John Mwakangale was one of the main leaders in the struggle for independence in Tanganyika during British colonial rule.1
When the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) was formed in Dar es Salaam, Tanganyika, in July 1954 under the leadership of Julius Nyerere to lead the struggle for independence, Mwakangale became one of its most prominent leaders in the country and in the Southern Highlands Province.2 He was also one of the leaders of the Pan-African Freedom Movement for East and Central Africa (PAFMECA) which was founded in Mwanza, Tanganyika, in September 1958 under the leadership of Julius Nyerere. PAFMECA mobilised and coordinated the independence struggle in the East-Central African region comprising a number of countries: Tanganyika, Kenya, Zanzibar, Uganda, Nyasaland (renamed Malawi), Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), and Southern Rhodesia (renamed Zimbabwe). It was renamed the Pan-African Freedom Movement for East, Central and Southern Africa (PAFMECSA) after it was expanded to include the countries of southern Africa, including apartheid South Africa. John Mwakangale remained a prominent leader in the larger freedom movement.3
In 1958, Mwakangale was one of the few African leaders who were elected to the Legislative Council (LEGCO), a colonial parliament dominated by the British colonial rulers led by the British governor of Tanganyika. The governor during that time was Sir Edward Twining. He served as governor from 1949 to 1958. He was succeeded by Sir Richard Turnbull in July 1958. Turnbull was the last governor and relinquished power to Julius Nyerere on independence day, 9 December 1961. Nyerere became the first prime minister of the newly independent nation of Tanganyika.4
Members of LEGCO were elected on a tripartite system representing three racial categories: Europeans, who were mostly British settlers; Asians, mostly Tanganyikans of Indian and Pakistan origin, a category which also included Arabs; and Africans, or blacks, who constituted the vast majority of the population of Tanganyika. Mwakangale represented the Southern Highlands Province in the colonial legislature where together with his colleagues he continued to campaign for independence.5
The Southern Highlands Province which he represented in LEGCO was one of seven provinces of colonial Tanganyika. The provinces were Western Province which was the largest; Lake Province, Northern Province, Central Province, Coast Province, Southern Province, and the Southern Highlands Province which was simply known as the Southern Highlands. The provinces were divided into smaller administrative units called regions in 1963.
After Tanganyika won independence in December 1961, Mwakangale continued to be a member of parliament.
Mwakangale was also the first leader of Tanganyika whom Nelson Mandela met in January 1962 when Mandela secretly left South Africa to seek assistance from other African countries in the struggle against white minority rule in his home country. Tanganyika was also the first independent African country Mandela visited after he left South Africa for the first time. He met Mwakangale in Mbeya, the capital of the Southern Highlands Province. Mwakangale had been assigned to receive Mandela in Mbeya on behalf of the government of Tanganyika. After meeting Mwakangale, Mandela flew to Dar es Salaam the next day where he met Julius Nyerere. Nyerere was the first leader of an independent African country Mandela met. In his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, Mandela recalled his meeting with Mwakangale in the town of Mbeya and how, for the first time in his life, he felt free and proud to be in an independent African country:
"Early the next morning we left (Bechuanaland, now Botswana) for Mbeya, a town near the Northern Rhodesian border....(In Mbeya) we booked in a local hotel and found a crowd of blacks and whites sitting on the veranda making polite conversation. Never before had I been in a public place or hotel where there was no color bar. We were waiting for Mr. John Mwakangale of the Tanganyika African National Union, a member of Parliament and unbeknown to us he had already called looking for us. An African guest approached the white receptionist. 'Madam, did a Mr. Mwakangale inquire after these two gentlemen?' he asked, pointing to us. 'I am sorry, sir,' she replied. 'He did but I forgot to tell them.' 'Please be careful, madam,' he said in a polite but firm tone. 'These men are our guests and we would like them to receive proper attention.'
I then truly realized that I was in a country ruled by Africans. For the first time in my life, I was a free man. Though I was a fugitive and wanted in my own land, I felt the burden of oppression lifting from my shoulders. Everywhere I went in Tanganyika my skin color was automatically accepted rather than instantly reviled. I was being judged for the first time not by the color of my skin by the measure of my mind and character. Although I was often homesick during my travels, I nevertheless felt as though I were truly home for the first time....
We arrived in Dar es Salaam the next day and I met with Julius Nyerere, the newly independent country's first president. We talked at his house, which was not at all grand, and I recall that he drove himself in a simple car, a little Austin. This impressed me, for it suggested that he was a man of the people. Class, Nyerere always insisted, was alien to Africa; socialism indigenous."6