Bibi Titi Mohamed. Photo: Twitter
Bibi Titi Mohamed, Tanzania
Bibi Titi’s involvement in Maulidi, a celebration of Prophet Muhammed’s birthday inspired her political involvement and successes as it gave her the exposure and leadership skills that would prove useful in the future.
She became a national politician in the 1950s, becoming a vocal member of the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) party, started by Mwalimu Julius Nyerere. She became the leader of the women’s faction of the party, Umoja wa Wanawake wa Tanzania (UWT), bringing on board more than 5,000 women.
The women were instrumental in Tanzania’s liberation because they had already had their own organisations before joining TANU and because the colonisers and African men considered them quite harmless. They used these two aspects to mobilise political campaigns and activism including the passing of information to party leaders. Reports claim these women not only taught Nyerere Kiswahili but also pawned their personal effects to fund his trips overseas.
She shared the platform with Nyerere when Tanzania became independent.
Her post-independence life was marred with controversies. She lost her parliamentary seat n 1965 and later had to go to jail after she was accused of trying to overthrow the Nyerere government. She had stayed in jail for two years before Nyerere commuted her life sentence.
She died in 2000 in Johannesburg.
