1941-MY GRANDFATHER WAS A TEACHER AT TABORA SCHOOL

My grandfather Raphael Kimwagutangu now better known as Mwalimu Raphael (Raphael the Teacher) , the former village boy from Mgama, was transferred from Mpwapwa to Singida it was in the last quarter of 1939. He was posted as a headteacher at a school that was about two kilometers from Singida town. The rumors then were about something called ‘Mbojo’, there  were people who were believed Mbojo were human beings who could turn themselves into lions. Near the school there was a huge rock mountain known as Nhongwamtanda, and the Mbojos were said to love the rocks, people feared venturing out after sundown,  but Mwalimu Raphael loved his drink too much to fear about Mbojos, and used a shortcut that passed beside Nhongwamtanda to go to drink and walking back home.
My grandmother  who was also a teacher at the school, devoted her free time to praying, and teaching the nearby church choir. She hated the smell of alcohol and many quarrels arose after my grandfather came back from his drinking sprees.

Late 1940 Mwalimu Raphael was transferred to Tabora Boys School. This time before going to Tabora he sent his family back to Tosamaganga to stay with my great grandmother. The family travelled  by lorry all way to Itigi and there caught a train to Dodoma and from there again by lorry to Iringa. And by foot to Tosamaganga

During that stay in Tosamaganga  my father Francis who was nine then,  was sent to to the catholic mission boarding house  to stay there and start studying catechism.

In 1941 Mwalimu Raphael came to Iringa to take his family to Tabora. While in Iringa he went with his two sons, Francis and Joseph to visit his mother Getrude Mponela, who was at the time living in Kihava village with her new husband Silanga Mwamilimo. They passed the night there. They went back to Tosamaganga the next day, and Joseph started feeling unwell, a week later, 8 years old Joseph was dead. Joseph was buried at Tosamaganga. My grandmother was devastated, but a few days later the journey to Tabora began.

The journey again started by a twelve mile walk to Iringa town and from there on a government lorry to Dodoma. Government lorries had their number plates marked GT short for Government Transport. In Dodoma they got into a train which took them to Tabora.

Mwalimu  Raphael was allocated a house like all other teachers at the teachers compound.  A Myao teacher lived in the first house, a Ugandan teacher lived in the second house, Mwalimu Raphael lived in the third house and fourth house belonged to a Zanzibari teacher. Among the students at Tabora Boys, was one  Julius Kambarage Nyerere.