Remembering David Kanabahita, an environmentally friendly teacher

That was a foundation without which all else was impossible, except peasantry and, for most Africans, a hopeless life on the fringes of pretend citizenship.

So, besides our parents, it is to our primary school teachers that we owe our greatest gratitude for their transformative impact on our lives.

We easily forget the names of most people we encounter on life’s journey.

However, we almost always remember the names of our schoolteachers, our experiences with them, and the highlights of their intellectual ministries.

A great teacher’s sacrifice has been likened to a candle that burns out to give light to others.

One of those candles was Mr. David Kanabahita ka Muhindi na Nyabishaka of Nyakagyera, Ndorwa, Kigyezi, a legendary primary school teacher who died on Sunday June 11, at the age of 88.

Though he never taught me in class, his fame was such that I claimed a piece of him. He was my teacher every time I met him on the streets of Kabaare.

His warm and easy smile put me at ease and enabled me to hear his advice and admonitions.

He was always encouraging, genuinely happy to learn about my progress, and imparted words of wisdom that came from a place of goodwill.

A graduate of Kigezi High School himself, where he had enrolled as a student in 1951, he earned his fame as a teacher at that school after he completed teacher training college.

One of his very first students at Kigezi High School was Dr. James Mugisha gwa Kikira, a medical doctor in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, whom he taught in primary six in 1959.  

Dr. Mugisha remembers Mr. Kanabahita to have been “very nice, very friendly, easy to talk to, and always smiling and cheerful.”  

He described him as a man devoid of malice, very different from teachers who terrorised children.

Mr. Kanabahita’s warm and kind nature was also fondly recalled by Dr. Shaka Ssali, the international journalist who recently retired after a distinguished career at the Voice of America (VOA) in Washington DC.  

Shaka, whom Mr. Kabahita taught in primary six at Kigezi High School in 1961, described him as “a very environmentally friendly and popular teacher that was revered by his former students.”  

Shaka recalled that in preparation for a mock examination in mathematics in 1961, Mr. John Mushakamba, Shaka’s father, obtained a set of past examination papers from Mr. Charles Kakira, a famous manager of the Uganda Bookshop in Kabaare.

“I had studied those papers thoroughly and had readied myself for the examination,” Shaka recalled.

Aided by his great ability to memorize material, Shaka passed all questions in the mock examination that year.  Notwithstanding that perfect score, Mr. Kanabahita awarded Shaka a 98 percent mark, with the comment “tidy good.”  

When Shaka sought an explanation for the discrepancy, Mr. Kanabahita assured him that a 100 percent mark for any student was out of the question.

To him there was always room for improvement.

Decades later, when Shaka had gained international celebrity as the host of VOA Television’s Straight Talk Africa, Mr. Kanabahita was still rooting for him, and encouraging him.

One imagines the joy that Mr. Kanabahita felt as he watched his daughter Catherine Kanabahita, sitting in a famous studio in Washington DC, as a guest of Shaka Ssali on Straight Talk Africa.

Just like on other occasions when Shaka had hosted old schoolmates from Kigezi High School on his great program, two of this humble teacher’s proteges were now in conversation on the international stage, standing on a foundation that he had given them.

Their intellects and voices had been partly shaped by this gentleman whom most of their audience did not know. That is the quiet power of teachers, and of journalists as a close second.

Dr. Mugisha gwa Kikira and Dr. Shaka Ssali are just two of many boys that Mr. Kanabahita mentored in their early years at Kigezi High School.

Others include Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile, the late Governor of the Bank of Uganda, and Professor Manuel Kaamugisha Muranga, a distinguished linguist and university educator, now at Kabale University.

Likewise, very many of his students at Hornby High School, a famous girls’ school in Kabaare where he was headmaster, and later at Nyakeina and Kinyasaano primary schools in Rujumbura, went on to serve in great careers in Uganda and abroad.

His invisible fingerprints are widely dispersed, his legacy unquantifiable.

Through him and his wife Grace Tindikahwa, the world gained people who have distinguished themselves as bright, hardworking, and productive citizens.

For example, their daughter, Dora Christine Kanabahita Byamukama, a former parliamentarian in Uganda and the East African Legislative Assembly, is a senior lawyer, and human rights and gender consultant in Kampala.

Another daughter, Catherine Kanabahita Guma, is the Capacity Building Director, USAID/Civil Society Strengthening Activity (CSSA), East West Management Institute.  

A former Fulbright Scholar in Residence at Clark Atlanta University, USA, Catherine previously served as Director, Gender Mainstreaming Directorate at Makerere University, and, later, Executive Director, Development Network of Indigenous Voluntary Associations (DENIVA).

Their sister Charlotte Kanabahita Kamugisha, the owner and managing director of Bunyonyi Safaris Ltd, is easily one of the most respected hoteliers and tourism entrepreneurs today.

News of Mr. Kanabahita’s death has numbed us, even as we thank God for his liberation from the prison of very old age, in which he has been held hostage by prolonged severe illness.

He had been in physical decline for fourteen years, an enormous challenge for a man who had been one of the most vibrant citizens, a great athlete, with a brilliant mind and a distinguished record of public service.

By God’s grace, his children spared nothing to provide him with the best care possible and made his final struggle tolerable.

We thank God because Mr. Kanabahita was a Christian whose walk and life, we believe, was pleasing to God.

So, our grief is markedly eased by our confident hope that he is now safe among the saints who have gone before, and that we shall be reunited with them.

It is well. Yet one cannot but be humbled by the dark reality that the ranks of our great teachers have been pruned almost dry.

Happily, our memories are rich with smiles. Their legacy abounds.

Muniini K. Mulera is Ugandan-Canadian social and political observer. [email protected]