WERE ZAMANI TEENS MORE ETHICAL THAN TODAY’S?

Late 1980s

ARE YOU SAYING ZAMANI TEENS WERE MORE ETHICAL THAN TODAY’S? Give me a break.

UNLESS the ZAMANI teens you are referring to are those before 1980s and 1990s, then you are deceiving yourself and lying to others. LISTEN,

As a teenager, I went to boys’ secondary school late 1980s through mid 1990s. Whether this constitutes the zamani you are referring to or not, I do not know. My interest is more in sharing what was happening then and you judge whether that was any more ethical than watoto wa siku hizi:

One: The majority of us sneaked from school in evenings and on weekends to nearby suburbs and villages (Nzovwe, Kalobe, Itende, etc) to chase for primary school and village girls to try our lucky for sexual intercourse favours. Some of us were lucky to have one or two girl friends and had fun twice or more and sometimes just once. This was really cool. I have no idea whether we did or did not impregnate any of the fellow teenage girls. I would not be surprised to learn we fathered a few then. Our girl friends and their parents might have never had the guts to try tracing us at Iyunga secondary school.

Two: Then, we had these about two sweetest months off school twice mid -year, and December/January. During this time we were back home in our villages. Meen, going to government secondary schools was surely great. It made us very important people out there. Those very few of our colleagues who went to Shule za kulipia (private) mattered too.

Many of us loitered from gurio (weekely market days) to gurio. Promiscuous sexual intercourse was really trendy. Going back to boarding school without having had any sexual encounter, was really bad. One was even forced to fake a story of this cool experience he had with one or two girl friends to avoid scorn from peers. But then, imagine all that real stuff happening without any condoms! How many babies we might have fathered?? Lucky us, HIV was just not as rampant as today. Otherwise, we would have not survived to pomp that we, as teens were ethical!!Oh! it was by His Grace (Ni kwa Neema ya Mungu Tu!)

Three: Our friends, those who travelled afar by TAZARA Train. The stories they told us, you would wish there were technological sophistication to document stuff as is today. You know what? The boys and girls from different schools, say Iyunga and Loleza, were lumped together in the congested third class coaches. Even when they were slotted in separate coaches, they would find ways to come together and explore life. What they did at night, you can figure it for yourself. These are some of those who today claim to have been that ethical as teens.

Four: It was during my secondary schooling as teen when I heard for the first time terms as KUPIGA MANDE or MTUNGO all referring to GANG RAPE. I bet such foolish acts were more common then, than now. And my ‘Be Tos’ folks want to make everybody believe WE were SAINTS.

So what I am saying is that, let us face today’s challenges; look them on the face with fresh insights and perspectives; and come up with better ways to tackle them. Clinging to those blunt methods that did not work yesterday, would help neither us nor our kids. Turning a blind eye to today’s problems, will do more harm than good. DIALOGUE WOULD BE A BETTER STARTING POINT.