Of Shakespeare, Edwin Mtei and the British Council...
What you need to know:
It was about the warning given to the Roman Dictator Julius Gaius Caesar (born circa 100-BCE) who was warned by a friendly (?) soothsayer not to venture out on March 15 (the Ides of March), and otherwise take good care for his own safety...
Three weeks ago, I penned some historical anecdote in these columns titled ‘Beware the Ides of March, warned the soothsayer...’
It was about the warning given to the Roman Dictator Julius Gaius Caesar (born circa 100-BCE) who was warned by a friendly (?) soothsayer not to venture out on March 15 (the Ides of March), and otherwise take good care for his own safety...
In the event, the man did neither; he ventured out - and was cruelly stabbed to death in the foyer of the Imperial Senate as forewarned. One of the killers, Caesar’s most trusted colleagues, was Senator Brutus. [The Citizen on Saturday: March 15, 2014].
It’s to him that Her Britannic Majesty’s lingo owes the word ‘brute,’ with all its cognate expressions: beastly; bestial... That event was dramatically reproduced by the world-famous British playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616) in his Tragedy ‘Julius Caesar.’
This was one of the ‘Complete Works of Shakespeare’ which students of English Literature worldwide had thrust down their mental throats under the British/colonial Education system before (political) independence about 50 years ago. I must hastily add that I have never regretted that system one iota!
I don’t really know why our home-grown administrators denigrate the education system of yore, especially the English Language side of it! Many natives today owe their academic and related success(es) to the colonial system, and have nothing but praise for same. Ask Edwin Mtei, if you must have a second opinion on this!
In his recently published book describing his exciting ‘journey’ from a humble goatherd on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro to Governor of the central Bank of Tanzania (and much else equally distinguished thrown into the bargain, including sterling roles at the Treasury, the World Bank and the original East African Community), Mtei reveals such morsels as his stint as a student at the elite East African Makerere University of yore.
For instance, he was awarded a set of publications by the British Council of the Day for winning a (British) Commonwealth-wide History essay competition in 1956! His prize, valued at 200 pounds sterling, included books on the Commonwealth, The Statute of Westminster and Winston Churchill’s tales on World War II... [Tanzania Daima: March 26, 2014].
That was a lot of lolly at a time when the exchange rate was Sh20 to one pound: Sh4,000-worth of books. By comparison a pound today commands Sh2,699.50: 135 times as much! If I say so myself, I also was once in the good books of the British Council, compliments of the Cambridge University Overseas Examinations Syndicate... The Council awarded me a copy of the newly-released Pear’s Cyclopaedia as a prize for Distinctions in Geography and General Paper in the 1962 Higher School Certificate Examinations!
The British Council motto of the time was ‘Truth Will Triumph.’ I don’t know if the Council still holds to that position today... or whether the pontification still holds forth in this day and age when ‘truth’ is as malleable as gold, stretching same and turning it into all shapes and sizes at will... What do you say to that? I ask you... Yes: You! Cheers!
