Somji Chaggan
- 1910
- 1953
- Ancestry.com
- Dukawala
- Parents
- Partners
- Rehmat Somji Chaggan 1913–2004
- Children
- Zulekha Somji Alladina 1940–1960
Somji Chaggan came to Africa -Tanga at the age of 16 years (1926) after Hazer Imam's firman of re-locating to a new land for new opportunities.
At the time, he had married Rehmat Rawji Walji who happened to be in India. Both of them came to Tanga and started their life at Barabara Nane meaning Street No 8. There Somji Chaggan became a dukawalla because that is what everybody did in those times of 1900.
The first daughter Khatun was born to Rehmat on July 1st, 1936, followed by another daughter Zulekha born on May 25th, 1940 and so followed another daughter Gulshan who was followed by a much-awaited boy named Allaudin.
Of course, at that time children were an excellent investment and Somji continued on this progressive journey to produce twins named Almas and Diamond who had their names chosen during Sultan Mohamed Shah's Golden Jubilee. After that followed another daughter, Farida and finally a son Nasir was also born, That concludes the productive level for Somji Chaggan's history,
Somji passed away very early in life and Rehmat Bai was left holding the responsibility of looking after the family. During that time, Gulshan developed cancer and was journeyed to India at Tata Hospital for a cure but alas there was no cure and to this day there is no cure. Of course, Gulshan passed away at the age of 16 at the widow flats that Rehmat used to live with the rest of the children in a two-bedroom flat.
Because Rehmat could not handle the burden of bringing up so many children alone, she got a helping hand from the community to allow the two girls Almas and Farida to be sent to a boarding house in Dar es Salaam for further schooling. This boarding house was owned by Saker Shariff who was an icon at that time of 1960 -the only sole woman who ran a boarding house for underfunded children or children who happened to come from the nearby villages or cities.
Then after 1965 when the two daughters came back from the boarding house in Dar es Salaam, the family traveled to Arusha with Khatun and her husband, Amir Jamal Gova to Arusha for re-settlement and there now Rehmat became a dukawala -a small shop selling gor-jaggery near the Arusha market. Of course, she rented a 3 bedroom flat at the ABCD flats near Arusha Jamatkhana. The children were admitted to Arusha school for the rest of the finishing time.
Of course, Zulekha had chosen her husband named Sadru Alladina and they had two sons named Majid and Nagib. Khatun happened to have 5 children named Riaz Azmina and Nimet and Karim and Shiraz. But Shiraz died when she was 16 months old in Tukuyu where Amir and found a job. Allaudin was also married to Farida Dharamshi who happened to our neighbor's daughter. They had a daughter Tamizh born to them in Arusha.
Then Rehmat decided to take Diamond to Karachi and bring a wife from there and they also had a daughter born to them by the name of Natasha. Of course, then followed a double marriage on August 25th, 1973 of Almas and Farida and so my mother's worries depleted.
Almas was married off to her choice named Nizar Nathoo where she happened to meet him in Mbeya when she went for a holiday, and Farida was married off to Shiraz Giga of Kisumu and carted to Nairobi where Farida worked as a teacher at Highridge Primary School and Shiraz worked at an engineer.
To date, the following children have left this world-namely Rehmat, Zulekha, Sadru, Nasir, and Diamond.
