Tanzanian Community Organization was established on June 25, 1995, then known as Tanzanian Patriotic Organization, (also known as Umoja wa Kizalendo in Kiswahili), and was officially launched on July 1, 1995. The organization officially modified its name from TPO to TCO on October 17, 2005. Our organization comprised only ten original members at its inception, and continued to acquire new members at a relatively slow but steady pace. The slowness in the growth of membership could mainly and accurately be attributed to four main factors. First, the population of Tanzanians in the Bay Area and vicinity was small. Second, as small as the population was, many people did not know each other as much as they probably should have, and the generation gap contributed to some extent to this phenomenon. Third, many people were wary of the idea of having such an organization, because as they expressed their apprehensive views, ideas and attempts to establish such organizations in the past had failed and some of them miserably going back to more than twenty years. Some even, at pointblank, wanted to know for sure this was not a pyramid scheme because of its financial obligation for members – $10.00 monthly fees. Forth, because of the lack of an organization for Tanzanians in the area, some Tanzanians had joined organizations of other African communities, and were afraid if this did not work they would lose their benefits in those organizations. But to everybody’s credit, their patriotic spirit empowered them to overcome the apprehension and joined this organization.

As everybody probably knows, an idea does not begin and materialize at the same time. The idea to form TCO was not an exception to this rule. Back in 1992, there was a tragic loss of one of our countrymen. In tandem with the mourning for that tragedy, it was a struggle to raise funds to ship our brother’s body back home in Tanzania. The struggle was exacerbated by the fact that, as I mentioned earlier, few Tanzanians knew each other. It was at this particular moment in time, when Dr. Johannes M. Tarmo Masare proposed the idea of making a list of Tanzanians living in the Bay Area – Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose, Vallejo, and adjacent areas. This, he observed, would give us leverage in communication. Professor Masare did not only make a proposal to list the names of Tanzanians, but he subsequently took an initiative to work on the list.  Good ideas usually work. Three years later, that list came in handy when we initiated the effort to establish the Tanzanian Community Organization. We are ever so grateful to Dr. Masare for his initial effort and vision.

Most people that have in the past or are currently involved in organizing, know how difficult the task of establishing and running the organization is. So, in order to have a well founded and stable organization, we all agreed that we needed a sound and biding Constitution for our organization. The organization’s chairman was asked to prepare the original framework of the bylaws upon which the select bylaws committee would work and produce a complete document.  Following in time, the bylaws committee headed by the organization’s chairman, meticulously worked days and nights to produce this vital document. Every three months, the bylaws committee submitted completed editions to a full membership meeting for approval and suggestions for changes. There was so much commitment to this task from members of the committee and members of TCO in general, that nothing was taken for granted, and as a result, the full document was completed in one year. This vital instrument of our organization – Bylaws, has guided and stabilized TCO as was intended, and will continue to do so for many years to come. Conversely, I am compelled to mention that, the amazing health of this organization for many years that continue unabated today can also be attributed to the discipline, devotion, determination, and patriotism of its leaders, its members, and the Tanzanian community in general. We are ever so indebted to our nation for the values it instilled in us.