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Tanzanian journalist who became a popular Radio 4 presenter
The journalist and broadcaster Adam Lusekelo, who has died aged 56, after suffering from diabetes, was a prominent figure in the Tanzanian media, and also presented radio documentary programmes for the BBC in Africa and the UK. Adam had in recent years established himself as a Radio 4 presenter (for programmes including Africa's Fourth Estate, 2005; the Living With Aids series, 2006; A Voyage On Livingstone's Lake, the story of the MV Ilala boat on Lake Malawi, 2009; and Africa at 50: Wind of Change, 2010). For one hilarious programme in 2007, as a naive yet knowing Tanzanian, he recorded a nettle-eating competition in the west country.
I first met Adam in Dar es Salaam early in 1993, when I was producing a BBC World Service programme for a series called My Town, which he was supposed to present. He didn't show up at the arranged time and place, and proved impossible to track down. Eventually, a handwritten note appeared at my hotel: "Hello! Welcome to the Dis-United Republic of Tanzania. I wanted to grab you and throw you in at the deep end. See you later!" It was the start of a long working collaboration and friendship, during which he introduced me to his world, his family, and his favourite haunts and watering holes. Above all, he helped to deepen my understanding of Africa.
Adam was born in the small town of Tukuyu, in Rungwe district, in the southern highlands close to Tanzania's border with Malawi. He was the second of nine sons of Aaron Mwakang'ata and his wife Ambwene. Aaron Mwakang'ata was a traditional chief of the Nyakyusa, a member of Julius Nyerere's first independent government, and later governor of Arusha province. Adam recalled dignitaries such as the Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser coming to stay during his childhood.
Seven years old when Tanzania gained independence, Adam witnessed the enormous political and economic changes that followed – from the one-party state under Nyerere to a multi-party democracy and market economy. Adam's paternal grandfather, who was also a chief, had had 26 wives. His maternal grandmother, whom I met once, lived in a simple thatched hut, growing maize on a small plot. As she proudly showed me her one rather emaciated cow, it brought home how huge the changes have been within a single generation.
Adam was educated at several different schools, including Katumba 2 in Tukuyu and Pugu secondary school in Dar es Salaam. After graduating from the University of Dar es Salaam, in the early 1980s he began writing for the Tanzanian government-owned newspaper, the Daily and Sunday News. His "With a Light Touch" columns were hugely popular for their sharp satire of the absurdities of corruption and abuse of power and privilege.
At a time when all press and broadcasting was controlled by the government, this was courageous writing – but the outlandish humour, and perhaps also his family connections, protected him from retribution. Adam continued writing his columns until his death, and his work made him extremely well known: total strangers would come up to him and laughingly recite whole chunks of columns that he had written some 10 or 15 years earlier.
Throughout the 1980s and 90s, Adam was the Reuters and BBC World Service stringer in Dar es Salaam. In 1989, he spent a year in London studying for a master's in journalism at City University.
With the liberalisation of the press in Tanzania in the 90s, Adam presented the country's first TV chatshow and toyed with the idea of trying to set up his own FM station, but the huge technological leaps being made rather passed him by. He was never totally comfortable with computers, mobile phones and digital recorders, and never did learn to send his own texts.
He loved Private Eye and for a while modelled his own publication Eye Spy on it, until financial and printing problems made it difficult to continue.
I was Adam's producer on radio programmes which took us all over Tanzania, and to Uganda, Mozambique, Malawi, Kenya, South Africa, Rwanda and India. Life was never dull when he was around. He could at times be unreliable, self-destructive and infuriating, but his wicked sense of humour, intelligence and charm was infectious. There was a serious and reflective side to him, too: he loved music and literature, and climbed Kilimanjaro not once, but five times.
After the death of his father and his older brother Charles, Adam inherited the title of chief, and in 2008 we made The Chief for Radio 4, about the role of a traditional chief in modern Tanzania. Adam loved the idea of being a chief, but in reality found the demands, responsibilities and expectations difficult.
In the past few years, Adam had found happiness and stability with his second wife, Schola. My daughter and I had dinner with them a month ago in Dar es Salaam. It was immensely sad to see how frail and weak Adam had become. His death is a reminder of what a devastating disease diabetes can be when medical treatment is poor, unavailable or unaffordable. Adam was buried, with a chief's honours, next to his father's grave in Rungwe.
He is survived by Schola, and their baby son, Adam; Ambwene, the daughter of his first marriage, to Betty, and Martha, his daughter by Inge; and his mother.
• Adam Lusekelo Mwakang'ata, journalist and broadcaster, born 25 July 1954; died 1 April 2011