wfn.org | Students, staff reflect on university's first decade

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Nov. 18, 2002  News media contact: Linda Green7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
    10-31-71BP{529}

NOTE: For related coverage, see UMNS stories #512, #527, #528 and #530.
Photographs are available.

By Linda Green*

MUTARE, Zimbabwe (UMNS) - As a child, Tanyaradzwa DeWolf played on the land
where Africa University now stands. Today, she is studying there, attending
classes on a campus that has transformed the area where she lives.

"It is weird that Africa University has been here 10 years because I, as a
little girl, watched the people tromp through the mud to break ground for
what was to be a university," said DeWolf, 23, a sophomore in education.

She grew up at the Old Mature Mission, across the street from Africa
University. "I was born in this area. I grew up here. I came to the land
Africa University sits on to play, see the animals, and buy meat and milk." 

DeWolf was 9 years old when ground was broken for the university. "When the
important people came up the hill and went through the mud, I thought they
were weird. The purpose became real to me when I realized that a university
education could be here."

While in high school at the mission, she had her first encounters with some
of the 40 pioneer students at the university. Students who cannot speak
English are required to enroll in an intensive English course, and she helped
the university students practice the language at Hartzell High School.

As DeWolf's high school graduation approached, Africa University became the
obvious place for continuing her education, she said.

"In 10 years, Africa University has come a heck of a long way from the way it
was and from what I remember," she said.

The university changed the area's culture, she noted. "This used to be a very
conservative area. With the university here, people are more aware of
differences, and it is more cosmopolitan. Differences are more accepted than
they used to be. People are not only accepting of different cultures but of
whole ways of life, of things like single motherhood, which used to be taboo.
 It is OK. People have learned a new level of acceptance."

For many of the university's students, the preparations for Africa
University's anniversary and the Nov. 15-17 celebration were new types of
experiences.

"I am excited about Africa University being 10 years old," said Karen
Kanjana, 19, a literature major. "I never experienced something like this in
my whole life." The freshman from Zimbabwe called the university a place
where different cultures and races meet and interact. "It is like a town on
its own."

Barbara Nyatanga, 19, a freshman geography major also from Zimbabwe, attended
formal schools during her academic development. Watching the anniversary
unfold "is exciting. I never experienced this at formal school. It is a
privilege to get to know people from the United States," she said.

She calls Africa University a home away from home. "It also is the place to
meet different people and learn about different cultures. I can be in Liberia
while in Zimbabwe."

Many staff members, some of them aboard since the school's inception, also
recalled the early years.

Susan Chaya, a secretary in the university's office of information, sees
Africa University helping transform the continent for the better. But she did
not always think the university would survive.	Employed 10 years ago, "I did
not think the university would make it. It is a church-related (institution),
but I did not think that it would grow this fast when compared to other
church institutions, which are developed but not maintained."

Lovemore Matonga, the university's head driver, shared that sentiment. "When
the university started, I thought we were playing because we began with 40
students. I then saw it growing, and there are so many. In the beginning, I
could call the students by name, and now I don't recognize them." 

"Since 1996, things have changed from better to the best," Chaya said. "Every
day is better, and now there is an explosion of development and academics."

Thinking the university would just impact the students, Chaya did not realize
the effect it would have on her life. Explaining that she came to the
university "as a shy person who could not communicate with all levels of
academia," she said, "I've done a lot and grown a lot. My communication
skills have been enhanced."

For Bilha Pfukani, the founding university librarian, the anniversary was an
opportunity to pause and honor the university's beginnings. She remembered
establishing the first library in a farmhouse with a lean collection of
materials.  

"I am proud to be a part of the unfolding miracle that is Africa University,"
she said. She gave accolades to the university, the students and the wider
United Methodist family for making the school, and particularly the library,
what it is today. "The library is one of the most modern in southern Africa,
and we are forging ahead to build up-to-date resources, including electronic
access to remote library resources." 

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*Green is United Methodist News Service's Nashville, Tenn., news director.

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United Methodist News Service
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