Scrolls magazine, Kabulonga Boys' School, 1977

I left Kabulonga Boys after Form II, in 1977, the year I paid the princely sum of 15 ngwee for this school magazine.

Back in 2009 I posted some pages on facebook (see some discussion on it at the Kabulonga Alumni page), but I hadn't included it here until now.

It sounds like this Vol 1, No. 1 was not followed by a No. 2, but kudos to the editorial board for making the effort all the same: Jophael Mbizure, Herrick Mpuku, Kennedy Mahupete, Peter Banda, Laiven Apuleni and Edwin Chirwa. Actually, they say that they had to raise the price to 15n (described as a 'melancholic situation'), so perhaps there was a previous issue?

Thanks were given to Barton's Cycles for their sponsorship.

There were also contributions from C. Mwanamcze (a poem), Robert Mbewe, David Katanya, Makuya Mbewe (Form IV D), M. Moyo, G. Ndhlovu, K. Sikombe (5A).

There are letters from Ignitius Kabwe (2S), George Zulu (1G) and Yunus Vally (4B).

H. Walia reports on the Debating Club and Squash Club. I'm not sure if I was in Walia's league at that age, though I spent many a lunchtime at the squash courts, leaving sweaty to go to afternoon classes. There are only 19 members, Walia says. Sounds pretty good to me! The school has no squash racquets.  The boys played the staff at the end of term I in 1977, and the boys were beaten.

The debating club has had two outings, one to UNZA and another to Southern Province. At UNZA Emmanuel Chifulifuli, Baldwin Nkumbula and Harvinder Walia spoke on "Africa cannot do without foreign aid".  It appears that we "universed the UNZA students very much." Not sure what that means!  Norman Sumbwe also took part in Southern Province, where they beat Kafue Secondary School and Canisius College in Monze.

Football: Morton Tembo leads the team against "terroristic" Copperbelt Champions Roan Antelope Secondary School in the Zambia Schools Floating Trophy.  Kabs had beaten Libala in the semi-finals. But no fear, because we have Jeffrey "Dribbler" Sakala and Stanley Chanda on our side. In defence also, Morton and Michael "Vandu" Mulenga will surely stop the terrorists.

The basketball team, led by Norman Sumbwe has beaten nearly all opposition. "If there is a game involving a trophy we hope the team [uses] Kasanda, Primi and Dingi to produce fireworks".

In volleyball, Shepherd Libebe and Mr. Filimonu are shaping up the teams. They have played at UNZA and beat all schools taking part, thanks also to Isaac K Kayula's efforts.

Patrick Unene and colleagues are "losing interest" in the boxing club because the new members are "boring". Come on new members...

We hear that the Red Cross Cadet Unit was started in 1973 and chaired by Gabriel Mtonga, later (1975) by Edward Soonga, with assistance from R. Mubamba. Now Herrick Mpuku and David Katanya are chairing it.

A letter asks: What happened to the General Knowledge Club? Since Mr Gupta left there has been no news of it. (Ediwn Chirwa suggests: why not start one yourself?)

There's some prose from Israel Phiri (4A)  and Brian Mhango (4A) provides a crossword puzzle on the back page. Clarkson Chisamu is memorialised by his friends. Edgar Chaponda and Paul "Jones Mandevu" Mwila are remembered as good 'contingent bosses' of the cadets, whereas current NCOs (Ba Nthepe) are rude to their lower ranked officers, shouting nyabwa and kwiyo at people. I am clueless, please fill me in....

The District Governer Edward Limande 'blasts' youths for having an inferiority complex, and stresses the importance of introducing UNIP branches in institutions such as ours. "Young people have lost the spirit of togetherness as compared to the actions of our forefathers. The nation as a whole has undergone acculturation due to influence of western culture. We even use forks and knives to eat nshima. Just imagine."  Limande also suggested that students should be inventing new machines rather than relying on imported machinery, and not aspire to be engineers, which was not well received by students who planned on studying engineering.  Also those foreign dances like Cikokosh (again, I have no idea what this is, but apparently 'water-gate'?)... not a good idea.  Students asked him why he was wearing a suit rather than skins, but the DG did not explain, or pass comment on suggested ill treatment at National Service camps.

Herrick and Laiven interview acting headmaster Mr Kampata. In my next school I wrote an English piece about how Mr Kampata tried to make us sing the national anthem three times, because we weren't putting enough energy into it, and on the third attempt one voice after another dropped out until just Mr Kampata's amplified voice was left singing from his podium in front of the quadrangle.

Mr Kampata had then been teaching for twelve years, and was previously at Namwala, Monze, Kalomo and Chipepo secondary schools.

Why, the interviewers asked, are the prefects wearing old ties? Are there no funds for new ones? It is true, the headmaster admits, the price of ties has gone up too much, we can't afford them anymore. Some of them are wearing different coloured ties, purple, maroon... which is the official tie?

The headmaster had recently also announced there would be no more free exercise books, due to lack of funds, something that apparently applied to most schools in Zambia.

Why not use the money from the production units, particularly metalwork, which made a lot of money selling 'triangles' (presumably the kind you were then required to carry in your car in case of breakdown) to buy exercise books? Wasn't that what the government wanted from production units like these?

The headmaster suggests this is not really the case, but some boarding schools could grow their own vegetables or raise chickens. The PU relies on money from the PTA and there is a loan to be repaid.

It also sounds like students are having non-school garments confiscated, when found wearing them on top of uniforms, while in school. In future, anyone claiming for non-school garments is "going to pay a fine of 10 ngwee to collect them".

Old diving board structure?

The swimming pool is mentioned as another example of something the government said they could not maintain anymore. Funds were raised by students and parents to keep it open. That year we held possibly the last swimming gala at Kaboys, organised by those of us who were swimmers at the time, without staff involvement, my mother says. But my diary, which has a detailed account of the day, says Mr Potts was involved and the whole school came. Swimmers included Patrick Mulenga and someone called Dale, and a diver Harry Secombe (well, that's what I wrote).

This post was initially prompted by contact from Edward Simukonda, who is trying to rennovate swimming pools. Thanks to Edward, we can see the state of the facilities now at Kabulonga Boys' and Girls' Schools.

I remember my woodwork teacher, Mr. Antoine, chuckling over the discussion of the swimming pool he had been a part of. "Drain it and leave it", he said, in disbelief. "Drain it and leave it". I suspect that that is what happened next.

When I were a lad, this was nowt but swimming pool

Another letter in Scrolls laments the state of the ceilings and general outlook of the school. I remember some very scary ceiling fans, which wobbled so much they could not have been safe to run, so we didn't, except to check that they still worked, and marvel that they remained attached to the ceilings.

"Is this becoming a fee-paying school?", another letter asks. What is the difference between paying K40 to the school compared to providing my own exercise books, paying K3 for fixtures and fittings, K1.50 for the swimming pool (per term) and buying my own uniforms?  Anyway, couldn't the woodwork unit repair lockers and the like? Ah, but you have to pay for timber, says Ed.

And where did that production unit money go, asks another student in 3L. What is the balance now? Sorry, we don't know says Ed.  But maybe the accountant Mr S.S. Malambo in room 27 could help with this.

Changing rooms?

All in all there is a surprising amount of history in these 18 mimeographed pages.

I also had a dig through my personal diaries from that time and remembered a few names: Fr Norris (R.E.), of course. I particularly recall that his first question to the class was "what country do you think I come from?" I reasoned as follows in my head: he sounds American, but if he was he wouldn't ask, so he must be Canadian. "Canada," I replied, confidently. "Who told you?" came the surprised reply.  He was a good fellow, and organised our basketball tournaments, with "3 to make 2" on the free-throws. We were not very good....

The Form IU team in 1976 was: Wilson Shankaya, me, William Chewe, Boswin Kandawe and Stevenson Ngwenya with substitutes: Amitava Chaterjee and Don Mainga.

Also in my diary other teachers: Mrs Chantilasikeram (? Science), Mrs Mukerjee, "Chief Kalaba" (can't recall his name, probably African Studies; that was his nickname after a long discussion of Chief Kalaba's area), Mr Nyirenda (Civics), Mr Koshy (later Civics, not a nice guy), Mr Nsamba (P.E.) and Miss Mumbwa (English).  I will probably have other names somewhere on exercise books.

I must especially mention Mr Mwilambwe (RIP), a Zairean who taught us French without speaking English.  We actually groaned when the class ended.

Most of these days I was hanging out with the squash court/swimmers gang, especially David Woakes, Patrick Armstrong and Dominic Goth (RIP). Dominic's sister Celia also sadly passed away a couple of years ago.

Also in my diary: Bhanu Nanduri, Bosco Britto, Justin Meyn, William Oglethorpe, Hitten and Dhimant (Patel? brothers), Hussein Mussarat, and others.