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222 Chapter 25 Epilogue This story of my life has turned out to be not strictly about me, but about my times and the major events that impacted on our countryandpeople.Ithasalsobeenabouttheinstitutionsinwhich I played some role in running or founding. It is my hope that those who read it will not treat it as presumptuous, but will see it as an attempt to record what happened, the people who were involved, why they acted as they did and my own personal involvement in, and assessment of the major events of these times, and of some of the main actors. I hope that the revelations of my own modest, humble beginnings will also give hope and inspiration to many of our increasingly disadvantaged youngsters: that in spite of any hardships confronting them now, perseverance, hard work, honesty, rectitude and boldness may eventually place them on a plane of relief and lead them to a more fulfilling and better life Looking back over the years, I consider that a combination of salutary lessons, dogged application, good luck, courage and pride in myself have contributed to making me what I am. Before I was in my teens, my mother told me repeatedly that she was a widow and that there were only the two of us who must exert ourselves in order to survive. During week-ends or school holidays she insisted that I accompany her to the shambas, several miles from our homestead where she grew maize, finger millet or beans. As I revealed at the beginning of this story, I was born at one of these shambas. We woke up an hour or more before dawn and walked those miles to the shamba, to hoe, to weed or to harvest, depending on the season. In the afternoon, we would be ready to walk back home. If it was harvest time, we would return with a load of crops. The lessons of this time toughened me up and became a permanent reminder that I must continuously apply myself. I have therefore always enjoyed waking up early and working hard and late. ThereusedtohanginmyDaresSalaamofficeaplaqueinscribed in Latin, presented to me by a Catholic ex-seminarian friend who had noted my commitment to hard work. He had written it 223 himself quoting a Spanish scholar he admired and it read: Virtus, vigor et divitia labor est meaning “Work is virtue, vigour and riches”. Certainly concentrating on the major tasks before me has meant that I have avoided many indulgences which could have tainted my character; and in these days of incurable ailments and afflictions, excessive indulgences could have ended my life earlier. As for riches, I may not have succeeded extravagantly, but coupled with the modest demands from a devoted and loving wife, we have led a contented life and have responsibly paid for our essential requirements, including the education of our children. Looking back to those early days and my contemporaries, I feel that I have probably always been ‘the odd man out’ in the sense that as a teenager and as a young man, I was often inclined to enjoy the company of persons older than myself. At more than fifty years of age, I am now inclined to enjoy arguments with and the company of those younger than myself. My youthful discussions and arguments with people senior to me in age in a sense helped me to mature early. Unlike our youth of today, we did not ignore advice and counselling from our elders as outmoded and unfashionable. Indeed, I believe that as parents of today we have failed to instill in the new generation, the benefits of the traditions of our society. Partly as a result of this lapse on our part, a large percentage of our children are now afflicted by drug abuse and the devastating HIV/AIDS pandemic. Although those in authority are now spending many millions of shillings in organising seminars, debates, workshops and conferences on how to arrest the spread of the pandemic, we seem to turn a blind eye on shows and displays on television and other media which to our parents would have been rated as vulgar or obscene. These are obviously counter productive. In Western countries certain sex films are censored or banned, but here those of us who object to such displays are branded as outmoded and unfashionable. Unfortunately, in Africa, south of the Sahara in particular, this deadly disease is spreading like wild fire, decimating the youth. With this trend unchecked, I fear...

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