FAREWELL, KITINDI LANGWENI

Adeladius Makwega–MBAGALA

“Wewe Makwega! How are you these days? My brother… things are not well on our side… your friend, my brother and my beloved younger brother, Kitindi Ramadhan Langweni, has passed away…”

It was on the evening of January 30, 2026, when Mwanakwetu received that phone call from his relative known as Iddi Ramadhan Langweni (born 1961) of Mwanadilatu, Mipeko Ward, Mkuranga District, Pwani Region of Tanzania. He was being informed of the death of their relative, Kitindi Ramadhan Langweni, who was a well-known cadre of the Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) in Mkuranga District and also the CCM Chairman of Mipeko Ward.

For both the party and the government, Mipeko is a very well-known ward, largely because of its long-standing proximity to Dar es Salaam.

Upon receiving the sad news, Mwanakwetu expressed his condolences and explained how he would send his sympathies.

As he grieved, many memories came back to him. Among them was the fact that Chairman Kitindi Langweni had been taught politics by the elder Chairman Hassan Mohammed Msangule (popularly known as Mzee Mao), a famous TANU and CCM cadre in Kisarawe District.

Remembering is not a sin:

“History suggests that areas such as Mwanadilatu, Tambani, Minaki, Pugu, Kongowe, Mbagala, Vikindu, Mwanambaya, Kisere, Magoza, Kiparang’anda, Dundani, and Kisiju are original homelands of many Zaramo and Ndengereko clans. Many of their young people went into the heart of Dar es Salaam and even crossed the Indian Ocean to Pemba and Unguja to engage in various forms of casual labor and also intermarried. What is striking is that these areas are, by nature, ethnically mixed (cosmopolitan), including Hehe, Bena, Nyamwezi, Gogo, Pogoro, Luguru, Makonde, and even Matumbi. You can see this by recognizing their clan names, yet they speak Kizaramo fluently rather than the ancestral languages of their original ethnic groups.”

Mwanakwetu’s memories continued to roam across the land of Uzaramoni. In 2009, during one of his research activities in Mwanadilatu Village, he discovered that the LANGWENI clan originated from the Hehe people, and that the clan also mentioned other clans of Hehe origin such as MLAWA. He observed that members of the LANGWENI clan were very tall and strongly built.

“Our elders say that we came to these areas for several reasons, including the slave trade and porterage of goods. Our elders from Iringa saw the community they encountered here, and that is where we were born and chose to remain right here in MWANADILATU. Now we are no longer Hehe; we are Zaramo.”

These words were quoted by Mwanakwetu in 2009 from Shaaban Langweni, now deceased, who was the younger brother of the late Ramadhan Langweni, also deceased. Ramadhan Langweni was the biological father of Kitindi Ramadhan Langweni, who passed away on January 30, 2026, and was buried on January 31, 2026—the same person who served as CCM Chairman of Mipeko Ward.

 

The journey of remembrance reached a turning point with this:

“The LANGWENI clan owned large tracts of land under customary tenure, and they donated much of it for government activities, including the construction of schools such as Mwanadilatu Primary School, a dispensary, mosques, and several churches. These institutions were given the land in exchange for little money.”

Indeed, without forgetting, Mwanakwetu recalls that he often witnessed several Tanzanian film drama groups arriving in Mwanadilatu Village, with Kitindi Ramadhan Langweni as their host. He allowed these filmmakers—both from within Tanzania and abroad—after they obtained permission, to use villagers’ houses and farms for filming, so as to enhance the authenticity of rural scenery.

After recalling all of this, Mwanakwetu decided to write it all down in this article you are reading today, my reader.

What does Mwanakwetu say today?

Out of respect for this family and its contribution in freely giving their land for government projects, and also offering land either freely or for a small fee for the construction of churches (during the time of Father Wolfram) in an area that previously had no churches, Mwanakwetu decided to write this article. All of this, Mwanakwetu witnessed with his own eyes.

Mwanakwetu extends his condolences to the Langweni family of Mwanadilatu, including all relatives, the wife, and their one child.

Mwanakwetu, are you there? Remember:

“Farewell, Kitindi Langweni.”

makwadeladius@gmail.com
0717649257