Oscar Kambona

Oscar Salathiel Kambona was born on August 13, 1928, in Kwambe, Songea. Educated at Alliance High School, Dodoma, and the Middle Temple in London, he served as the dynamic Secretary-General of TANU throughout the independence campaign.

Upon independence, Kambona was appointed Minister for Education, Minister of Defense, and in 1963 became Tanzania's first Minister for External Affairs. In January 1964, when the Tanganyika Rifles mutinied at Colito Barracks, Kambona bravely drove unarmed to the barracks to negotiate directly with the mutineers, averting civil collapse. Serving as first chairman of the OAU Liberation Committee, he organized logistics for freedom fighters across southern Africa before going into exile in Britain in 1967.