A Tribute to My Teachers

A Tribute to My Teachers

Teachers, This One’s For You

I know that teachers, more often than not, you feel undervalued and not appreciated enough or at all. Well, I want you to know that the only reason we even think clearly, are able to dream and envision our futures is because of you. You are the reason we have come this far. If it were not for you, teachers, the hallways of the University of Nairobi, UNISA, Harvard University and every university in the world would be empty; the corridors of every hospital would be filled with pain and desolation; our rivers would remain barriers because there would be no bridges to the other side; our hopes dim, our knowledge elementary, at best.

So if you ever feel unworthy look around you and know that we are, because you are; we are because you put the picture of greatness in our minds; because you took the trouble to ignite the passion of learning inside of us. We are because you made us imagine when we could not even think. We are because you watered the seeds of greatness inherent in most children which but for you would shrivel up and die.

If you ever wonder whether there is any purpose to what you are doing as a teacher, just know that we are all greatly indebted to you for what you do; for the hours you spend inside the classroom teaching; the hours you sit in the staff room planning, and certainly the hours and hours you spend everywhere else, thinking, praying and praying yet again, for your students.

My kindergarten teacher set me on a journey to academic excellence; she hugged me on that first day and dried my tears when I cried to go to my older sister’s first grade class and assured me that I was where I belonged, at that moment in time. Today, I think of her with fondness in my heart.

I wish Mrs. Robertson, my English teacher from Great Britain, could read this and see that it is devoid of grammatical errors because she wouldn’t allow me to get away with any in her Grade 5 class. If only there had been email then for I would still be in touch with Ms. Aminat Obuku, who taught us English literature, thereby opening our minds so that “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, “The Road” by Wole Soyinka, “The River Between” by Ngugi wa Thiong’o and “In the Fog of the Season’s End” by Alex Laguma, became the yardstick by which we measure our political and socio-economic developments and by which we determine our humanity. I will, forever, be indebted to her for teaching me the power of the pen and the love of weaving words into a story, a poem, and a soliloquy.

I would give anything to be able to personally thank my Physics teacher, who kept us in the labs for extra tuition, reviewing notes and experiments so that our national exams seemed like child’s play. Oh what I would give, to sit in the history class again in Grade 11, as we did once upon a time, not realizing that one day our teacher would lobby a reluctant UN Security Council to intervene to try and save the one million people who died in Rwanda’s devastating genocide in 1994 and later serve his government as Chief Advisor to the then, Vice President, Paul Kagame. I pay tribute to my teacher, the late Claude Dusaidi, who lived by his principles and helped lead the Rwandese nation on the path to recovery and onto its current position as one of Africa’s fastest growing economies; a teacher who taught me that you and you and I, too, can make a difference, if only we raise our voices when we should and keep quiet when we must.

I am thankful to Professor Yoran Hyden who, as chair of my dissertation committee, encouraged me to write and present papers at conferences, symposiums and seminars. I am now grateful for the many times he sent me back to the library to re-research again and again, a paper that I had thought could not possibly be improved.

This tribute would be incomplete if I did not acknowledge Professors Shadrack Gutto who remains my mentor and has taught me that one never stops learning. He refuses to allow me to become intellectually lazy or complacent and through encouragement, ignited the desire in me to mentor others. It’s with very special gratitude that I think of the late Professor Okoth Ogendo, former dean of the Faulty of Law, University of Nairobi, who used his network to secure me a scholarship at the University of Florida, Gainesville. He did the same for many of my colleagues in prestigious universities across the US.

There are so many teachers, lecturers and professors who have touched and shaped my life; their styles were different, their backgrounds really diverse, their nationalities from the east, the west, the north and the south, and each of them, every one of them, wove a thread into the fabric of my life as no one else could have done; each one of them was a teacher par excellence; each one of them I celebrate today; I will celebrate tomorrow and every day of my life.

For every teacher out there: thank you for teaching a child, a young adult…thank you for teaching…thank you for elevating a nation to greater heights…thank you for continuing to touch the world every moment of every hour.

Thank You!

Category:
Education 
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