On a dark and chilly night in 1889, 87 warriors from Machame, on the South-Western slope of Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, armed themselves with weapons and embarked on foot towards Kibosho, in the neighbouring East. A day earlier Mushi, the Chief of Machame, received news that Chief Sina of Kibosho had died. Mushi took this as an opportunity to settle a bitter 18 year long dispute over the two region’s borders.
Along the long walk to Kibosho, the troop of warriors were ambushed by Kibosho fighters. The news of Chief Sina’s demise was false; a deliberate deception designed to trap the best and bravest of Machame’s warriors. All were brutally slaughtered. Amongst the dead was my great-grandfather, Kilonge.
As a result and with little opposition, Chief Sina seized control of Machame, plunging the region into a period of economic decline that lasted for the next 25 years.
The death of Kilonge was a significant moment in my family’s history. Kilonge fought to protect his people’s freedom. The region’s border represented freedom of movement, trade, and access to resources. The dissemination of the misinformation of Chief Sina’s death was the “fake news” of the time- a deliberate attempt to deceive, influence and ultimately seize and wield power over Machame and its people.
There are countless stories of the human race fighting to obtain and maintain freedom in all its different forms. In 1948 the world had the right to freedom and privacy declared as a Human Right with the United Nations (UN) ‘Declaration of Human Rights’.
The ingredients of privacy and freedom evolve with time. In 1889 Kilonge’s freedom was comprised of where that border between Machame and Kibosho lay. In 2018, data collection and access is at centre of our privacy and freedom. The consequences violations of which are topical and far-reaching, affecting not only individuals (Facebook), corporations (Sony Studio), but even countries (Wikileaks, Brexit, American Presidential election 2017).
One way for me to fight for this human right as Kilonge did is by supporting companies such as Mainframe. As data has become the most valuable resource, the oil of the digital era, its critical to have companies that will provide the infrastructure to protect it.
That is the reason Mainframe mission matters to me personally, and why I feel compelled to contribute to the company’s success.
