MY MATERNAL GREAT GRAND PARENTS

After going through the very interesting lives of my paternal ancestors I move over to remember the history of my maternal ancestors. I will begin with my great grandfather whose name was  Mayutula Kaberege. He was a very highly respected man of the Wa Bena tribe from Lupembe, Njombe.  Mayutula  had more than eight wives and many children. One of his children was Ananias. In his  teens  Ananias left his father’s village and went to Tosamaganga to visit his cousin Vawunge  who had moved there much  earlier. While in Tosamaganga,  he was baptized and that’s when he was given the name Anania, it was  in October 1924, by coincidence the same day as Mwalimu Raphael was baptized and the same church. Anania later on married Costanzia Se Bilahimu, my maternal grandmother.

My grandmother’s father must have been quite a character. His name was Ibrahim he was a Yao from Malawi. He was in Tosamaganga as a foreman in the Catholic Church building projects. While there he met a woman who was working for the catholic nuns of Tosamaganga, she was of the waGogo tribe. He wanted to marry her and was told he could only marry her if the marriage ceremony was Catholic, and he agreed, and married my great grandmother in church. They went on to have four children two survived to old age, Costanzia  Se Bilahimu my grandmother better known by her traditional name Mbeve who was born on 26 September 1903, and her younger brother Koloneli, who was better known  as Chumachamoto.
 Ibrahim latter left his wife in the village and moved to Iringa town where he got another wife  of his denomination, and got a number of children. My great grandmother died and was buried in Tosamaganga while my great grandfather died and was buried in Iringa.

Photo taken behind my grandmother's house  on 24 September 1984, a year after the death of my grandmother Mbeve.  (standing left to right), Clemence's wife Mama Mboni, my father Francis Kitime , my mother Christina Kaberege, Karola Kaberege, Joseph Nyemba.(sitting left to right) Clemence Kaberege, Thadei Kaberege, Thadei's wife Mama Mhomela.. Only Mama Muhomela and the two children are still alive as I write these memoirs July 2022.

Chumachamoto and Mbeve both went on to get many children. Mbeve met Anania and they were married and went on to get ten children. Five of the children died quite early. Those who survived were Karola, Christina  my mother, Benedict, Clemence also known as Hamza and Thadei.

Karola got married to Joseph Nyemba, who was a soldier with the Kings African Rifles (KAR), famously known as ‘askari kea’ they had five children. My mother got married to Francis Kitime son of Mwalimu Raphael and she got six children, my uncle Benedict was never married but had many children some of whom we have never met. He worked was station master with the East African Railways, and moved from one train station to another and got children at almost every train station that he was stationed. My uncle Clemence  had fourteen children whom we know about, of these,  thirteen were from his marriage to Mama Mboni, and the eldest was  born before he was married. My uncle Thadei went on to get  seven children.