Barabara Mbili Street
So in November 1962, our family moved to Makorongoni,
Barabara mbili Street to live with my grandfather now that father was not
around. In January 1963, I was enrolled in Consolata Primary School, a Catholic
primary school. Everything was new; I was now living in a new street, enrolled
in a new school, in a new class with new friends, and new teachers. In standard
three we now had more lessons and more teachers, and we were given bigger
exercise books than the ones we used in class 1 and 2.
Consolata Primary School
I remember the teachers first and foremost Mwalimu Daudi, he
was feared by students even from neighboring schools, and he was also the music teacher who trained the school
brass band and sometimes on Sundays he would teach us Catholic songs, I still
remember the Latin song he taught us one Sunday, it went on like this;
Atende domine
Et mi serere
Quia pe ca vi mustibi
Aderexume ........
Our school brass band was the best in town, even the
equipment was second only to the brass band owned by the Ismailia Jamat Brass band. The school band had 1 big
bass drum, which was played by Naftari Kigahe, accompanied by 5 drummers
playing drums of two different sizes. There were several tin flute players,
they could have been twelve or more I don't clearly recall, there were two
students playing the crash cymbals, one just playing a small iron triangle.
Leading the band was the drum major who held the mace; ours was an imported
mace, not just a stick like other schools. On special public occasions each
school would be led by its brass band, the drum major would come up with many
funny antics just to better other drum majors. Our drum major would be adorned
in colourful pieces of clothes to make him out shine the others.
Drum major's mace
The second teacher that I remember was Mwalimu Kalinga, a
different one from the lady Mwalimu Kalinga who was a teacher at my last
school, this one was a male, very smart, most of the time in full suits looking
very modern with his gold frame glasses. His favourite punishment was ordering
a student to go and try to break the big rock that was near the school using a
hammer, and he had to hear the sound of
the hammer knocking the rock while he is busy teaching.
Mwalimu Kalinga's rock
The third teacher whom I remember was Mwalimu Filangali, he
became our arithmetic teacher in class 4, I was really scared of him. He would
many times wear white short trousers and a white shirt, with long stockings and
black shoes. I still remember him always with two or three pens stuck in his
stockings, and had a cane in his hand, he was the reason why I first played
truant, but that is a story for later. And then there was this lady teacher
Mwalimu Consolata, who was also my mother’s friend, every time she beat me she
would remind me that she is beating me harder because my mother was her
friend!! The headmaster was Mr Mwinuka, we just never crossed paths, he taught
the higher classes and we rarely saw him.
After a few weeks in my new school and new street, I started
making friends; some of them have remained my friends to date. My best friend
was Emmanuel ‘Katuluta’, who went on to become a senior lecturer in a
University in Namibia, he was nicknamed
Katuluta because he found it easier to say Katuluta yangu instead of Kaptura
yangu, this name stuck with him to his death a few years ago.
Let me mention a few of my school mates, there was Naboth,
who went on to become a became a Profesor of medicine, Pius became a politician
and died a District Commissioner, Chesus
a civil engineer, Emmanuel Minila, who changed his name later was a
senior officer in the Ministry of Trade, and then there was Lester, he was my
neighbour at barabara mbili, and boy we did some strange things with Lester
just sit tight. His father was a pastor, a very kind old man. Many of my other
comrades I remember only by their first names Jelasi, Fredi my scientist
partner, we were serious about being able to produce electricity by simply
tying old batteries together and soaking them in a cesspit, and there was
Macdonald, he was involved in a very funny plot to kill one of the teachers by
magic, unfortunate some snitched on him, but we will get to that story later.
And then there were the older guys from upper classes, John 'Mzungu' who was
rumoured to have a big book with answers to the questions in school that was
why he always passed very highly!! And there was Gerald who was Emmanuel
Katulutas brother, Raphael who was Chesus's brother a great artist, and there
was Abbas Kandoro one of our prefects who went on to be famous as the Dar es
Salaam Regional Commissioner, there was a guy called Odongo, Odongo was strong
and he would be called to hold us proper when we were to get a beating.
A few months after starting class three I also started
attending my Confirmation lesson at the church just next to school, about three
months later I was ready for 'Kipaimara'. My mother bought me new clothes and
on the confirmation day we ate rice and meat at home, I can still remember the
sweet aroma of the rice of that day.
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On my Confirmation day
At the end of every year there was an examination, it was
serious because the last 5 people in the class had to re-sit the whole year. We
called it 'kubunda', it was not a nice thing. On the last day in school, we
would all assemble and be made to sit on one side of the parade ground in front
of the school. A class teacher would come and call out the names of all her
students starting in the order of the best student first, when your name was
called you ran to the other side of the ground symbolizing you had gone to the
upper class, and this went on until the teacher would say and so those whose
names I haven't called have failed and will stay in the same class next year.
This went on for all classes, at the end there was this sad and miserable group
of students from each class who would have to re-sit sitting on one side of the
ground being ridiculed and laughed at and a happy lot who were going to upper classes sitting on the other enjoying
themselves. After that there would be a
short speech by the headmaster and we would then be told the day the school
would reopen and we were dismissed.
And immediately fights started, it seemed we thought the
teachers were now powerless so it was time to beat up anyone who annoyed you
during the term, or even getting beaten up by some one you had annoyed,
1963 was over.
