Mathias E. Mnyampala

Mnyampala was born on 18 Novembern 1917 according to a personal record form[1][2] but he wrote in his autobiography, Maisha ni kugharimia, that he only knew the year with accuracy.

[3] He was born in the hamlet of Muntundya depending on the village of Ihumwa in Chamwino District in Dodoma region at the time part of German East Africa.

[4] Among them was Historia, mila, na desturi za Wagogo, a history of the Gogo people commissioned by the British colonial government.

This is why he entered into contact with the watemi, the Gogo traditional kings and rainmakers, who allowed him to write this historical book by giving him the oral sources of his ten years long work.

The author was pioneering in Kiswahili in the early 1940s the ethno-history trend and in the same time was a faithful messenger for special correspondences between the then Freedom Fighters Movement called Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) and the Watemi.