Real revolutionaries are often not announced by trumpets. They
do not beat their own drum but labour meticulously, often, for an
obscure cause defending the marginalised. Mzee Lucas Shauri is one of
these individuals.
It was in 1963 when Mzee Lucas Shauri and 27 other
teachers from all over the country marked the beginning of the long
road to becoming teachers for the visually impaired.
The 28 were selected to be part of the
government’s then new initiative to open a programme in the Primary
Education System for children with visual impairment.
“We were the first teachers to go through the
three months training in Braille. Being the first to pave the way also
meant the first to face the challenges” he says. “It was strange to
regard children with visual impairment as able to learn in a formal
environment, that was the perception among many, parents and teachers
alike,”
That is why three years later when the government
called out for a second course training in Braille and teaching
techniques for children with special needs, this time in Shinyanga, only
six participated.
Mzee Shauri was among them. However, the
government didn’t have schools for visually impaired pupils yet. The
only schools that were functioning at the time were owned by the church.
Six schools were opened after the training in
Shinyanga. These are in Tanga, Lindi, Iringa, Bukoba, Kigoma and
Shinyanga. Mzee Shauri was assigned to start the first school for
visually impaired in Pongwe, Tanga.
“That is when the reality of my assignment hit
home. Back in the 60s people were prejudiced towards the blind. Being
blind was considered to be an omen. Even parents whose children were
visually impaired would hide their children for days” he says.
“You are cursed! You will never succeed in life!
You have an omen in your path! This is what people said to me in 1968.
They said I was cursed” he says, shaking his head. The accusations
didn’t stop there.
They became stronger with the unfolding of events.
For the next ten years of his life, he was just a teacher for visually
impaired. While his colleagues excelled in their careers, Mzee Shauri
did not know what a promotion even looked like.
“The inspector didn’t understand my line of work.
So, the children were playing football. So, the children were washing
their own clothes. So, what? He didn’t consider all this to be an
achievement. And hence I was never promoted, for ten years” he says.
If it wasn’t for his family that supported him
through many challenges, his path would have been a very lonely one. His
father, Mzee Sulemani Kihiyo Shauri, prayed for him the day he told him
of his new assignment. “My father taught me not to measure success in
terms of money or prestige. My passion is to see change in the lives of
children. That is what my father taught me” he says.
Born in Kunga village, Korogwe in 1939 to a Minister of the
Lutheran Church, Mzee Shauri was brought up in the Christian faith. He
himself is now a Minister in his local church in Moshi. Mzee Shauri is
the fourth born among seven. He went to Lutindi Primary School from 1949
to 1953; the school was run by the Lutheran Church. He later joined
Mbuzii Middle School from 1954 to 1956. In 1958, he completed a one year
course in teaching and received a certificate from Mpwapwa Teacher’s
College. He got a job the following year at Kigombe Primary School in
Tanga, a government school that had classes one to four. He was 20 years
old when he started working as a teacher in 1959 and 24 when he married
Agnes.
The task ahead of him was challenging. Starting
the new school meant scouting for children. He faced parents who were
ashamed of their children and antagonistic towards of him. “There
weren’t enough funds. The Regional Education Officer gave a warrant so
that I could travel with the children without paying. It was hard
because sometimes, the bus owners would refuse, claiming that they still
had pending bills.”
“I was on my own for three years, from 1968 to
1971. Later on, three teachers joined me. Some children didn’t have
clothes and my family would give them clothes. We started with five
children, the number increased to 15 children.” He recalls. Some pupils
were particularly challenging, he remembers a boy whose parents never
let him out of his room. Because of this, when he joined the school, he
always relieved himself inside the dormitory. Hence, Mzee Shauri had to
clean him up and teach him how to use a proper toilet. This was a great
achievement for him.
Mzee Shauri thought that it would be good for
people to understand the process of teaching visually impaired children,
and the achievements that he had made. He organised a learning
exhibition between 1970 and 1971 in Tanga to generate awareness on the
work that he was doing. It was then that people started believing that
indeed, blind children too could learn something at school. Blankets,
beds and mattresses started coming in from donators.
“At the exhibition, we had typewriters and pecking
brailles. People in the audience would ask for a child to write
something, and the child would do so. The people would be amazed” he
says.
Then things started changing in 1980 when he took a
three months course in Bagamoyo. “I was going to train to become an
Inspector” he says with a smile. On completing the course, he was
transferred to the Central Zone as an Inspector of schools for children
with visual impairment. The Central Zone comprised of ten schools. Later
on he was transferred to the North Zone. He had to be away from home
most of the time, but his family was very supportive of his job. They
knew that his job was his calling. “I have seven children. The first
born was born in 1959 and the last, in 1984. They missed me a lot when I
was away.”
Retirement wasn’t the end of his journey for Mzee
Shauri, in 1994 he started private lessons for primary school children.
And in 2000 he applied for a teaching job with Mkombozi, a centre in
Moshi that conducts research and shelters street involved children. The
government still uses his skills in translating and marking National
Exams at the primary and secondary level.
Mzee Shauri became a teacher because he was
dedicated to seeing change in the lives of children. When his writing
career came to an end, he knew that it was just the beginning. Nothing
was going to stop the passion in his heart, not even the fact that he
had to retire. “We do not just teach them how to read and write, we
teach them life skills. When they come out of this home, they are
changed boys. It is amazing to look at boys who have been here for a
year, who knew not how to read and write and how, they can do that quite
well” he says. He takes out exercise books of students at different
learning levels and shows them to me excitedly. “I have 20 children in
my class. I teach them English, Kiswahili, Maths, reading and writing
skills” he says.
“I am currently working on opening my own learning
centre. I have a one hectare plot that has two classrooms already. Some
people helped me build it,” he says.
