Father Babu--a life turned into an institution

Arusha. Mention ‘Kwa Father Babu’ whenever you are in Arusha and you will easily be given the directions.

There is no precise demarcation line that separates the location with other built up areas of the Ngarenaro Suburb on the fringes of the Central Business District of Arusha.

Kwa Father Babu is not a street or one institution; it’s a conglomeration of institutions under the Roman Catholic Church.

Within the premises are the imposing St Joseph Church, St Elizabeth Hospital, a church-run secondary school and a campus of  Mwanza-based St Augustine University of Tanzania (Saut), among others.

The area is named after Father Joseph Babu Lesulio Kiwale who founded the parish over 40 years ago and who died in Arusha last week at the age of 99.

For the residents of Arusha, Father Babu has come to symbolise the Ngarenaro Parish of the Catholic Church and the institutions later established under it such as the hospital and training institutions. 

The location can tell how the late church leader was sympathetic to the poor neighbourhoods which came to characteride the Ngarenaro Suburb along the Dodoma Road in Arusha.

Ngarenaro is one of the high density suburbs in Arusha. For a long time bore the hallmarks of it turning into a deplorable slum being a home of the poor families who initially came to work as labourers in the settler farms.

While some of the original residents of the suburb came to work as labourers others were attracted to the city by petty jobs or casual work in the few industrial plants or shops that opened after the Second World War.

The area was considered the backyard of Arusha but it was in 1973 when Father Babu spearheaded the establishment of the parish that would later transform into an important ecumenical, medical and educational centre for the city.

The late Roman Catholic patriarch, who was born in Uru near Moshi in 1917, worked at the parish for many years until he retired and passed away peacefully at St Elizabeth Hospital on Saturday December 17.

Many people were shocked by his death which occurred shortly before he marked his 100th birthday.

Ms Defrosa Massawe, a nurse at St Elizabeth Hospital, said he passed away a few days after being admitted at the medical facility for treatment. She said he died from complications associated with old age.

“We are deeply saddened and I can’t tell how devastated I am,” she told The Citizen after information spread in town on the demise of a person much adored for having successfully established the famous ecumenical centre.

Father Amandus Kapele, who is the head of the Holy Ghost Fathers, a congregation of the Roman Catholic Church, eulogises the late Father, saying he would be remembered for being behind the establishment of several church-run institutions among them being the Kibosho Hospital and the famous Kibosho Girls Secondary School, both located near Moshi.

His remains would be interred today at the cemetery within the compound of the Usa River Junior Seminary, where he is considered the patriarch of the Holy Ghost Fathers, in Arusha. Holy Ghost Fathers is a congregation of the Roman Catholic Church under the protection of the Immaculate Heart of Mary known as Spiritans and who dedicated their lives to working with newly freed slaves in East Africa.

In East Africa, where most of the American Spiritans now serve, they began to work in the 1860s by buying men and women out of slavery in Zanzibar. They opened schools and hospitals, taught people marketable skills and gave property to those who needed it.

Father Kapele said: “Father Babu will be remembered for many works such as parish ministry as parish priest and pastor, founder of St Joseph’s Ngarenaro Girls Secondary School in Arusha, Kibosho Girls Secondary School in Moshi, Tengeru Boys Secondary School in Arusha and Ngarenaro St Elizabeth Hospital.”

It is not his dedication to the church and the society that has made Father Babu much admired even after his death. His long life that has taken him to the service of various parishes is enough material to understand the life of the patriarch.

Father Babu was born on September 5 1917 at Uru. He did his secondary school and teachers’ training course at Singachini Teachers’ Training College in Moshi between 1928 and 1933 and graduated as a Grade II teacher.

He joined St James Junior Seminary in 1936 and a Senior Seminary at Kibosho in 1939 and was ordained a priest on March 1, 1947 as a Diocesan Priest for the then Kilimanjaro Vicariate, now Moshi Diocese. He was transferred to Arusha in 1968 where he opened the Ngarenaro Parish in 1973. Between 1991 until 2001 he worked at a parish in Nairobi Kenya.

For many years he worked as a Vicar General of the Roman Catholic Church Arusha Diocese. While retaining his pastoral duties, he also worked as a bursar of the East African Foundation in the 1980s and provincial bursar of East African Foundation of the Holy Ghost Fathers. He has touched and inspired thousands in his life-long service to humanity.