PEOPLE IN THE NEWS : Mvungi: Author, educationist, mother

It is just like yesterday when I was sitting next to Iddi Kipingu (now a retired army officer) in Arts Lecture Theatre A, UDSM, listening to her lecture on Education.

According to Kipingu there were only two lecturers in the Faculty of Arts who were not only beautiful but also had brains, and, I concurred. One of them was Martha Mvungi as she was known at that time. Kipingu and I were both young, immature and in the first year Education class of 1974/75.

It was also in February this year that I was sitting across the table facing her, in her ‘container office’ at Kinondoni Block 41.

I had just finished editing her manuscript, ‘Writing off a Debt in Ngorongoro Crater’. She was copiously taking notes of the changes I had suggested.

We were also trying to improve the character of the female heroine: beautiful and brainy. Alas, it was to be the last time that I was to see her face to face. In March and April, we communicated by way of WhatsApp messages. Through the same social media, I was informed of her death. I was shocked and pained.

Martha was born on January 19, 1943 at Kidugala Village, Njombe in Iringa Region. She was the second of the five children of Pastor Jeremiah Mlagala and Mrs Dzitumulike Mhehwa. She was educated in Ilula Primary School and Tabora Girls where she completed her studies in 1961.

She then joined Mpwapwa Teacher Training College where she graduated in 1965. Her first appointment was as a teacher and later she was the Headmistress at Kidugala Girls School.

In 1968 she obtained her first degree in teaching English at Edinburgh University in Scotland. In 1974, she was awarded a Master’s Degree in Washington University in Missouri.

She married Dr Lubero Mvungi in 1972 and had four children, a girl and three boys.

She joined the University of Dar es Salaam as a tutorial assistant in 1974 and rose to become a senior lecturer in 1982. In between she obtained her PhD from studies at Columbia Teacher’s College and the University of Dar es Salaam.

In 1986, I had a chance of meeting again with Dr Martha Mvungi.

She was the Secretary General of the Unesco National Commission, which was housed in the Umoja wa Vijana Building on Morogoro Road.

She told me that she had been working there since 1982. I had gone to the Commission to seek assistance to hold a national seminar on the Role of the Publishers in Education Development.

This was at a time when publishing in Tanzania was in doldrums. There was such ease of seeing her that I had never seen in any other government office.

She listened attentively, appreciated the problem and promised to help. She did. Unesco fully funded the seminar, which was held at the Institute of Finance Management (IFM) in Dar es Salaam.

One of the recommendations of that seminar was the creation of an organisation, which would be a forum for discussion of books and development by Tanzanian publishers. The Publishers Association (PATA) was formed in 1987 as one of the recommendations of that seminar.

She was appointed as the permanent secretary for the Ministry of Health in 1990, but she asked to be excused in order to work for a Canadian Funded NGO, the Training Fund for Tanzania Women as its director.

Dr Mvungi was very serious with her work and made an impact in the welfare, training and progress of Tanzania women. Under the TFTW programme they offered short and long term training to women.

Dr Martha Mvungi, has published six books with three different publishers. The first two, Three Solid Stones (1975) was published by Heinemann Educational Publishers in the African Writers Series.

When it was published she was only one of the two Tanzanians published under the African Writers Series.

In the same year this amazing woman also published Hana Hatia with Tanzania Publishing House. Two books were to follow in 1982 and 1985 published by Shudutonya Publishing Enterprise: Chale Anatumwa Sokoni (1982) and Yasin’s Dilemma (1985).

A follow up of the Yasin story is Yasin in Trouble (1990) published by Heinemann Kenya. Her other published book, is Lwidiko published after a long wait by Tanzania Publishing House in 2003.

I have had the honour of editing two of her books, which she had hoped to publish: ‘The Voice’ and ‘Writing Off a Debt in Ngorongoro Crator’.

Due to her support to the formation of the Publishers Association of Tanzania, it was not a surprise that she was invited to open a workshop on children’s book manuscripts in 1989, during the 2nd National Book Week Festival, coordinated by PATA.

She was so excited, that not only did she open the workshop, she stayed on to participate fully in the discussions. Reading and children’s books have always been her passion.

Dr Martha Mvungi was nominated into the Children’s Book Publishing (CBP) Board. She was a Board member several times in the (CBP) Board since 1998.

At one time she was the chairperson of the Board. When I joined the CBP Board, we were re-joined. I was elected chairperson and once again, she helped mould me.

Of all the Board members, she was always the one who had read all the documents sent to her. She had comments when they were needed and words of praise for the good work were always on her lips. She was always willing to share her experiences.

In 1995, she started the Esacs Academy which she ran until 2015. As an educationist she wanted to put into practise what she had preached in her classes. Esacs Academy has proved to be a model school with an enabling learning environment.

Early this year CBP honoured her for her outstanding contribution during her time as chairperson of the Project.

She was taken ill since 2014, but she was not the person to lament about it. She received treatment locally and in India. Throughout her treatment, she never complained, all the time accepting God’s will.

Whenever she was well enough she would continue with her work. “Saiwaad, naumwa,” she was told me during our editorial discussions of the last two manuscripts. “Pole mama,” I would console her.

“She was in immense pain,” her daughter Shughudu told me over the phone. “God has eased her pain and allowed her to rest.” Dr Martha Mvungi passed away on June 24. 2017. God hath given and God has taken away. Rest is Peace, Mama Martha Mlagala Mvungi.

Mr Saiwaad is a publisher and managing director of Read It. He is based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.