FREEMASONS TANZANIA HUYU NDO BOSS WAO
ayantilal Keshavji Chande (known as Sir Andy) by his friends and associates, a prominent entrepreneur, public servant and a tireless worker in humanitarian organizations both in Tanzania and internationally was born in 1929.
His
story began 7 years before his birth in India when his father,
Keshavji Chande, immigrated to the then British Territory of
Tanganyika (now Tanzania). Years later, Andy quickly mastered his
father’s Tanzania-based grain milling business from the bottom up and
effectively shouldered greater responsibilities.
During
the time of his apprenticeship, Andy developed a talent more
important and challenging than his entrepreneurial genius: a capacity
to deal on equal terms with people of all cultures and races. This
attribute was particularly useful in view of the social, racial and
political divisions that existed before Tanganyika’s independence on
December 9th 1961. Neither he nor his family belonged to the British
ruling group or to the African majority.
Whilst
working in line with his father’s principle that a strict
distinction must be maintained between business and partisan
politics, Andy has held executive positions in a vast array of
disparate national, regional and international businesses. He later
on persuaded his family to allow him to take up the second offer he
received from the Secretary of State for Colonies for appointment as a
member of the Legislative Council and concurrently to serve on the
Executive Council (Cabinet) which he did until Tanganyika became fully
independent in December 1961. During his term in the government, he
concentrated on agricultural aspect of the economy and served as a
member of Capital Sentence Remission Committee chaired by the
Governor and also as a visiting Justice to all prisons.
In
1960, having declined the offer to take up a parliamentary ticket
for a constituency, Andy accepted an offer from the founder President
Julius Nyerere to serve as a member of the first three year
development plan, chairmen of the National Museum and memberships of
various economic and social organs.
The
advent of nationalization in 1967, which deprived him of ownership
of the family milling business, was unsettling, but proved to be a
temporary setback. For it soon became clear to President Nyerere and
his successors that the country could do a lot better with the
dedication and expertise that men such as Andy could offer.
Between
1967 and 2003, Andy took over the responsibility to create a
homogenous grain milling unit out of 12 nationalized companies
creating the National Milling Corporation, which he managed for five
years and on whose Board he served for ten years. During this period,
he also served as chairman of Tanzania Tourist Corporation,
Tanganyika Standard Newspapers Ltd, East African Harbours
Corporation, East African Railways Corporation and Cargo Handling
Company of East Africa ltd.
Following
the break-up of the East African Community, he become founder
chairman of Air Tanzania Corporation and later served as chairman of
Tanzania Harbours Authority and of Tanzania Railways Corporation.
In
2003, Queen Elizabeth II made him an Honorary Knight Commander of
the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of British Empire and
two years later (2005) he was decorated with the Pravasi Bharatiya
Samman Award by the President Abdul Kalam of India.
In
2005, Andy published his autobiography – A Knight in Africa –
Journey from Bukene which has also been translated in Swahili
language.
Andy
is closely associated with fraternal and charitable organizations,
such as Rotary International, Freemasonry and is also the founder of
Tanzania Deaf Society and School.
Andy is married to Jayalaxmi Madhvani from Uganda. They have three sons and three grand children.
