My long journey through education.
I was one of only three students who were selected from Nyegezi, to proceed to higher Secondary education (Standards XI and XII), at another Missionary Secondary School located near Dar Salaam, known as St. Francis College, Pugu. There were only three such Schools in the whole of Tanganyika, namely, Tabora Boys Secondary School located in the town of Tabora, which was operated by the Government. The other was Minaki Secondary School, located in Kisarawe District, operated by the UMCA Missionaries; and the third was St. Francis College Pugu, operated by Catholic Missionaries, the Holy Ghost Fathers. These senior Secondary Schools were preparing students for what was known as the Cambridge School leaving Examinations, which were taken annually by all Standard XII graduating students throughout the then British Empire. Thus the curriculum, which was entirely British oriented, included subjects such as The History of the British Empire; and English Literature; in which Shakespeare’s books were dominant.
My first contact with Mwalimu Nyerere.It was during my time as a student at St. Francis College Pugu, that I first came into contact with Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, who was later to become the founder - President of our great country. But I will return to this story a little later. Let me first describe one other unusual advantage, which came my way wholly unexpectedly during my student life, namely the willingness, and readiness, of different employers to accept me for ‘temporary employment’ during the School vacation periods. The offers of temporary employment.
This advantage started accruing to me soon after I had entered St. Francis College Pugu. Apparently, my fast leaning and firm grasp of the English language, is what made me an attractive candidate to employers seeking qualified personnel for clerical jobs. There was a large cotton ginnery establishment at Murutunguru in Ukerewe, managed by “Ukerewe Cotton Company’, whose Manager at the material time was an Englishman called Jack Leach. Among his African employees was my relative, one Pauline Magere. Thus, while I was on my first holiday break from Pugu Secondary School, I went one day to visit the said relative at his workplace; and he decided to introduce me to the Manager, as a student from a Senior Secondary School. Manger Leach got interested, and chose to address me in English, and found out that I was quite fluent in that language. He must have been impressed, for also asked me if I would like to work with them at the Ginnery, whenever I was on vacation. I accepted the offer, and was told to submit a written application for temporary employment, which I did the next day, and got employed. But that was only the beginning, for the subsequent School holidays, I received similar offers from the District Commissioner of Ukerewe District, Mr. Donald Barton, where I was assigned to serve in the Chief Clerk’s office; and, after my admission to Makerere University College, I continued receiving similar offers from the University College Administration itself.
One thing that my temporary attachment at the D.C.’s office also enabled me to learn, was to acquire considerable understanding of some of the basic skills in the field of Public Administration, which I made good use of when I subsequently became an Administrator myself. The most distinctive lesson was the high level of administrative efficiency (both at the District as well as the Provincial level), that was displayed in a crime incident which I personally witnessed, and which made an indelible imprint on my young mind.
A bizarre murder of an Indian shopkeeper, had taken place at Kisorya, a trading center on the mainland side of Ukerewe District. Initially, the D.C. mistakenly thought that the murder was probably politically motivated, so he quickly called the Provincial Police Headquarters in Mwanza, on the police radio telephone. And, just about an hour later, a Cessna aircraft landed at the Ukerewe airstrip, bringing two police detective personnel who, after only about thirty- six hours of thorough investigation, were able to establish the identity all the people who were responsible for that crime, plus their stupid motive for doing so: jealousy for a woman prostitute! To me, the speed with which this matter was dealt with and concluded, was absolutely impressive, and a lesson in administrative efficiency. We can now return to the story of my first introduction to Mwalimu Julius Nyerere at Pugu Secondary School.
Mwalimu Nyerere was my teacher.
Mwalmu Nyerere had just joined the teaching staff at St. Francis College Pugu, when I joined that school at the beginning of 1953. He was assigned to teach History to our class. In those days, each classroom had only twenty five students; which made it possible for the teacher to pay get to know the ability of each individual student. Apparently, I was doing very well in our class, hence I soon attracted his attention. Thus, towards the end of my second school year (when I was in Standard XII), the Ministry of Education in Dar es Salaam advertised the availability of scholarships, which had been offered by the Government of India, for those Tanganyika students wishing to pursue their degree courses in that country. Mwalimu Nyerere had seen a copy of the advertisement that had been sent to the school.
Because he was pretty sure that I would pass the Cambridge examinations and therefore qualify for one of those scholarships, he called me to his office, and encouraged me to apply; which I surely did. I was subsequently called for interview at the Ministry of Education Headquarters, which I passed; and thus secured a scholarship to study for a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree at Poona University; subject, of course, to passing the pending Cambridge Examinations at the required level.
When those results eventually came out, I had passed the said examinations with first class distinction; and was accordingly selected to join Makerere University College. I chose to go to Makerere, for the reason only that it was much nearer home than far away Poona in India. Even during those old days, it was a fairly simple trip by boat to travel from Ukerewe to Makerere in Kampala, which is just on the other side of the shared Lake Victoria. Furthermore, no passports, or other travel documents, were required; plus the fact that the currency used in Tanganyika and Uganda (and Kenya), was the same East African shilling. But beyond that, I was also attracted by Makerere’s exceptionally high prestige, as the sole University Institution serving the whole of East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika) at that time.
My Sojourn at Makerere University College.
Because all Secondary education in East Africa terminated at Standard XII, Makerere University College had designed a progamme of two years , followed by a matriculation examination, success in which then enabled a student to proceed to the three-year degree courses in the Arts and Social Sciences. Many of the students, including some of my colleagues with whom I had come from Pugu Secondary School, failed to qualify for the degree courses, and were, instead, offered alternative non-degree courses in the teaching profession. As for myself, I was selected to join a special degree programme, which had just been introduced at the College by London University (to which Makerere University College was affiliated), consisting of a single-subject degree. Students were not allowed to apply for a programme of their choice. Instead, it is the Professors of the specified subjects who chose their participants, based entirely on the student’s ability in the relevant subject. I was selected for the History Degree course; and was therefore enrolled for what was designated as “B.A. (Honours) (History) degree” of the University of London.
But before that, during the two-years matriculation course on campus, there occurred two memorable events which are worth putting on record; and one other social event, which occurred off- campus (while I was on the regular vacations at home in Ukerewe).
The two academic events that happened on campus were: (a) my winning the first prize in an essay-writing competition, and (b) my selection to join the newly established “single-subject honours degree” , which I have already discussed above; while the socio-political event was my election to the leadership post of Secretary-General of the Students’ Organization, Makerere Students’ Guild.
The Social Science Department had arranged an essay-writing completion among all the students, on an Economics subject whose title I cannot now remember. I participated in that competition, and won the first prize of East African shillings five hundred, a very decent amount of money in 1956.
The newly introduced single-subject academic programme in the Arts and Social Science Department was, rather surprisingly, designed to be an intellectual elite programme. Students were not allowed to apply to join that programme. As already stated above, the programme participants were selected by the Professors of the relevant subjects, purely on the basis of their academic competence in that subject. Only three of us were selected for the inaugural “History Honours Degree” course, namely myself, and two colleagues from Kenya.
The relevant socio-political event was my election as Secretary-General of the Students Organization, known as Makerere Students’ Guild. This happened in the third, and final year, of my degree course. In the course of my leadership of the Student Organization in that capacity, a World Students Conference was convened in Lima, the capital city of Peru, in South America. The preparations for travelling to South America exposed me to exciting new life experiences, including the acquisition of a passport, the possession of foreign currency, and the novelty of long distance travel by air.
But beyond that, and far more important, was the fact that this student leadership intervention helped to build the foundations for basic leadership skills, which gave me very good grounding for my subsequent career as a leader in various top positions at the national level.
The off-campus events were (a) my temporary employment at the D.C.’s office in Ukerewe, which I have already referred to above, and b) My hastily arranged marriage to a fiancée, who was in a hurry to get married!
This happened on 12th May, 1959; when I had gone home to pay condolences to the family of my cousin Sylvester Mashauri, who had unfortunately died in a motorbike accident in Kigoma District, where he was working as a Medical Assistant in a Government Hospital.
Because of the offers of vacation employment by the Makerere College Administration referred to earlier, I was usually spending my vacations working at the College itself. But on this particular occasion, I had received my employer’s permission to be absent for just one week, in order to visit my bereaved family in Ukerewe. And that is when the unexpected happened, when I was suddenly put under great pressure to get married immediately; against my original plan of getting married after graduation. But, in the circumstances of the moment, I willingly bowed to the pressure, and got married. However, the marriage subsequently ended prematurely in a divorce by the High Court. Furthermore, I initiated another divorce process through the court system of the catholic church; at the conclusion of which, divorce was granted, and, consequently, I was given permission to contract another Christian marriage.
To be continued next week.
piomsekwa@gmail.com/0754767576.