MEET THE AUTHOR : Ntimama was a great man of literature

This past week saw the passing on of former minister William ole Ntimama, who has been eulogised as a self-made or self-read man who would express himself in impeccable English

Kwendo Opanga writes: “He read deep into the night and would quote what Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King or Abraham Lincoln said when, to whom and on what occasion.” (Saturday Nation, September 3, 2016)

Rarely is a man remembered on account of a stock or wealth of books that one leaves behind. It is usually land and other properties. A quest for books is a pursuit for intellectual nourishment. A book is a channel for the flow of ideas between one mind and another.

The former Heritage minister and former Narok North MP was a lover of books. As he travelled abroad, over time, he was able to put together a remarkable library. In later years he donated his stock of books to Narok University library, which he termed as his legacy to his people.

He was a great admirer of Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln and Mahatma Gandhi. He cited the leaders as the people who influenced him the most; Martin Luther King for leading the civil rights movement and Abraham Lincoln for emancipating the black man from slavery.

Different books will help us expand our minds and open our hearts to new ideas. As an example, biographies are known to transmit personality and give opportunity to asses one’s true worth of character.

In an article published on these pages recently, I pointed out that taking in the wisdom and knowledge of who your mentors like to read will get you closer to being of the same mind than simply reading out their memoirs and journals.

Ntimama attended Ole Sankale Primary School in Narok before proceeding to Kahuhia Teachers Training College. He later obtained a Diploma in Legal Studies from Oxford University, a course he studied by correspondence.

Although formal schooling from nursery all the way up to the college gives one an advantage in knowledge acquisition, those who have not had this opportunity can still acquire any form of desired knowledge. A vast majority of information is free to access at your local or community library, and many have kept on learning even when they may not have been able to attend school or college.

There have been great people who have attained their education from out of a public library or from their own homes. Many well-known names have used books to expand their minds. Many have gone on to be writers, journalists, political leaders, and businesspeople. A library card in the hands of a determined learner can be a very powerful thing indeed.

Abraham Lincoln, one of the best-known and best-loved presidents of the USA, spent his early days growing up on the frontier, where the family didn’t always have access to schools. It is reported that Lincoln only had one year’s worth of classes between the ages of six and 15, taught whenever the community could find a teacher. Lincoln instead educated himself through reading books. He was fascinated by them and spent nearly every minute of his spare time with his nose in a book, learning about history, philosophy, and literature Books were scarce on the border and he often went out of his way to borrow titles he hadn’t yet read, once walking 20 miles to get a book on the United States. All that reading paid off, especially when it came to the law. Lincoln taught himself enough to pass the bar, and would go on to be a great orator, leader, and president.

As Francis Bacon said, “Reading maketh a full man; speaking, a ready man, writing, an exact man.”