Lowassa schoolmates share memories of his leadership at young age

Arusha. Laanyuni Sumuni Laizer (69) is a Tanzanian working at an academy in Denmark.

He is not among those flashy members of the diaspora who would come home with all the pomp associated with opulence, despite working and living abroad (and in a developed country) for over 30 years.

He frequented his Monduli home, but this time around he is devastated that his sojourn coincided with the death of his schoolmate Edward Lowassa.

Mr Laizer could be one of the few people who had been closely associated with the late prime minister at a tender age.

They were schoolmates at Monduli Primary School in 1961, during which they interacted closely.

They both hailed from pastoralist families in Monduli, with Lowassa’s family domiciled closer to the school.

Selection to join Form One in the late 1960s apparently parted them, with each going in his direction. They would rarely meet thereafter.

The death of the ex-PM on Saturday, however, shattered him, and he started to recall their good old days with his high-profile buddy.

Mr Laizer observed that the late Lowassa could have, from his childhood, been destined for higher positions in leadership by the way he behaved.

The deceased had some in-born instincts that became noticeable in his early childhood at the Monduli school.

He was somebody extraordinary in the way he interacted with people around him, his schoolmate explained.

“He was smart, disciplined, and always wanted to lead,” he told The Citizen in an interview on Monday.

As a student, Lowassa would not settle down but was “everywhere,” from being a band master and a choir leader to a prefect.

“He was somebody always at the forefront, keen to organise and lead. By doing so, he attracted the attention of those around him,” he said.

He added that for many years, the late Lowassa was Monduli school’s band master, despite his tender age.

Those were the days when schools across the country were positively ranked based on the performance of their bands.

Under the stewardship of Lowassa, Monduli Primary School joined the top brass school bands in the Arusha region, which then included present-day Manyara.

Among them were Endagikot (Mbulu) and Mringa and West Meru primary schools in Arusha among others. Mr Lowassa would not stop there. He was active in the Tanu Youth League when he was in Standard V.

That could have been in 1965 or thereabout, when he was quite young. “He would simply organise a march for the youth league,” he said. He was also active in the Boy Scout movement, often organising mountain climbing trips to Kilimanjaro and Meru.

“He caught the attention of those around him also because he was an orator. He was good in school debates,” Mr Laizer added.

His leadership skills are also shared by Walter Maeda, his other schoolmate, this time at Arusha Secondary School.

“He was born a leader. He liked to do his job properly,” said Mr Maeda, an Arusha-based hotelier who would interact much with the ex-PM in later life.

However, the chair of the regional business chamber is quick to describe Mr. Lowassa’s character, which probably earned him friends and foes in equal measure.

“As our prefect, he tolerated no nonsense. He was straight-forward and bold. We knew he would climb up in leadership positions,” he said.

For Mr Maeda and people who knew him in his early life, Lowassa had a soft side; he was a singer in the school choir and liked reading literature.

Back in his primary school days, Lowassa is reckoned to have struggled hard to master English to improve his communication skills.

In improving his communication skills in English, he remained close to a group of American Peace Corps members who had been posted to Monduli.

“Through his association with the Americans, he improved his English such that he became an all-round public speaker,” Mr Laizer noted.

Good communication and organisational skills and social interactions in school and the church made him more popular.

According to Mr Laizer, he was active in the church choir and meetings. Lowassa was a member of the Lutheran Church.

His instincts, or rather, were much shared in Monduli, a district town some 40 km from Arusha city.

But, according to his schoolmate, the late PM’s popularity would later catch the attention of those who mattered in Arusha.

Since the school events of those days combined both the primary and secondary schools, Lowassa’s instincts caught one secondary school head.

Mama Materu, the headmistress of Arusha Secondary School, was so impressed that she expressed her desire to have him as his student should he sail through the Standard VII examination.

Mr Lowassa passed his exam and joined the school and due to his leadership skills, he served as a prefect for most of the four years he was there.

Mr Laizer showered praise on his schoolmate for the way he was dedicated to the welfare of his livestock-keeping family.

“He was good at cattle grazing. Even as a minister, ‘atakwenda kuchunga ng’ombe’ (he would go to graze cattle),”  he said.

His success in stardom is partly attributed to his late father, Mzee Ngoyai Lowassa, who worked at the district office from the colonial days to the 1960s.

“That mzee was very influential and powerful in Maasailand. He was the one who would move around, telling people to pay tax and send children to school,” Laizer said.

By doing so, he created an image of a powerful link between the government and the Maasai community. He became very powerful and respected,” he said.