Aga Khan milestone jubilee celebrations begins – Daily News Tanzania

CASSIAN MALIMA
Daily News; Wednesday,July 11, 2007 @00:02

PRESIDENT Jakaya Kikwete enjoys a light moment with His Highness the Aga Khan, both wrapped in traditional Masaai cloth, at a function in Arusha, last year.

TWO of Dar es Salaam city streets – Maliki and Magore – will remain closed for most of the time today by permission of the Ilala Municipal Council for a very special reason. Staff Writer CASSIAN MALIMA explains why.

IT IS not only the closure of the two streets – Maliki and Magore – in Dar es Salaam that will stand out today but seeing crowds of people heading towards the Diamond Jubilee Hall. There hundreds of Ismailis and well-wishers will be marking the 50th anniversary of the Imam and leader of their community, His Highness the Aga Khan.

Similar Golden Jubilee celebrations are to be held in different parts of the world. As the Aga Khan himself, close family members and aides will be marking the day privately; elsewhere but from Afghanistan to Canada, Tanzania to the United Kingdom, members of the Ismaili community will seize the opportunity, not only to congratulate and wish the Aga Khan well but to reflect on his spiritual and worldly leadership.

According to the Secretariat of His Highness, the Jubilee celebrations that start today offer the occasion to launch new social cultural and economic development projects and recalls the one held in 1956, by the Aga Khan’s grandfather and his successor, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan, which led to the creation of schools, hospitals, housing projects, insurance companies and co-operative banking programmes.

It is expected that during the next one year the Aga Khan will announce the creation of new development institutions and projects in various parts of the world, including Tanzania.

Keeping the spotlight here, it is an undisputed fact that the Aga Khan is a household name here. For generations the name has been associated with various issues and gestures of goodwill, such as education, health services and environmental care, not only for the Ismailis community but also for all citizens.

It is worth mentioning that in the first year of his being anointed Imam, while visiting Dar es Salaam he called on his followers to identify themselves with this country and move forward with all the other communities here. It is in Dar es Salaam that on October 19, 1957, the Aga Khan said in a speech:

“In my life-time, it is almost certain that atomic power stations will be exported, very likely to countries like Tanganyika. From them will flow the energy, which will create new towns, railways, factories and all the foundations of modern industrial progress.

“These things are still far off. But they will come. They will affect all your lives in the next half century. With this material progress will come many difficulties as well as many blessings. This will affect not only the Ismailis, but all who live in this territory, and perhaps even the whole of Africa. I shall devote my life to guiding the community through all the problems, which these rapid changes will bring in their wake.”

The Aga Khan has kept the vow that he made then in Dar es Salaam during those colonial days, half a century ago. And, true to his words, what he foresaw then as a young man of 20 years has happened.

It is no doubt that he puts special emphasis on education, keeping in line with his vision that it should not be believed that material progress is all that counts. But goes further by saying that education does not stop after leaving the school room; it continues through various stages of life.

But who is the Aga Khan? His full title is His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, the 49th hereditary Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims, who acceded to the Imamat on July 11, 1957, when he was 20 years old.

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The Ismailis constitute the second largest Shia community and are believed to live in more than 25 countries in Central and South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, North America and the Far East, with a diversity of culture, languages and nationalities, although mostly Central Asian, Persian, Arab and South Asian.

The Ismaili community was formed in 765, when the followers of the Shi’ite movement split into the Ismaili movement, followers of the Imamah of Ismail bin Jafir, and into what would become the Twelver movement (Ithna ‘Ashariyyah in Arabic), who followed the Imam Musa Kazim.

The Aga Khan is a direct descendant of Prophet Muhammad through his cousin and son-in-law, Ali, who is also the first Imam of the Ismaili and his wife Fatima, who was the Prophet’s daughter.

He is the fourth Imam of the Ismaili who has held the title of Aga Khan; others being Aga Khan I – Hasan Ali Shah Mehalatee Aga Khan I (1800-1881) and who was 46th Imam (1817-1881); Aga Khan II -Ali Shah Aga Khan II (about 1830-1885) and who was 47th Imam (1881-1885) and his grandfather who was Imam from 1877 to 1957) and 48th in the line.

He was born on December 13, 1936 in Geneva, Switzerland. He spent his early childhood in Nairobi, Kenya, but moved back to Switzerland where he studied for nine years at Le Rosey School. He graduated from Harvard, in the United States, in 1959 with a BA in Islamic History.

His three children, Zahra, Rahim and Hussain, all work in the Secretariat of the Imamat. In his will, his grandfather stated the conditions that led him to select his grandson as successor to the Ismaili Imamat:

“In view of the fundamentally altered conditions in the world in very recent years due to the great changes that have taken place, including the discoveries of atomic science, I am convinced that it is in the best interests of the Shia Muslim Ismaili community that I should be succeeded by a young man who has been brought up and developed during recent years and in the midst of the new age, and who brings a new outlook on life to his office.”

The title His Highness was granted by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in 1957, and His Royal Highness by the Shah of Iran in 1959.

He is heir to the family fortune and a society figure, is founder and chairman of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), one of the largest private development networks in the world. In Afghanistan, the AKDN has mobilised over 400 million dollars in development projects, a large portion of which has come from its own resources.

During his mandate, the Aga Khan has emphasized the view of Islam as a thinking, spiritual faith, one teaches compassion and tolerance and that upholds the dignity of man. His family has followed a tradition of service in international affairs. His grandfather was President of the League of Nations while his father, Prince Aly Khan, was Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United Nations.

His Uncle, Prince Sadrudin Aga Khan, served as the United Nation’s High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations’ Co-ordinator for Assistance to Afghanistan and United Nations’ Executive Delegate of the Iraq-Turkey border areas. In recent years his office has developed close structured relationships with individual countries, including Tanzania, in formal protocols and agreements of co-operation and which accord diplomatic privileges.

It is for this reason it should be noted that although he has been to Tanzania a number of times, when he is not on private visits the Aga Khan is treated here as a state guest. During his Imamat, the Aga Khan has established two distinct but complementary systems of institutions for the improvement of the quality of life within the Ismaili community, Muslims in general and the rest of the world.

In the first institution, which was promulgated in 1986, each Ismaili is obliged to have spiritual allegiance to the Aga Khan of the time, separate from secular allegiance each Ismaili owes and must give as citizens of separate countries. Institutions formed under this constitution address social needs of the Ismaili community.

The other institution, which is commonly known, comprises the agencies of AKDN. Presently this network brings together nine agencies as well as other programmes and projects that have been built up over the past 50 years. The history of AKDN in Tanzania is a long one, since some of the agencies have worked here for over a century with a variety of partners including the government, civil societies and private enterprises.

In fact AKDN has made a long-term commitment to assist Tanzania’s development by signing a protocol with the government and supports poverty alleviation programme (Mkukuta).

Since it is expected that Tanzania will be one of the countries that the Aga Khan will visit during his jubilee celebrations, it is hoped that Ismailis in the country will seize the opportunity to express appreciation for his leadership and commit themselves to improving the quality of their community and those amongst them where they live.

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