Sewa Hadji

Sewa Hadji actually Sewa Haji Paroo (* 1851 in Bagamoyo ; † February 10, 1897 in Zanzibar ) was an Indian businessman and founder of the Sewa Hadji Hospital in Dar es Salaam (now part of the Muhimbili National Hospital ).

He traded for the Sultan of Zanzibar all the products that he grew on his farms. These included mainly clove trees, black pepper, moringa trees, lemongrass, ginger, but also cotton and coconut. Sewa Hadji Paroo also equipped caravans, including the famous Henry Morton Stanley expedition . The businessman is considered the first philanthropist in East Africa and had a school, a mosque and some fountains built in his birthplace.

Sewa Hadji wanted to build a so-called "leper home" ( leprosy station ) in the coastal town of Bagamoyo with the doctor of the German protection force Werner Steuber . This did not happen, however, because the coastal town of Bagamoyo lost its importance around 1891, as Dar es Salaam, about 60 km further south, was made the capital of the colony for the German colonial power because of the natural harbor there. The Indian donated a significant sum (12,400 rupees ) to the colonial administration - and in particular the medical department of the Schutztruppe under the colony's senior doctor, Alexander Becker, for the construction of a hospital in Dar es Salaam. The basic condition for this was that this hospital would be open to all people, regardless of their race, skin color or religion. It should always bear the name of the honorable donor. But Sewa Hadji was seriously ill himself and died in February 1897 on the island of Zanzibar, where he was buried against his last will.

In January of the same year the Sewa Hadji Hospital in Dar es Salaam was opened with great solemnity. In the meantime, the imperial colonial administration had also decided to build a large hospital in the colonial capital. This hospital opened on October 1, 1897 (Friday) without any ceremony and was completed by January 1900. In 1897 the famous bacteriologist Robert Koch and his wife Hedwig arrived in Dar es Salaam. Koch would have liked to meet the donor from Sewa Haji Hospital himself, but the rich Indian had already passed away. What is certain, however, is that Koch visited his grave in Zanzibar in July of that year after making a courtesy visit to the English consulate in Zanzibar. In any case, Koch has also visited the modern Sewa Hadji Hospital several times. When the new Gouvernements Hospital on the beach of the Indian Ocean opened with a wing on October 1st, it was clear that the chief physician of the colony Alexander Becker and his sister Auguste Hertzer would leave Dar es Salaam to take Koch to the agricultural research station in the western Usambara Mountains To accompany the Kwai . There the bacteriologist wanted to do his basic research on malaria and the dreaded blackwater fever .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Muhimbili National Hospital, History ( Memento of the original from July 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (engl.) 

literature

• Rolf Hasse: The Testament of Sewa Hadji . In: Bulletin of the traditional association of former protection and overseas troops 90 (1/2004), pp. 43–53
• Robert Gregory: The Rise and Fall of Philanthropy in East Africa . Transaction Publishers, 1991

Web links

• SEWA HAJI PAROO (Eng.)