( The undelivered Speech to Kacheliba Secondary School students written sometimes in 2008. I realized that elements of bad weather and rats might deprive me of this piece so I let it be here)
The Principal, the deputy, teachers and students…I feel excited to stand before you today. I am animated, enthusiastic and thrilled to address you today. More than seven years ago, I sat for my K.C.S.E in this school. I sat in the same classes you are sitting in today and faced almost the same challenges that you are facing today.
I remember a classmate friend of mine straight from primary who was outside the head teacher’s office. An English teacher asked him whether he had come to “borrow the school” to which our chap responded that he had. Our English teacher asked him: Friend, since you are “borrowing the school” when do you intend to return it? My classmate stood there confused and confounded, baffled and befuddled. Such was his faze and flummox. Undeterred, he indicated that he will “return the school” when he finishes.
I also remember being a “mono” and being invited for valentines with a Form two girl. On that day, I was “wed” to this girl. Flowers were exchanged and marriage vows said. Being a mono was tough but it had its fun and amusement, mirth and pleasure.
What comes into my mind now is my English teacher. You are fresh from Class Eight and he talks of things as puzzled, perplexed, entangled, ensnared, bewildered, flummoxed. Why couldn’t he just say confused? I once borrowed from him an English textbook. While returning it he asked: Was it valuable or invaluable? To which I dutifully answered it was not invaluable but very valuable. My English teacher just laughed. Little did I know that those were synonyms!
Students, I have a quote for you today from John Kendrick Bangs in “My Silent Servants”. It says:
If…I find [a man] enriching his mind with constant drafts upon the treasures of song, or feeding his soul upon the spiritual meat of the great masters of letters, or delving deep into the veins of the mines of philosophy, he seems to me to have become a promising initiate into the goodly company of the immortals.
Let me repeat that:
If…I find [a man] enriching his mind with constant drafts upon the treasures of song, or feeding his soul upon the spiritual meat of the great masters of letters, or delving deep into the veins of the mines of philosophy, he seems to me to have become a promising initiate into the goodly company of the immortals.
How many times do you enrich your mind? How frequent do you feed your soul? How many times do you commune with the immortals in books? How many books have you read? Apart from the textbooks you read for your exams which other books have you read for the fun of it or just to expand your knowledge?
It is never too late.
Here’s a proverb in “The World is Flat” by Thomas Friedman:
Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up, it knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a gazelle or a lion, when the sun comes up, you better start running.
Students of Kacheliba, the sun is up and you better start running. Let me tell you my story. In 2002, I sat for my K.C.S.E and got a grade B failing to join public university by two points. I felt sad, dejected, humiliated and disconsolate. My dreams were lofty, my plans grand and ambition soaring into the skies. These dreams, these plans, these ambitions were worthless, futile, profitless, vain. I had always dreamt of becoming two things in life: A lawyer or a journalist. With my failure of joining a public university, my first option was pipe dream, an exercise in futility. After finishing form four I taught Kacheliba Girls Primary for almost a year before going to Nairobi for my packages in Computer .
I came back home and went to St. Comboni Amakuriat Secondary school to teach Computer and Kiswahili. Four years later, yet I had not joined a University nor enrolled for some journalism course. I received an admission letter from Kenya Institute of Mass Communication (KIMC) to study print journalism. I declined partly because I didn’t have the requisite fees and that my heart was still fixed on a career on law. Somebody told me that if we talk frequently about our dreams and aspirations then we, at the end of the day will achieve those dreams.
I always believed that “I must keep on rowing, not until I reach port but until I reach my grave”. I always hoped that even after having spent four years at home after completion of my fourth form, God, in his mysterious ways could have fixed things for me to do law.
Right now I am at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa pursuing law. I am in my third year. My story could be a part of your story too, a story about patience and perseverance, a story about fortitude and long-suffering and stoicism. I am not any different from you. Let us get more practical now.
Number 1, you are a fool.
That is why you are here. Start from there. Search for knowledge. Stretch your mind to the limit. Be humble. Respect your teachers even when they might have iron hands. Read books as if you are chasing after somebody whom you are afraid of losing.
Number 2, know where you are going.
What do you want to become in the next 10 or 15 years? Do you believe that you are such a person? What is it that you need to do daily to become such a person? How do you improve yourself? Remember if you don’t know where you are going any road can lead you there. Don’t fall a victim.
Number 3, let your poverty be your incentive, your bait, your impetus, your motivation, your enticement.
When you wake up to a thin sugarless millet porridge, when you take a morsel for food and sleep on mud bed, when you go back home to find your family having migrated far away where there’s green grass..all these should be the building blocks to your academic success. Get positively angry with your poverty.
Number 4, never be a victim of narrow learning.
Read for your exams. Do it. Pass your exams. But if after finishing your exams you only know the molarity concept and scramble and partition of Africa you are not learned. Be an intellectual. You see, Ali Mazrui once said that an intellectual is a person who is fascinated by ideas. Ngugi said that an intellectual is a person who knows something about everything and everything about something. Develop a curiosity within you, an inquisitivenss, constructive nosiness about something about everything. Learn history. Learn arts. Learn science. Read novels. Observe nature. Create within you child-like curiosity about everything. Never stop to ask why.
Read books, students. I am not any different from you. But I read books. After finishing form four I embarked on a journey into the world of books. I realized the wisdom of one Jesse Lee Bennett who said:
Books are the compasses and telescopes and sextants and charts which other men have prepared to help us navigate the dangerous seas of human life.
So I immersed myself into books. I read Kiriamiti’s My life in crime and son of fate. I read Ngugi’s Petals of Blood and Grain of Wheat and River Between. I read Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God and Things Fall Apart. I read Katama Mkangi’s Walenisi and Buriani and Masaibu ya Ndugu Jero and Mashetani. I then read John Grisham’s legal thrillers like A Time to Kill and Runaway Jury and the Brethren. I read Ben Carson’s Think Big and my life was never the same again. If you have not read that book please find time to read it and if you will still doubt your abilities come back to me so that I can trade my lungs for yours. I then read my Bible and other religious books like the Q’uran and Bhagavad-Gita and Upanishad. I read philosophy and science and arts. I discovered that, like Gjertrud Schnackenberg:
In my room
Among cities of books
Stacked in towers
Each book is a room
Students, make it happen. History abounds with tales of experts who were convinced that the ideas, plans, and projects of others could never be achieved. However, accomplishment came to those who said, “I can make it happen.” I got these stories from somewhere.
The Italian sculptor Agostino d’Antonio worked diligently on a large piece of marble. Unable to produce his desired masterpiece, he lamented, “I can do nothing with it.” Other sculptors also worked this difficult piece of marble, but to no avail. Michelangelo discovered the stone and visualized the possibilities in it. His “I can-make-it-happen” attitude resulted in one of the world’s masterpieces- David.
The experts of Spain concluded that Columbus’s plans to discover a new and shorter route to the West Indies was virtually impossible. Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand ignored the report of the experts. “I can make it happen.” Columbus persisted. And he did. Everyone knew the world was flat, but not Columbus. The Nina, the Pinta, the Santa Maria, along with Columbus and his small band of followers, sailed to “impossible” new lands and thriving resources.
Even the great Thomas Alva Edison discouraged his friend, Henry Ford, from pursuing his fledgling idea of a motorcar. Convinced of the worthlessness of the idea, Edison invited Ford to come and work for him. Ford remained committed and tirelessly pursued his dream. Although his first attempt resulted in a vehicle without reverse gear. Henry Ford knew he could make it happen. And of course, he did.
“Forget it,” the experts advised Madame Curie. They agreed radium was a scientifically impossible idea. However, Marie Curie insisted, “I can make it happen”
“Let’s not forget our friends Orville and Wilbur Wright. Journalists, friends, armed forces, specialists, and even their father laughed at the idea of an aeroplane. “What a silly and insane way to spend money. Leave flying to the birds,” they jeered. “Sorry,” the Wright brothers responded. “We have a dream and we can make it happen.” As a result, a place called Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, became the setting for the launching of their “ridiculous” idea.
Make it happen, students. Make it happen for your studies. Make it happen for your Chemistry and Mathematics and English. Make it happen for your grades. Make it happen for your academic success. Make it happen! Make it happen! I also have another story for you.
The Brooklyn Bridge that spans the river tying Manhattan Island to Brooklyn is truly a miracle bridge. In 1863, a creative engineer named John Roebling was inspired by an idea for this spectacular bridge. However, bridge-building experts throughout the world told him to forget it; it could not be done.
Roebling convinced his son, Washington, who was a young up and coming engineer, that the bridge could be built. The two of them developed the concepts of how it could be accomplished and how the obstacles could be overcome. With unharnessed excitement and inspiration, they hired their crew and began to build their dream bridge.
The project was only a few months under construction when a tragic accident on the site took the life of John Roebling and severely injured his son, Washington. Washington was left with permanent brain damage and was unable to talk or walk. Everyone felt that the project would have to be scrapped since the Roeblings were the only ones who knew how the bridge could be built.
Even though Washington was unable to move or talk, his mind was as sharp as ever, and he still had a burning desire to complete the bridge. An idea hit him as he lay in his hospital bed, and he developed a code for communication. All he could move was one finger, so he touched the arm of his wife with that finger tapping out the code to communicate to her what to tell the engineers who were building the bridge. For thirteen years, Washington tapped out his instructions with his fingers until the spectacular Brooklyn Bridge was finally completed.
That is the story of determination. That is the story of John Roeblings and Washington. That is the painful story of perseverance. You have a bridge of your own to build: the bridge of your academic success. Fortunately, you don’t need to tap any code to communicate. You walk freely unlike Washington who was bedridden. We need more John Roeblings in this school. We need more Washingtons who finish what they have started no matter the tragedies and vagaries of life. We need Roeblings and Washingtons who don’t follow the crowd, who follow their convictions and beliefs and strengths.
You can make it happen. If you think you can, then you can. If you think you can’t, then you can’t. It’s all in the mind. If you believe that you can ride a bicycle on a tight rope tied between two tall buildings then let me be honest yes, you can ride it. I believe that an injection is the most painful torture than can be inflicted upon me by the hands of man. You cannot say the same about the medicine tablets that I comfortably swallow. Give me any tablet with or without water any time and I will swallow them as if they are Patco. I knew of somebody who on the sight of tablets developed fright over them.
It is all in the mind. As a man thinketh so is he. Descartes said:
Cogito, ergo sum. I think, therefore I am.
If you think you are a winner and a non-quitter then the world will be shaped according to your desires. If you think that there is a curse of failure which follows your lineage and family tree than who am I, son of the hills, to intercede in your generational curses. Beware of what you consciously think about every day because it will follow up with you sooner rather than later.
I had already told you about what Thomas Friedman said:
That…
Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up, it knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a gazelle or a lion, when the sun comes up, you better start running.
Start running. It doesn’t matter whether you are a gazelle or a lion. Remember that rule number one, you are a fool; rule number two know where you are going, rule number three let poverty be your incentive; and rule number four never be a victim of narrow learning. Don’t forget those rules. Be fascinated with ideas. Read books. Make it happen. Remember that Columbus made it happen even though the crowd thought that the world was flat, circumnavigation was possible. Henry Ford made it happen with the Ford motors. Orville and Wilbur Wright, the so-called Wright Brothers made it happen. They made flying happen.
You too can make it happen. Believe that you can make it happen. And when you believe that you can make it happen there is no limit as to how far you can reach. You can be anything in this world. Think that you can. Cogito, ergo sum. I think, therefore I am.
Thank you for lending me your ears. God bless Kacheliba, God bless Kenya, God bless this world. Thank you.
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