FRANCIS KITIME FREE AT LAST

 Last Weeks In Prison

This picture was taken for my father, it was sent to him while he was in prison, from left, my mother,  George, me,  Evelina, Blandina, my grand mother, Richard 

A year had almost passed in prison for Francis Kitime, he knew he was going to be released soon, he was even now and then getting a newspaper from the prison wardens. One day he saw an advert for a  vacancy. He asked Mr Sifaa the Chief Warden for a pen and a paper he wanted to apply for the post he had seen. Mr Sifaa laughed while giving him a pen and a paper, ‘You must be joking, you will never get the job, they never hire convicts’. Francis answered, ‘In fact I am going to specifically mention that I am writing from a jail cell, but will be released soon and I need to work’. And  so he applied for the post of Sales Manager for an American Oil Company, known as CALTEX. With the help of the prisons officers he mailed the letter. A few weeks later to everybody’s surprise, a letter was received from CALTEX OIL (T) Ltd acknowledging the receipt of the job application and inviting him for an interview as soon as he is released. No one could have thought that possible, it had never been done.
A week before being released an incident happened, he was charged for spilling cooking oil in the kitchen, so a week was added to his sentence. At the time some warders had been requesting him to write English job application letters for them, he believed that the oil incident was not an accident, he was needed to finish writing a few English letters.

One more week to freedom

My mother had gone to Mbeya to escort my father back, she had gone with my youngest brother George who was  just 10 months old when  father was sentenced to prison, it was while she was there there that she receive the news that her husband has had an additional one week, so she had to stay  at the Mount View Hotel for some extra days until 16^th November 1963 when he was released and the next day they got into the bus and returned to Iringa.

Back in Iringa  we were worried because we thought they would be back just the next day, now days were going by and no news, at the time communication was very difficult, but my grandfather kept telling us to be patient.

My friend the tree

I remember very well the day my parents came back. I was very restless like everybody so after lunch I left my grandfather's house in Makorongoni and went out walking aimlessly, I went past the  SILABU quarters, these were quarters that youths who were collected from  villages in Southern Tanganyika to work in sisal farms would rest, before continuing their journey to the farms in Morogoro and Tanga, SILABU stood for Sisal Labourers Bureau. I then walked across the golf course owned by the European Club, and sat under a tree all alone. This tree still exists it has changed, I sometimes pass there and wave at it, we have known each other since that day in 1963.  I sat and played alone under that tree until something like 5 o'clock in the evening and then went back home to wait and hope that my parents would be back. Buses from Mbeya arrived at around seven o clock in the evening, so we all grew more tense as the evening went on, and suddenly my mother emerged from darkness, and then immediately behind her was my father carrying George in his arms.  Babaaaaa. My father was back.

The next week was spent just trying being near him as much as I could, we even got a two day excuse from school.
On Sunday our school had a special timetable for us Catholics, to make sure we attend a Mass, we had to report to school and from there go to church in a long line. After the Mass we had to go back to school for a roll call and maybe to learn a new church tune and then we were released. The first Sunday after being released my father came to school to wait for me to finish the school timetable, and then we went home I remember thinking this is the best father in the world.

Father Francisco Schiolla of Tosamaganga offered my father a teaching job in Tosamaganga Secondary, but he refused he wanted to keep the date with CALTEX Oil (T) Ltd.