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January
2005 : article by Paul Bjerk
“It’s obvious!” the old man
exclaimed with an
incredulous look on his face. “Eighty
percent of the people are farmers.” Later,
these two old friends from Tanzania
laughed as they recalled the conversation with the ‘mzee’ (respected
elder). They were in Venezuela
for the first time, and all of a sudden they didn’t feel that far from home.
“Yes! It is obvious. This is the same thing Mwalimu was saying.”
They referred to Mwalimu (Teacher) Julius K. Nyerere, the first
President of Tanzania, who had left both of them with specific tasks to
fulfill. For Nimrod Mkono, the
task was to build schools.
In November 2004, I accompanied Hon. Nimrod Mkono and
Joseph Butiku on a working visit the
Simón
Bolívar
United
World
College
in Venezuela (SBUWC). The elder
they were talking to was Dr. Luis Marcano Coello, the founder of SBUWC. Dr.
Marcano had read the books we had sent him of Nyerere’s writings, and he
told us, “I was particularly interested in his essay called ‘Education for
Self-Reliance.’ When I read it,
I thought, I wrote this myself. Except
he did it twelve years before me!” The
similar economic and social pressures facing these two countries had produced
parallel challenges for education. The
most exciting part of the trip was the growing sense of just how apt the SBUWC
model is for Tanzania
— not the least because of its uncanny similarity to the model proposed by
the ‘Teacher’ Nyerere.
The connection started when I paid a visit to Mr.
Mkono’s office in Dar es Salaam
this summer and he showed me his plans for several school projects he is
working on, including what at that time was the Julius Nyerere Memorial
University of Agriculture. He had
acquired a 600-acre piece of land that had once been developed as an
agricultural facility through Cuban assistance. Mkono grew up near Nyerere’s home village, and had worked his way up
to being one of the top lawyers in the country. Shortly before Nyerere passed away in 1999, he left Mkono with the task
of developing educational facilities in his home area. Known for his high ethical standards, Nyerere had not gone out of his
way to develop his home area to avoid any hint of favoritism. So, he left this task to a trusted and capable friend to develop
privately. Mkono decided to run for Parliament as a platform to pursue
Nyerere’s wish. Since winning,
villagers in his constituency have outpaced his ability to fully develop the
schools they are building on their own initiative, so he formed a committee of
Kenyans and Tanzanians from all walks of life to assist him in developing his
educational vision. When I spoke
with his committee, I described this agricultural college in
Venezuela
where I had spent a few months some twelve years ago. Mr. Mkono and his committee immediately saw its potential and we
contacted FUNDACEA and they invited us for a visit.
In “Education for Self-Reliance” Nyerere argued that the colonial
education system trained young people for colonial service and not for their
own development. The British-style
boarding schools alienated young people from their own communities and created
national leaders who were unable to relate to the lives of the majority of the
population. “It is a
suggestion,” he wrote, “that every school should also be a farm… Children
must learn from beginning to the end of their school life that education does
not set them apart, but is designed to help them be effective members of the
community.”
Dr. Marcano felt he could not have said it better, and
for the last 25 years has strived to build an institution on the very same
intellectual foundation. So our
tour of the farm, seeing the students hard at work harvesting bananas, milking
cows, and working with local farmers, was like watching Nyerere’s ideas come
alive before our eyes. It was no
surprise that members of the local community expressed so much gratitude and
love for the students. Nor was it
a surprise to hear the students explain how much they had matured through the
work, responsibility and decisions that they made while working on the school
farm. SBUWC graduates can walk
into any rural community and feel immediately at home, and they bring with
them a broad base of managerial knowledge and experience. Private employers recognize the quality of their education, it’s
about time development organizations and governments began to recognize their
skill as well. Rather than walking
into the cosmopolitan economy of Caracas, most of the SBUWC graduates continue to work in the rural sector, bringing
with them not only their skills, but also the UWC spirit of international
cooperation, peace, and justice.
Joseph Butiku worked closely with Nyerere for many years as a personal
secretary and later as a regional commissioner. I remember when I first mentioned my UWC experience to him long before
I met Mr. Mkono. He asked me,
“but does it only benefit the elite?” I had no good answer for him at that time, except to try to explain
something about the Venezuelan college. So
when the topic came up again this past year he was interested in accompanying
us to Venezuela, and as we toured the farm, and listened to Dr. Eduardo Escalante’s
passionate commitment to the college and its educational model, he became more
and more excited about the idea’s potential to bring positive change to
rural villagers.
We floated a lot of ideas during those few days in
Venezuela, but by the end of the trip we were all agreed, “there is no need to
reinvent the wheel.” The
Venezuelan model had proved its worth, and that was where we should start.
It is a project in the beginning stages, but all the ingredients are
there, the leadership, the land, and the ideas. Mr. Mkono and Mr. Butiku have begun searching for a project development
officer who will guide the project to fruition. It will be a long road, but SBUWC was eight years in the making.
We hope that by following their lead the JNUWC will soon be in
operation.
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