Back in 2013 I travelled to a village near Nsalu in rural Lilongwe to attend a funeral. After the funeral ceremony, a local young man approached me to inform me about one of the villagers in the crowd, then a 72 year old man, who was a form 2 ‘pupil’ at a local school. Naturally, I told the young man that I wanted to meet the interesting character. He disappeared into the crowd and re-emerged a few moments later with the septuagenarian in the name of James Msampha Mwale.
Mr Mwale was kind enough to let me interview him. It turned out during the interview that having left school in 1965, his interest in education was rekindled when he met Mr Kam’mwamba, the head teacher of Katsumwa primary school in the area. James had approached the headteacher to borrow money so that he could travel to Johannesburg to better his lot. Mr Kam’mwamba referred him to a fellow headteacher based at another school, Mr Chidyera of a nearby Malimbe primary school.
When Msampha met Mr Chidyera, the latter was intrigued by the former’s articulation of English and asked him how far he had gone with his school. Msampha told his would be lender that he had gone as far as standard 7 and had dropped out in 1965. He could not proceed because he had lost his parents. Mr Chidyera then suggested that he should seriously consider going back to school.
Mr Msampha gave this suggestion some serious thought and finally enrolled for form 1 at the nearby Nsalu Secondary School. At the time I met him, he was preparing for his Junior Certificate examinations. His ambition was that he would go as far as MSCE then enrol at a Theological College to train as a CCAP pastor. I have not followed up this character to check if his ambitions materialised.
When I met Mr Mwale, I was convinced that he was probably the oldest pupil in the world. I did not know that in Kenya, somebody had already entered the Guinness Book of records as the world’s oldest pupil. It was Kimani Maruge of Kenya who enrolled for grade 1 at Kapkenduiywo Primary School, Eldoret, Kenya in 2004 aged 84. Sadly, Maruge attended school for just five years and passed on in 2009 aged 89.
As if trying not to be outdone, another Kenyan, a lady called Priscilla Sitienei, believed to be 92 some six or so years ago, enrolled at a primary school near Eldoret. No records of her birth exist but it is believed she was born in 1923, the year famine plagued her hometown.
Sitienei is now 98 years old (she will be turning 99 at her next birthday) and in grade 6. According to her teacher, Leonida Tallam, the nonagenarian has very nice handwriting and likes subjects like Science, Christian Religious Studies and Mathematics.
Known as Gogo, Sitienei is a great motivation to the younger pupils, most of whom are young enough to be her great grandchildren. The motivation comes from her attentiveness, her spirit of hard work and the good scores she gets.
Gogo Sitienei is a determined senior citizen who is focused on attaining the education that eluded her in her youth. She has been serving her community as a midwife but says she wants to become a doctor. It remains to be seen if she can meet the stringent requirements of medical training and survive the rigours of the training program. By the time she finishes her four year secondary education followed by her seven year medical training she will 110 years old, and will probably be the eighth wonder of the world.
A number of lessons can be learnt from the senior citizens described in this article. The first is that age should not be a limit to achieving one’s ambitions. Many Malawian young people drop out school thinking they are too old to be in class. Most of such people would not have clocked even thirty years. As the saying goes, “People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those doing it”. Indeed those who think they cannot continue their education on account of age should not interrupt senior citizens going for theirs.
The second lesson is that true determination knows no obstacles. If you are truly determined to achieve something, you will not be discouraged by any obstacles, real or imagined. You can plan to receive theological training aged seventy something or to receive medical training aged more than 100 years.
Thirdly, we learn that even aged people can provide motivation, provided they put their mind to what they do.