) as well as the East Africa Law Society; patron of Tanzania Youth Vision Association (TYVA) etc. He did his work with ease and managed all these assignments within timeframes set. This is not a lifestyle of feeble souls. Yet, he always had time for all of us whenever we needed him. However, it did happen and we have to accept it.

Just a week before his passing, Professor Othman organised a ‘surprise dinner party’ for his dear wife Saida on her retirement from the University of Dar es Salaam. Those invited to this party held at the Epidor Gardens in Masaki, Dar es Salaam for Saida’s close friends and family were specifically asked to wear ‘comfortable dancing shoes.’ This was because there was a lot of dancing to be done that night. In attendance were among others, Ambassador Salim Ahmed Salim and his wife, Professor Gamaliel Mgongo Fimbo and his wife, Professor Joe Kanywanyi and many relatives and friends. What pains now are the words of Saida at that party. She said that she was not going to ask for a contract from the University of Dar es Salaam. She and her close colleagues had decided to establish a firm called Final Draft which would specialise in editing work. That would be her post-retirement pre-occupation. Otherwise, she would spend the rest of her time cooking for her dear husband! I can therefore fully understand her feelings now.

I have no do doubt in my mind that the passing on of this great academic, civil society actor, human rights activist and patriot marks the end of an era. Echoing the same sentiments, Ambassador Dr Juma V. Mwapachu, the secretary general of the East African Community in his SMS message I received on 28 June 2009 at exactly 11:46 am said:

'I join all comrades in mourning the untimely death of our revolutionary brother Haroub. He leaves behind a powerful legacy of untainted and unshakable faith and commitment to the just cause of the struggling masses of Tanzania and around the world. We will miss this champion of social justice and political rights. My heart is with Saida and the family in this darkest hour.'

It is a fact that there remains very few of people of Professor Othman’s calibre in Tanzania today. Thus his passing – whenever it would have occurred, definitely would have been untimely. He will be highly missed – not only by his beloved wife Saida Yahya-Othman, his brothers, sisters, son, grandchildren, relatives and friends, but also by Zanzibar, Tanzania, Africa and the wider civil society around the globe.

* Professor Chris Maina Peter is acting chairman of the Zanzibar Legal Services Centre (ZLSC).
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/.