'Mama Beijing' to lead PAP

2004-03-19 08:32

Dar Es Salaam - Gertrude Mongella, who was elected on Thursday as president of the pan-African parliament, gained fame for her role in organising the UN International Conference on Women, held in Beijing, China, in September 1995.

Some people simply refer to her as "Mama Beijing."

"She is a very strong woman. She once said that she is ready for any task... even to be president of the United Republic of Tanzania," Ichikaeli Maro, chairperson of Tanzania Media Women's Association said in reaction to Mongella's election to the assembly, which was inaugurated Thursday.

Mongella is an international figure and veteran politician. She is a feminist, mother, and teacher who currently represents Lake Victoria's Ukerewe Islands constituency in Tanzania's parliament.

She served as a minister - holding five different portfolios at various times - in the governments of Tanzania's late founding president Julius Nyerere and of his successor Ali Hassan Mwinyi.

Mongella has also represented Tanzania at numerous international meetings, conferences and seminars. She founded a non-governmental organisation called Advocacy for Women in Africa in 1996.

She served as leader of the observer team of the Organisation of African Unity to Zimbabwe's presidential election in 2002, as UN under-secretary and special envoy of the UN Secretary General on Women's Issues and Development in 1996-1997 and as goodwill ambassador of the World Health Organisation for Africa Region in 2003.

Mongella, who holds a bachelor's degree in education from the University of Dar es Salaam, was born on Ukewere island on Lake Victoria in the then Tanganyika in 1945.

She is married and has four children.

- AFP