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TANZANITE AND THE TANZANIAN WHO DISCOVERED IT. Italic text

WHAT IS TANZANITE? Tanzanite it is a stone believed to be six hundred million years old. The stone was discovered in Merelani, Manyara in the North of Tanzania year1967. This is a very rare mineral found only in Tanzania and no where else in this world

WHO DISCOVERED TANZANITE? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNWAVYF9dEc The first person to discover Tanzanite is Dr.Jumanne Mhero Ngoma who is a Tanzanian. He is the first human to touch and feel Tanzanite. He discovered Tanzanite, January 1967 when he was just 28years old in the hills of Merelani Kiteto. Apart from Tanzanite Dr. Jumanne Ngoma also discovered Gypsum stones, which are mined in Chakoko Gypsum mine in his village called Makanya in Tanzania. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCXnawv-Bgo

WHO IS DR. JUMANNE MHERO NGOMA? Dr. Jumanne Mhero Ngoma, he is a Tanzanian born on 25/9/1939 in a village called Marwa, Same district in Kilimanjaro region, At the age of 28 he discovered Tanzanite. Dr. Jumanne Ngoma says that the place where he discovered Tanzanite used to have a Masai name, Lalouwo around Naisunya. The place is now well know as Merelani

HOW DID DR. JUMANNE MHERO NGOMA DISCOVER TANZANITE As a child he loved collecting and playing with stones. Every thing about stones fascinated him, the shapes, the colors and the sizes. This habit of collecting stones started when he was shepherding his father’s animals in Marwa village early 1950’s. In 1954 his father moved to Merelani. While he pays visits his father and brother in Merelani, he would still go back to his habit of collecting stones. Jumanne says that his habit and interest of collecting stones possessed him to an extend of dreaming about stones, their beautiful colours and their shapes. After sometimes his father passed but Jumanne still visited his brother and he still shepherd the animals. One day in these hills of Merelani the years between 1954 to 1958, for the first time he spotted blue colored stones on the ground. The stones were lying on the ground, shining bright under the beautiful African sun. He collected them and brought them home. But with no knowledge of what kind of minerals those were he decided to enroll on a short course about minerals. In the year 1958 he went to Morogoro and study about minerals. His course took 3weeks with a teacher known only by one name Mkalidachi. After this course he had a License to research on minerals. January 1967 he decided to go back to the same spot where he found blue stones. Reaching the spot he found the blue stones, lying on the ground. He took a stick and dug the ground, only to find more of them. On this day he took with him around 6kg of these stones. Using the knowledge he acquired from the course in Morogoro he thought the stones might be Blue Tourmaline. His curiosity made him to travel to Moshi to the Minerals Inspector. On this journey he took 6 pieces, the biggest one had 42grams. There in Moshi, he met Bill. Bill is a Mzungu (White man) who by then was in-charge of minerals around that region. Bill looked at the stones and did not know what kind of minerals they were. Bill called his wife to have a look at the stones too. The wife did not know too. However, even without the knowledge of what those stones might be, Bill’s wife begged Dr. Jumanne Ngoma to give her the biggest stone as a gift. Dr. Jumanne Ngoma refused, with an explanation that if both her and the husband did not know what kind of mineral those stones were, then why would he give out something that he didn't know what it was. Bill then suggested sending the stones to Dodoma for identification. Bill also promised that he would direct the answers straight to Makanya village where Dr. Jumanne was living by then. On the 23/9/1967 the results came to Moshi from Dodoma saying that the minerals are called Zoisite which were later to be named Tanzanite by Tiffan and Mwl. Julias Nyerere who was the then president of Tanzania.

DR: JUMANNE MHERO NGOMA EDUCATION HISTORY Dr. Jumanne primary or secondary education was between 1951 to 1957. In 1951 he went to Hedaru school. 1954 he was transferred to Town School in Arusha following the departure of his father to Merelani from their village Marwa ,Same district in Kilimanjaro region. He also attended Mringa school at Ngara mtoni Arusha till class 8. In the year 1958 he did a 3 weeks short course on Minerals in Morogoro. Which helped him to get a license to research on minerals.

LIFE AND DEATH OF DR. JUMANNE MHERO NGOMA

Through out his life since he discovered Tanzanites in 1967, he has been fighting for his recognition as an inventor of Tanzanite. His fight for his recognition produced very little fruits in these 50 years plus. The miserable journey of Tanzanite discovery was not easy for him. Knowing that he is the first person to see, touch and smell Tanzanite but he is not honored nor is he known in Tanzania and in the world. This situation had a huge negative impact health wise. The system and the people who were to embrace his greatness failed him and were against is effort and fortune. When Bill left the office those who came after Bill went on to take off his name and signs from the area where he discovered Tanzanite. A different corrupt name was placed at the sport to misplace Dr Jumanne sign. Dr Jumanne Ngoma lived a poor life while many foreign and domestic companies gets billions of money from his discovery. But he never lost hope, therefore he dedicated his life in fighting for his recognition. He believes that one day his effort and name will be honored.

In 1984 he was awarded a certificate and some money from the government for his discovery. In 1990’s he was given back the ownership of a small area around where he discovered Tanzanite. On 6/4/2018 President Magufuli honored him during the event of completion of a wall around Merelani minings. DR Jumanne was awarded 100 million shillings for treatment and food as he had suffered strokes. Though this is nothing compare to what he did for Tanzania, Dr Jumanne Ngoma appreciate the effort of president Magufuli. For many of us this event has taught us to know and understand our own heros, be proud of them and tell their stories to our kids. From this day as long as Tanzanite live Dr Jumanne will also live.

A few years just before his death Dr Jumanne said that it’s not just Merelani that has Tanzanite. There are many more places in Tanzania, which have Tanzanite, but he will only mentioned these places to the president.

Dk Jumanne died on the 30/1/2019, due old age.

I hope this information helps many people out there. This information was written and researched by Corona Cermak. The motive behind is to honour Dr. Jumanne Ngoma and share this correct story about the discovery of the Tanzanite from a Tanzania and not a foreign country. I gathered this information from many sources. One of the biggest sources is from the interview held by Hojce Temu program MiMi na Tanzania where Dr. Jumanne reveal a lot of this information in Swahili language. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNWAVYF9dEc