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Marx Itamalo : Correspondent
PROPHILIUS Michael Amakali from Ompundja village in the Oshana region started school at 27 years in 1997 when he joined an adult literacy class at the Aussenkehr settlement in the Karas region. At the time, Amakali (46), who was working at the settlement, had realised that life without education had not much to offer.Although he struggled with lessons, he received the Adult Upper Primary Education certificate in 2007. Then a chance meeting with former Prime Minister Nahas Angula at Aussenkehr spurred Amakali on to further his education.
In 2008, aged 39, he registered for Grade 10 with Namcol, which he says was a bit tough, but he managed nevertheless to complete it.
Armed with the Grade 10 certificate, Amakali landed a job as a cleaner in a community library at Omungwelume in 2012.
Today, he is studying to become a pre-primary school teacher with the Institute of Open Learning, while holding onto his cleaning job. And with luck on his side, Amakali will study Library Information Science soon.
This transformation is hard to believe, but true.
Amakali recalls that meeting where Angula asked whether there were schools nearby for the youth working at the farm, where he was one of the many young people from northern Namibia who had flocked there for work.
Angula’s remarks about education touched him so much because he never had an opportunity to go to formal school, he noted.
“I grew up with an aunt, and later an uncle. They did not let me go to school. My uncle even took me to the cattle post to look after cattle,” the soft-spoken Amakali told The Namibian on Sunday during a visit to his workplace.
He says most parents did not know much about the benefits of education, apart from teachers, nurses, pastors and politicians.
Shortly after independence, like all other young men in the former “Owamboland”, he went to look for a job in the south of the country. He initially got one at a farm near Rehoboth, where he looked after sheep and goats. However, the language barrier since he could not speak English or Afrikaans made life difficult for him, and he soon left to try his luck as a handyman with a construction company.
There too, he says, life was not a bunch of roses as he was constantly wrongly accused of stealing building materials that would have been taken by others.
“The guys took advantage of my inability to express myself in these two languages. I was accused of everything that went wrong because I could not understand what they were saying, nor defend myself,” he recalled.
Amakali said this, coupled with the trouble of being unable to communicate with nurses and doctors at hospitals, compelled him to register for the literacy programme.
“It was tough because I had not done some of the subjects, like life science and entrepreneurship. I failed them a couple of times, although I managed to pass later,” he added.
He told The Namibian that going to school at his age made him the laughing stock in the communities of Rehoboth and Aussenkehr, where he lived while studying part-time. He said family members and friends also thought he was wasting his time, and furthermore he had problems with money to pay for his studies.
“My friends told me the literacy programme was for old people and the stupid ones. My family asked me where I ever saw a literacy programme graduate getting a job. I did not listen to them, and kept on studying,” he stressed.
At the community library where he works, Lady Luck also struck when the assistant librarian with whom he was working, left for further studies.
Amakali was temporarily put in charge for four months, during which time he learnt a lot about running a library.
The stay at the library motivated him to study to become a librarian, and he has since registered with Unam through their mature-entry scheme to study Library Information Science. He is thus urging fellow Namibians not to give up on their desire to study because of age.
“Fellow countrymen and women, I want to emphasise that it is never too late to start adding value to our lives; neither will it be too far to reach where those of our age have reached. Stop wishing to be there, and start walking towards there. The only thing between you and your future is you yourself, and remember, you shall never enjoy life on somebody’s ticket,” he advised.
Amakali is not married and does not have children, and said he wants to use his earnings on studying and securing a good-paying job before settling and starting a family.
When The Namibian met him, he was preparing for his learner’s licence test at Natis. Being a fighter in life, there is no doubt that he will get it. — The Namibian.
Online Reporter