BY MATTHIAS MAINZA CHONA, 1995

BIRTH

I do not know when I was born but it was after the outbreak of the small pox epidemic in 1927 when so many people died.  Also, the first aeroplane is supposed to have flown past my village (Nampeyo) in May 1930 and some people younger than myself were given the name Ndeke.  So I adopted the 1929/1930-summer season as the period of my birth and I chose the first day in Aquarius, 21 January 1930 as my birthday anniversary.  I avoided the zodiac sign of Capricorn as it had a bad connotation due to an imperialist society called the “Capricorn Africa Society.”

CHILDHOOD, SCHOOL AND RELIGION

Although I grew up as a son of a Chief, I lived like any other village boy but I did not wear rags.  I looked after cattle and did other village occupations like dancing, drumming, hunting and trapping birds and animals.

My father sent me to my uncle who lived at Mujika and where there was a Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) school. I began school there using the name Joshua Namukamba. When the Catholic Church opened a school at Nampeyo, I was called back there and started school using the name Mathias Mainza. 

With the SDA I used to enjoy bible teachings in groups but I was too young to actually learn and understand much.  I liked to hear people reciting the scriptures from memory. Later in the Catholic Church, I found it easy to memorise catechism lessons perhaps because of the SDA influence.

At Mujika, I despised all churches except the SDA, but now I only find sense in the Catholic doctrine.  All other churches and religions do not make sense to me.

After Chona School, I went to Chikuni Mission for Standard III to Standard VI.  There I was always passing well. Number seven was the lowest and number three was the highest.  However, in standard VI, I was not only the first in my class but in the whole province.  So I got a free place to Form One (Grade 8) at Munali Training Centre in 1947.  We were seven students from the Southern Province that year – one from Chikuni, two from Rusangu, two from Sikalongo, one from Namainga, one from Mapanza and one from Chikankata.