wasifu wa prof ken edwards
prof. Ken edwards
a memorial tribute to a selfless leader
by mussa j. Assad university of dar es salaam business school
prof. Joshua mkhululi [former name ken edwards] died on wednesday 18th march, 2009 at arusha. He was 64 a young age by modern standards. It was sudden and unexpected for most of us. It was later explained that he had a liver problem and that was what he succumbed to. But as recent as monday 16th march 2009 prof. Ken edwards had spoken to a mutual friend in dar es salaam, full of hope and anticipation of things to come. For this was a person of ideas and implementation.
one of his final acts was mobilizing support for establishment of the africa university of economic management to which he devoted a lot of time and resources, especially in the past year.
therefore, it was with deep sorrow that we received the news of the demise of prof. Ken edwards. At the university of dar es salaam business school [formerly the faculty of commerce and management], an institution that is his brainchild, we had a quick meeting to plan our way of honoring this great man. We would be at arusha to lay him to rest in large numbers by all means necessary.
Prof. Ken edwards was born in jamaica on 22nd january, 1945. He loved and listened to reggae after all he was a rastafarian. He had the unique privilege of being a personal friend to bob marley with whom they had attended early school together. He was a graduate of california state university and stanford graduate school of business. These are top us schools a qualification from which would open all doors for a graduate and guaranteed success. However, rather than take a good position across the atlantic he came home to africa and initially settled in dar es salaam.
prof. Ken edwards was a teacher in the true sense of the word concerned not only with the content and delivery but also the welfare of the student. As a leader his dedication and sense of purpose was unparalleled. He was one of a special kind giving everything in what he believed in. He was tough and intolerant of lousy conduct but he was fair and just. There are many tales of his feats but at one time there was a case of examination leakage involving only two people a student and a lecturer. The student was the daughter of a politically powerful person and the lecturer was a good friend of ken edwards. To cut a long story short despite the political flak he was subjected to he ensured the student was discontinued from studies and he sacked his friend. How many of us would do this kind of thing?
my personal experience with prof. Ken edwards was in 1988 [i had just started as a tutorial assistant] after he had left the university of dar es salaam. We bumped into each other on the ground floor of the arts tower block building, mlimani main campus as we approached the lift a tall jovial person emerges and he says yea man and i acknowledge the regard with respect. He inquires about my cpa results and he wants to know whether i had admission and scholarship to a masters programme. He was not formally with the university of dar es salaam and he did not have to know how i was doing but this was ken edwards. His concern was welfare of the people he cared about and that included everyone. go buy yourself something he says giving me one thousand shillings [not a small sum in 1988] as a present upon hearing that i had cleared the cpa 1 examinations single sitting and scooped the top award. He also offered me contacts in the us of deans and chairs of departments to whom he would put a word in consideration for a place for a masters programme. He was a true leader and an excellent motivator. I am eternally inspired by this gentleman for he was a true gentleman.
I know those of you who had encounters with prof. Ken edwards would have your own tales to tell.
During his time at the university of dar es salaam he was the inspiring lead in spinning off the faculty of commerce and management from the department of administration and management of the faculty of arts and social sciences. He was the first dean of the faculty and what that entailed was - he developed, largely from scratch, the academic programmes, the administrative structures and the staffing required to mount everything that the faculty of commerce and management did and can be proud of today. Of course he had the assistance of some of our oldmen who are now retired. They take credit too but today it is prof. Ken edwards efforts that we want to recognize. It was, for example, prof. Ken edwards who made the solicitation tour of european universities that generated fully funded links with top european universities [ku lueven, dublin city university, lancaster university and sheffield university, etc] to which most of the staff of the business school went to study and graduated from.
Prof. Ken edwards was into sports and was a good trail runner. I recall the faculty days when we would do all kinds of sports just to build camaraderie and a close knit family of students and staff. He was very active at the community level - he started and financed a football team for youths at kunduchi mtongani. He was literally the sole sponsor, coach and manager. Most of the days, after working hours he would drive all the way to kunduchi to be with his team. But he would come back to the office afterwards. As a true business academic he also organized the football team members into a cooperative society. His manual on basic accounting includes the example of the football team cooperative as a model for organizing a cooperative.
prof. Ken edwards worked tirelessly for this country and i must mention one other large contribution that he made to the accounting profession. He started from the idea stage, solicitation and mobilization of funds, up to implementation the institute of accountancy at arusha and he was its first principal. This is what took him from dar es salaam to arusha and he dedicated himself to iaa for 22 months without a formal contract and largely unpaid. And this is the sad part that i must highlight. As recent as the end of 2005, nearly 17 years after he left iaa he had not been paid a single cent of his outstanding salaries, his gratuity and any of his entitlements. He trusted people in decision making positions would do justice and they consistently failed to do that! I did his claim on a simple ms excel model and his dues ran into a large amount of money as at the end of 2005, when we last did the computations. I have the old excel model with me now on my screen. I am informed that he was offered and had to settle for a small sum of money not long ago. This is not what we would have wanted to pay back somebody who did so much for this country.
but even a sadder note is he never got issued a tanzanian passport and he had longed and asked for one. I hear in his final days he could not be taken for immediate medical care partly because he did not have a tanzanian traveling document. In fact he did not have any other traveling document. He had dedicated himself wholly and truly to this country! I still struggle to see what were the reasons for not issuing this true son of this nation a tanzanian passport. Many of us are ashamed that this could be perpetrated on a person of his repute. Were it possible to issue a ceremonial passport to the dead many would have petitioned for his case.
we shall overcome this grief of losing prof. Ken edwards but we must now consider ways of honoring this great man. And here are some suggestions:
A once off commemorative half day of intellectual activity as soon as possible but in any case before the end june 2009 to celebrate what he stood for at the first institution he started and worked with university of dar es salaam business school. Anticipating a good reception this could turn into the prof. Ken edwards memorial lecture series to be held on an annual basis;
sponsoring the prof. Ken edwards prize for year 1, year 2 and year 3 overall best students in the bachelor of commerce degree programme at the university of dar es salaam. And perhaps at iaa too;
prof. Ken edwards chair in accounting and finance;
now if one can sponsor a long term prof. Ken edwards scholarship for an mba student contracted to becoming a business studies academic it would be a real bonus.
Prof. Ken edwards is survived by a widow, four daughters and two sons. He will be laid to rest on saturday 28th march 2009 at arusha.