LIKE FATHER LIKE SON, FRANCIS BECOMES A TEACHER

A letter to a loving father

IT was in December 1950 while vacationing in Mbeya that Francis received a letter of his first appointment. He was posted to teach Rular Middle School Njombe. He was welcomed by a very strict headmaster  whose name was Baclon Mwakibete. He was about twenty years old only. There were a number of students who were older than he was, but that was the fun part of it he was their comrade.  He joined the school football team as one of the players, he loved football to the end of his life. He formed a drama society, and the school held several shows for the public for free. In 1952 he attended a two week scouts course at Malangali Middle School, scouting had started becoming quite popular after being introduced in Tanganyika in the early 20s. He went back to Njombe and started the first scout troop in Njombe, it was named 1st Njombe Troop.
The young teacher bought a bicycle and a gramophone among other things. The bicycle was the type then known as ‘baiskeli ya gongo’ it was tubeless and wasn’t very comfortable to ride on bumpy roads. In 1953 sold the bike and with his other savings managed to have about 500/- in cash and he went to Dar es Salaam to buy a motorcycle. While in Dar es Salaam he  stayed at Zamzam Hotel, after using about 10/- he wrote a letter to his father asking for a loan of 150/- to be able to buy a new BSA Bantam125cc motorbike. When his father sent him the money by telegraphic transfer he went to buy the motorbike from a shop owned by an Indian. Her is how the conversation went.

 Francis: I want to buy a BSA Bantam 250

 Indian: Do you have money? (obviously not believing this young African can buy a new motor bike).

 Francis: Yes. So the Indian showed him the Bantam and he paid.

 Indian: Do you know how to ride?

 Francis: No but I have come with a friend who can.

 And so they left the shop and went to an open ground and he started practicing how to ride a motorcycle. A few days later they packed the motorbike and it was sent to Njombe by a truck.
At the time his father Mwalimu Raphael was a teacher at Ikolo in Tukuyu, the young man went to Ikolo to visit his father with his new motorbike. Njombe to Tukuyu by a motorcycle in the early 50s was quite a feat, but that’s just the beginning.
On Sundays he would ride from Njombe to Uwemba Mission to attend mass. One of the German missionaries there Father Bruno had a big German made motor bike, NSU 250 cc. Francis wanted it, so he sold his Bantam and bought the bigger and more powerful motorcycle from the missionary.

In January of 1954, the school received a letter from the Provincial Education Officer that Baclon Mwakibete the Headmaster was now transferef to Middle School Chunya, and Francis Kitime was to take over as the new Headmaster. The school had only 2 Grade 1 teachers, Baclon Mwakibete and Francis Kitime, so that’s how he came to be an obvious choice for the post of a Headmaster. He was just turning 24.