Several years ago I featured a man I met in the Nsaru area in Lilongwe Rural, Mr. Msampha Mwale, who at that time was 72 years old but going to school. The time I met him, he was about to write his JC examinations. Our conversation, which was mostly in English, revealed to me the great ambition and determination to progress in life that this extraordinary man had. I was convinced then that I had probably met the oldest pupil in the world. I was wrong!
A year later, I read about a Kenyan, Kimani Maruge, who had entered the Guinness Book of records as the oldest pupil in the world. In 2004, Kimani was 84 years old and had just enrolled for grade 1 at Kapkenduiywo Primary School in Eldoret, Kenya. He sadly passed on five years later, aged 89. Few people in the world reach that age. Fewer still reach it as school going pupils.
As if not wishing to be outdone, another Kenyan, a lady called Priscilla Sitienei also enrolled for primary education. This was in 2015 when she was 92. No birth records existed for Priscilla but she was believed to have been born in 1923, the year that a severe famine plagued her home town near Eldoret.
Fondly referred to as Gogo Sitienei by those close to her, Priscilla attracted a great deal of media attention to the point of having at least one film produced in her honour. She continued to inspire many people across the globe. Once arrangements were made for her to travel to France, where she met the first lady of that country, Mrs. Macron.
Sadly, we lost the world’s oldest pupil on 18th November this year (less than a month ago). She was preparing for her examinations but started feeling unwell while she was at it. She reportedly died peacefully at her home subsequently.
Gogo Sitienei kept telling everybody she had the opportunity to talk to that she had gone to school to encourage younger people, especially girls, all over the world never to give up on school for flimsy reasons.
If a nonagenarian, one at the age of just one year shy of a century, should go to school every morning, nobody will have an excuse for staying away from school on the pretext of being too old. It is sad that many young people below the age of twenty in Malawi drop out of school thinking and declaring that they are too old to stay in primary school.
The media has quoted Gogo Sitienei as having stated that without education, there would be no difference between a person and a chicken. Far from being a derogatory remark, this was meant to jolt her hearers into doing something about their education status.
There is nothing desirable about being like a chikcen. A chicken is not endowed with an abundance of useful knowledge. About 10 years ago, in an article titled “The chicken is a fool” I discussed the unfortunate state of a chicken which, unlike birds in the wild, cannot do anything for itself. It has to be housed, fed, protected from enemies. It cannot even achieve flight. A pigeon (njiwa) has a chant which has been craftily lyricized by locals into the following words: “Nkhuku, nkhuku n’chitsiru! (the chicken, yes the chicken is a fool)”. Looking at the miserable state of the chicken, the pigeon found itself with no choice but produce the unmistakable pigeon chant.
According to the late Gogo, the state of a person without education would be no better. I am reminded of one passenger travelling on a UTM bus in those days. He was holding a newspaper but kept laughing throughout the trip. Those that sat close to him noticed that he was holding the newspaper upside down. He was actually illiterate and did not know that the newspaper was not upright. What made him laugh was his interpretation of the newspaper pictures. He was heard saying, “anthu onsewa agwa! (all these people are in a state of a fall)”.
Sitienei should make us search within our personal state vis a vis education. If after an honest search, we feel like a chicken that should be a wake up call to send us on a trajectory towards more education. It does not matter what level we are at. We can always acquire more education.
Many of us can continue to learn outside formal education. We need to develop a love for reading. Anyone who has attempted to write a book will tell you how engaging that exercise is. By reading, one can have intellectual intercourse with the writer.