Mama Kamm: The woman who moulded Tanzania’s daughters

DAR ES SALAAM: IF you spend even a moment with Dr Maria Josephine Kasindi Kamm, something shifts inside you. She doesn’t need to raise her voice to command a room, and somehow, she makes you feel both humbled by how much there is to learn, and uplifted by the belief that you too can do something meaningful with your life.

“She has spent her entire existence teaching people how to stand on their own feet,” says Ambassador Mwanaidi Sinare Maajar, a former student of Maria and one of Tanzania’s leading legal minds.

She added, “To me, she is not just an educator, she is the embodiment of the policy of Education for SelfReliance. She lived it, practised it, and made sure we lived it too.” Mama Kamm, as she is universally known, was born in June 1937 in Iringa, at a time when girls’ schooling often ended abruptly at Form II, Maria carved her own path.

She started at Tosamaganga Secondary School, continued to Loleza Girls Secondary School in Mbeya, and completed high school at Kilakala Secondary School in Morogoro. Completing a college degree at that time was almost unheard of for a Tanzanian woman, but Maria went on to Saint Mary’s College to earn her bachelor’s degree.

Her curiosity carried her even further to Syracuse University in New York, where she earned her master’s degree becoming one of the first Tanzanian women to graduate in the United States.

From the start, she lived her life as a quiet pioneer, unafraid to challenge expectations. Her teaching career began at Marian College in Morogoro, armed with chalk, textbooks, and an unshakable belief that education could change lives.

She later led Machame Girls Secondary School, Rugambwa Secondary, and finally Weruweru Girls Secondary School, where her legend truly took shape. In 1969, Tanzania was a young nation, freshly independent and guided by President Julius Nyerere’s philosophy of Education for SelfReliance.

This approach emphasised practical learning, productivity, and the dignity of labour.

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Mama Kamm did not merely teach this policy but turned it into a living experience. Students ran farms, shops, and even a dispensary, keeping accounts, writing reports, and learning leadership and responsibility the hard way by doing it themselves.

Her husband, Dr George Kamm, often oversaw the dispensary, teaching first aid and healthcare, while Maria herself spent evenings and weekends with her students, demonstrating that learning was about serving others, not merely passing exams.

At Weruweru, students affectionately dubbed her “She Who Must Be Obeyed.” The nickname sounds stern, but it was rooted in admiration. Her approach was firm yet maternal. She even set up a student parliament, complete with committees and a cabinet that mirrored the Tanzanian government.

Complaints were only entertained if backed by a solution; requests had to be justified and defended. Ambassador Maajar recalls, “She didn’t just make us learn subjects. She made us learn life.” Mama Kamm’s courage extended beyond the classroom. Long before policies were officially in place allowing teenage mothers to return to school, she quietly purchased land near Weruweru and built a safe house.

Pregnant students could continue their studies as private candidates under her care. She risked her career, but her guiding principle was simple, “What if it were your child?” Many of those girls went on to become doctors, engineers, scientists, and senior government officials a testament to Mama Kamm’s foresight, courage, and empathy.

These small acts of rebellion were seeds that eventually blossomed into the celebrated Mama Clementina Foundation (MCF) and its four schools.

Her influence extended beyond the Tanzanian borders. At the onset of her parliamentary tenure, Mama Kamm was selected as Tanzania’s delegate to the United Nations General Assembly in New York. In 1993, she joined the UN Parliamentarians for Global Action’s Task Force for Africans, contributing to the UN PGA Annual Reports.

Even on the world stage, she carried the same principles she had instilled in her student’s education, self-reliance, responsibility, and the courage to act for others.

Mama Kamm retired from government service in 1992 at the age of 55, the policy then in place. But retirement did not mean slowing down. She immediately channelled her energies into founding the MCF, a not-for-profit trust dedicated to advancing education and alleviating poverty among girls and women.

MCF’s schools including the Kilimanjaro Academy in Moshi, Makambako Secondary School in Njombe, and the Mgongo Village school in Iringa combine classroom teaching with entrepreneurial skill building, in keeping with her lifelong commitment to Education for Self Reliance.

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The Foundation has educated over 2,700 students, both girls and boys, from poor families who would otherwise have no access to schooling.

MCF runs a training hotel in Moshi, teaching hospitality, cookery, tailoring, and ICT skills. Today, Tanzania’s government policy on skills development echoes Mama Kamm’s decades-long advocacy, a quiet vindication of her visionary work.

Her contributions to community development have been equally significant. Mama Kamm chaired the Dodoma Christian Medical Centre Trust, overseeing the construction of the Dodoma Christian Medical Centre Hospital, now a zonal facility serving thousands.

She also serves on the board of the Hassan Maajar Trust, which works to improve learning environments in public primary schools.

Across education, healthcare, and governance, her fingerprints are everywhere. Awards and recognition followed naturally, though Mama Kamm’s greatest satisfaction has always been seeing lives transformed.

She has received an Honorary Doctorate in Education from Saint Mary’s College in 1997, The Tanzania Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010, the Tanzania Gives Back Award, the Global Publishers Woman of the Year in 2014, the Kigoda 2016 Award at the Mwalimu Nyerere Intellectual Festival, and induction into the Clouds Media Group Hall of Fame in 2018.

Her nomination for the award of an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters, Litt.D. of the University of Dar es Salaam for her distinguished service in the advancement of learning, therefore, came as no surprise to anyone. It filled the bill perfectly, a recognition that could scarcely have gone to a more deserving woman.

Why? Well, even in her 90’s, Maria remains a hands-on educator. She personally supervises new school constructions, ensuring classrooms are functional, inspiring, and aligned with the principle that students learn best through action. Her energy and drive are the stuff of legend, often leaving younger colleagues shaking their heads in disbelief.

At her heart, Mama Kamm is first and foremost a teacher, but she is also a mother, grandmother, mentor, and role model.

She has shaped Tanzania in ways that go beyond policy or politics. “It’s not just her intellect. It’s her heart. She taught us mathematics and history, yes, but she also taught courage, compassion, and self-belief.

Even now, she calls us her ‘girls.’ And truly, we are,” Ambassador Maajar said Ambassador Bertha Semu-Somi, another one of Dr Kamm’s students, is another stark example. She remembers her as a woman, leader and guardian of remarkable foresight. A mentor who refused to let her students limit their own futures.

“Back in Form Four, a group of us had conspired to abandon French. She told us to present her with sixteen carefully crafted reasons to justify dropping the subject. Dr Kamm brushed us all aside with quiet firmness, insisting the language would one day give us an edge in the job market.

“True to Mama Kamm’s vision, French became a turning point in my life. It not only opened the doors to my first posting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs but later propelled me to a decade of service at the United Nations in New York, “recalls Ms Semu-Somi, with a wide smile.

As if that was not enough, when the Diaspora Department was created at the Ministry, she became the natural first choice to lead it, earning her the fond nickname of ‘Mama Diaspora’.

To mention a few, some of her other students include Dr Asha Rose Migiro, Dr Mary Nagu, Ambassador Zainab Maajar, Hellen Kijo-Bisimba, June Warioba, Professor Julie Makani, the late Dr Mwele Malecela, Zuhura Muro, Anne Kilango Malecela, Ananilea Nkya and many others. In a country still finding its footing in education and gender equity, Mama Kamm’s life offers a blueprint for courage, innovation, and empathy.

She has demonstrated that one individual, armed with vision, determination, and compassion, can influence generations, lift communities, and quietly rewrite the rules of what is possible.

Her schools are sanctuaries, not palaces. Her students graduate not only with knowledge, but with dignity, confidence, and a drive to serve their communities.

As the sun sets over Mount Kilimanjaro, one might still find her at her desk, letters from former students spread across the table. From doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs and teachers, all reaching out to thank her. Her voice may have softened with age, but her conviction remains unshakable: education must empower, uplift, and transform.

“Education is the only wealth that cannot be stolen,” she often says.

“Use it to build others.” And she has done so, with courage, empathy, and unwavering dedication, for over seventy-five years Mama Kamm is more than a teacher.

She is a living legend, a fearless pioneer, a nurturer of dreams, and a national treasure. She reminds us of all that one person, guided by principle, heart, and perseverance, can change the course of generations, and that sometimes, the quietest hands leave the deepest marks.

For Tanzania, and indeed for the world, she is proof that life, when taught well, is the greatest gift we can give to others.