Tajdin Mussa Jaffer

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Tajdin ("Taj") Mussa Jaffer passed away on December 21 in Kingston, Ontario, the city that was his home for half a century. Born in Zanzibar on June 26, 1940, to Mussa Jaffer Mawji and Nurbanu Mawji, he was raised in Zanzibar and in Dar es Salaam, Tanganyika. After attending the Aga Khan Boys School in Dar es Salaam, he traveled to England on a fellowship at the age of eighteen, studying in Leicester and Sunderland and earning his pharmacology degree from the University of London. He worked for a time as a pharmacist in Shepherd's Bush.

During this period Taj was usually penniless, but he traveled widely in Europe, hitchhiking and paying for hostels with odd jobs. He acquired a love of chamber music by listening to recitals on the radio, and he managed to save up enough money to buy his own violin, and to take some lessons.

In 1968 he met Ameena Nasser Shariff (then known as "Meena Nasser") through mutual friends. They married in the Isma'ili tradition in New York City en route to Canada, which under the leadership of Pierre Trudeau was welcoming Asians from East Africa at a time when other countries were not. In Ontario, they lived in Barrie and London before settling in Kingston, where they raised their two sons—Jameel, now a human rights lawyer in New York City, and Tariq, now a professor at Amherst College in Massachusetts.

Taj arrived in Canada with virtually nothing to his name, his violin having been mislaid at Heathrow Airport, but a combination of hard work and good fortune brought him material success. He purchased a drugstore in Amherstview, Loyalist Township, building it into a thriving business with the help of Karen Colgan, Norma Collier, Martha Silmser, and other devoted and hard-working staff. Later, with Ameena, Taj became a developer of commercial real estate. They redeveloped Loyalist Plaza, which is now an anchor of Amherstview.

With kindness, curiosity, and a humanistic outlook, Taj forged many friendships in Kingston and beyond. He and Ameena spent many pleasant afternoons with friends at the tennis club on Napier Street and, later, at Cataraqui Golf & Country Club. Chamber music recitals at their home on Parrott's Bay brought them joy, as did Taj's second round as a musician, this time as the cello student of Wolf Tormann. Taj also delighted in exploring the region with his cycling group. Even as Kingston became his home, Taj remained keenly interested in the larger world, and particularly in Africa and South Asia, to which he still felt personally connected.

Tajdin Mussa Jaffer is survived by his wife of fifty-five years, Ameena; his brother, Sadru, and his sister, Parin; his sons Jameel and Tariq, and their partners Alice and Angela; and his grandchildren Zeki, Leila, and Salim. The Jaffer family is grateful to the nurses and health aides who helped ensure that Taj was well cared for during late stages of Alzheimer's disease.

Funeral services will be held in the Isma'ili tradition in Toronto. The family plans to host a celebration of life in Kingston in the new year. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Kingston Symphony Association.