Last week, I recalled in this column how Mkwawa High School spoilt me with its modern facilities and lifestyle. This was in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Nevertheless, in due course, many of my young schoolmates and I refocused our attention on the core business of the school: Education.
This, however, did not prevent us from pursuing other extracurricular activities at the school.
I, for example, became more involved in field hockey. Surprisingly, I excelled at this strange game, which was popular among Indian-Tanzanian students. In fact, I went on to represent the school, the region and at one stage, even the nation.
But it was the musical opportunities at the school that attracted me most.
For starters, I joined the school’s Lutheran Church Choir and its South African-themed jiving dance group, the Skylarks.
The Skylarks eventually became one of the most popular entertainment groups at social evenings in the region, as well as in the neighbouring regions of Mbeya and Dodoma.
But what interested me most was learning to play musical instruments.
I soon taught myself to play the piano — the school had a grand piano — as well as the guitar.
Together with other student musicians, we eventually formed what would become the band of the region, The Orchestra Mkwawa.
Every Saturday and Sunday, we would perform at the Iringa Town Community Centre.
Our music sessions would begin at 3.00 pm with a youth boogie dance and continue until 6.00 pm. We would then perform for adults from 7.00 pm to 11.00 pm.
It was during one of these evening sessions that a businessman from my village in Njombe saw me. He returned home and told my father that I had supposedly quit school and was now a musician in Iringa town.
No wonder, therefore, that one morning, while I was in class, I was summoned to the headmaster’s office.
This was not normal.
“What had I done wrong?” I wondered.
I meekly entered the office, only to be shocked by the presence of my father, who had travelled all the way from Njombe to check on my alleged truancy from school.
Fortunately, it all ended well.
Towards the end of my time at high school and with the support of the school management, the band travelled to Dar es Salaam to record its songs at the Radio Tanzania studio on Pugu Road.
We borrowed musical equipment from the Dar es Salaam TANU Youth League (TYL) for the recording session.
We even staged several shows in Dar es Salaam.
The TYL band tried to convince us to join them, but we politely declined the offer, preferring instead to pursue our academic goals.
That decision certainly worked out well. Almost all the band members went on to universities in the country and abroad.
For example, our band leader, Mike Sewando, eventually became a senior lecturer in the Department of Physics at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), the same university where I later studied for my BA degree.
Others, to mention but a few, included Bishop Kakobe, our drummer, who went to Nairobi to study meteorology; Peter Masanja, the rhythm guitarist, who became an aviation pilot; Mark Manji, the soloist, who became an aviation engineer; John Mkamwa and Norman Hiza, our vocalists, who went to universities in Canada and Australia respectively and George Semboni, our bass guitarist, who became a journalist after his time at UDSM.
Ours, therefore, was music with a vision. And thankfully, the Mkwawa High School management supported us.
