Photos: Naushad Merali at Flickr
Excerpt from “Ismaili settlement in Moshi”
“My father, accompanied by grandparents, came to Africa in 1906,” recalls Jimmy Moolji. “He was only 11 years old.”
The Moolji Nazarali family was among other pioneers.
His father’s elder brother, Alibhai Nazarali came to East Africa a little earlier and settled at a place called Sultan Hamud near Eldoret in Kenya. His mission was to pave way for settling the rest of family members.
Moolji (Jimmy) also recalls as school was not an option, his father started hawking food prepared by his grandmother.
Moshi Jamatkhana
A few years later his father was betrothed to his mother who was born in Dar es Salaam but had become orphans and lived with close relatives in Voi not too far from Moshi.
He eventually moved to Voi and started working in the sisal estate with his in-laws.
The Moolji family made a fortune in business and later decided to return to Moshi with his small family at the time the Ismaili population was on the rapid rise. Jimmy (Moolji) said his father and others built the town’s first Jamat Khana at a cost of 25,000 shillings.
The fund raising campaign was not going well because of hard times.
Moolji died in 1936 and to honour his memory and legacy, a clock tower was built in a traffic circle which is still in existence today.This was when the Moolji family decided to pay for the entire cost for the Jamat Khana and later built a library, a guest house and a nursery school.
Click here to read more, by Sultan Jessa: ismailimail.wordpress.com
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