COOPAfrica planning meeting, 2005. Sam Mshiu is fourth from left on the front row. Sam Mshiu was born on 28 August 1944 in Moshi, Tanzania. Moshi is perhaps the most “cooperative” town on the African continent: it is here that the pioneering Kilimanjaro Native Co-operative Union (KNCU) Ltd. was registered in 1933; it is the town of Moshi that hosts Africa’s first Co-operative University. Having grown up in such an environment, it is no coincidence that Sam became a cooperative promoter himself, first in his home country, Tanzania, then at the regional level across Africa, and later on the international scene. He was the author of several MATCOM manuals, a regional coordinator for ILO’s COOPNET and COOPREFORM programmes, and an expert supporting ILO’s Cooperative Facility for Africa. Even as recently as 2020, when his health was declining, he provided inputs toward finalization of ILO’s Manage.Coop training package. Sam believed in the virtues of cooperation, and therefore found it easy to persuade others to join the cooperative movement.
In 2002, the Government of Oromia, a federal State within Ethiopia, issued a certificate thanking the ILO for its support to cooperative development within that state. But it was actually Sam who had initiated this programme, inviting officials from Oromia to visit successful Kenyan coffee marketing cooperatives. When they returned, they founded what was to become the Oromia Coffee Farmers’ Cooperative Union, which has gained worldwide reputation.
Sam was not just a cooperative expert; he was a gentleman, in the truest sense of the word: always calm, always humble, always polite, always dressed impeccably, and always displaying that mildly ironic smile when observing the agitations of us youngsters. Sam had seen it all but was decent enough to let us try and fail for ourselves.
Sam will be dearly missed, but he will not be forgotten. His contributions have shaped the African cooperative movements for generations to come, and thousands of cooperative members and leaders have benefitted from his passion and wisdom.
Our thoughts are with his wife Flora, children, relatives and friends.
“He was a great cooperative development practitioner, well versed in the cooperative situation in all African countries, easily accessible, anxious to support others to excel in their carriers, faithful and truthful and conscious of quality of work. We have lost a cooperative development giant.” Albert Omar Mruma
