Fare Thee Well Ton Bar

 By Danford Mpumilwa

The year was 1986. It was June to be more precise.  I am in Dar es Salaam working with the then Tanzania Tourist Corporation. I had just been offered a job with Arusha International Conference Centre. But perhaps due to the normal fear of change and of the unknown I was not keen on taking up the job. After all I still loved what I am doing in Dar es Salaam.

Then one morning I woke up in my humble abode in Mwenge and realized that apart from me and my bed and blankets everything else has been stolen by thieves who must have broken into my house while I was deep asleep. This was deeply upsetting, but what was more troubling to me was the simple fact that the thugs had stolen all mu suits, shirts and ties. Yes suits.

For those who know me I do indeed love my suits. To make matters worse during those years one could not buy any suits in Dar es Salaam. They were simply not there. Not there at all. The suits I had were on account my being able to travel on official business around the world promoting Tanzania’s abundant tourist attractions.

As I headed to the office in the morning in the single pair of clothing they had left me – some worn out jeans and T-shirt, I decided there and then that this was the last nail on the coffin, and I had to immediately proceed to Arusha and take up my new job. But I had to communicate this major decision to my close buddies – and who were those? Those were none other than Ton Bar and Ham Bis otherwise known as Tonny Barreto and Hamidu Bisanga my buddies from the days I was at the Daily News.  Those were the nom de guerre we had at the Daily. For example I was called Dan Pum; we had Ul Mwambu for Uli Mwambulukutu;  Abdango for Abdallah Ngororo; MwamHa for Mwamoyo Hamza; Adluse for Adam Lusekelo and many others.

Well my buddies, Tan Bar and Ham Bis organized a hasty meeting to plan for my departure. And we met in Tonny Barreto’s apartment in the city centre one evening. The main issue was how was I going to begin a new job without any proper clothing?

That is when Tonny asked his wife, the lovely and beautiful  Pearl, to bring out all of Barreto’s clothes which were now too tight for him on account of the now generous  body so we could choose what suits me. To cut the whole story short we ended up selecting a few pairs of suits and jackets. To my surprise Barreto insisted that I also take his wedding suit. I was confounded. How about the fond memories that went with the suit? He insisted that notwithstanding the memories he would be more delighted that I took the suit. That is how I ended up in Arusha with a black wedding suit courtesy of the big hearted Barreto. Those were his blessings to me.

Our friendship had begun many years before when I was still at the Daily News. The charming and amiable Barreto was the darling of everyone at the Daily whether young or old, senior or junior. He would enliven any moment when everyone was feeling low. He would go all out of his way to assist anyone facing any problems whether official or domestic. He was indeed very generous and big hearted.

No wonder when I decided to establish the Tantravel Magazine at the Tanzania Tourist Corporation, it was to Barreto and the late Bisanga to whom I turned to. The trio of us became the founding Editors of that magazine which is still published to-date.

And he was a great family man, and encouraged everybody to be so. Notwithstanding the challenges faced he managed with the close cooperation of his wife Pearl, to bring up two brilliant and inspirational children Catherine-Rose and John-Paul.

So when SukChat a.k.a. Sukdev Chatbar  called me the other day announcing his passing on,   I felt numb. It was only the other day when we were toying with the idea of establishing a serious magazine in Dar es Salaam. Now what will I do as all my fellow soldiers have gone. 

May God Bless His Soul! 

Amen! 

mpumilwa@gmail.com.