Tajdeen and Kulsum Allarakhia – Couple Marks 68 Years Together

By Kelly Garrison, Features Editor, Gazettes News

Ninety-three-year-old Tajdeen Allarakhia says he remembers telling a nurse what kept him alive during his hospitalization for serious digestive health problems about 10 years ago.

“I said, ‘I could tell God to lift me up from this world, but I won’t do it. I want to stay alive for my wife. My wife — we are two different bodies, but one soul’,” he recalls.

On Monday, March 31, exactly 68 years had passed since 85-year-old Kulsum Allarakhia embroidered her wedding dress for her marriage to Tajdeen. Several immigration journeys and three family generations later, they are sitting together in the living room of the northeast Long Beach home that they’ve shared for 34 years, reminiscing about their life together after moving out of East Africa.

“It’s a testament to the American dream,” said Yazmina Rawji, their granddaughter. “They wanted a better life for their children and grandchildren, so they took a chance. We are all educated, upstanding citizens. These two people give me hope every day.”

Political upheaval around their native home in the United Republic of Tanzania during the 1960s and ’70s forced the couple to search for a better life, Tajdeen explained. The former president Julius Kambarage Nyerere had sought to improve the area’s economy, but was ultimately unsuccessful at doing so, he said.

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In light of the problems, they made a series of boat and airplane trips to California with their children.

“The politics were so bad that they were scared for their kids,” said Jenny Mamdani, one of their daughters. “We had to go one person at a time — we left everything over there.”

Their move to Southern California opened doors in business and education for everyone in the family. Tajdeen, who had already completed education programs at the University of Cambridge and other schools, launched a collectables shop, which he ultimately relocated to the Marina Pacifica shopping center. After selling the business, he became a senior accountant at Martin Luther King Jr. Harbor Hospital.

Kulsum went to Long Beach City College to learn American history and the English language. Along with caring for her children, she also welcomed any immigrants from their homeland in East Africa who needed a place to stay while transitioning into the United States. Mamdani explained that her parents always looked for ways to help other people in need.

“Both of them are very generous, and I remember the house was always full of people,” she said, adding that Tajdeen regularly requested that each of his children donate money to support their native country. “They passed all of (those values) on to us.”

A group of about 60, representing three generations, of those family members surprised Tajdeen and Kulsum on Sunday with an anniversary party at a restaurant in Whittier.

“My wife and I didn’t know,” Tajdeen said. “They told us we were just going to our granddaughter’s house.”

He said many of their children and grandchildren have continued his legacy, having graduated from area schools and started families in Long Beach.

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