After his father's death, Sykes moved with his godfather, Effendi Plantan, to Dar Es Salaam, and would later fight for the Germans in the First World War.
He met Dr. James Aggrey, a Ghanaian teacher, who inspired Sykes to form the Tanganyika African Association (AA) in 1929.
This was along with friends including Mzee bin Sudi, Cecil Matola, Suleiman, Mjisu and Raikes Kusi.
Wissman, with the support of the Zulu warriors and the Nubians and in keeping with the agreement of the Berlin Conference, suppressed the resistance against German rule in Tanganyika led by Abushiri and Chief Mkwawa.
Both Abushiri and Chief Mkwawa met their end fighting against foreign domination while my grandfather died as a mercenary soldier fulfilling his contractual obligation to his employer and paymaster, the Germans.
In the presence of Dossa Aziz, Chief Mkwawa secretly enrolled as a member of the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), the party of independence, which Abdulawahid, Julius Nyerere, John Rupia, other patriots and I had formed the same year with the aim of driving out the British from our country.
'Effendi' was a military rank in the Turkish army, probably incorporated in the German forces during the First World War when Turkey and Germany were allies.
He would sit outside his house with his friends and order endless cups of coffee as it was sold by vendors making the rounds in Dar es Salaam.
Kleist Sykes also served on the Dar es Salaam Municipal Council, the second African to do so in colonial Tanganyika.