Msalato beginnings

The story of Msalato Theological College actually begins in the village of Cigongwe, just off the Bahi Road. The village church was then part of the Parish of Nara.

Most of what are now the Diocese of Central Tanganyika and the Diocese of Manyoni was at that time divided into three Church Districts. The Dodoma District stretched from Kondoa Irani in the North to Iringa in the South. From beyond Buigiri in the East to the bottom of the escarpment leading to Kilimatinde in the West.

The Rev. (later Canon) Max Corbett was District superintendent for the Kilimatinde District and I was superintendent for Dodoma. There were only three ordained pastors covering all the village churches in the Dodoma district and their only means of transport was their bicycles. Some village Churches were under the care of an evangelist, who might have had five or six villages in which to minister.

Max and I were responsible for school buildings, teachers’ payments and the training of evangelists, catechists and pastors. We both used to hold monthly teaching days in our own areas. Our basic text book was, ”Kila Mtu Mwanfunzi wa Biblia”.

At one time when we met, we discussed how inadequate this was and together with the pastors in our two districts we came up with the idea of a two weeks camp for a combined time of teaching.

Cigongwe was chosen as being part way between the two areas.

The local village Christian ladies managed the cooking while the men were responsible for the other practical needs such as a pit latrine, gathering firewood and sleeping arrangements in the church.

We invited the Bishop, Rt. Rev. Alf Stanway, to come out for an evening to speak with the ‘school’. He brought a slide projector, which we ran off his car battery. Locals from near and far gathered and there was a great evening of singing, laughter and evangelism. The bishop agreed to come back during the second week.

On the second visit, Canon Yonathani Songolo had been chosen by all those present to make a special speech to the Bishop. The pastors and evangelists had discussed the value of a residential time of structured teaching and put a case to the Bishop for a permanent place, where this could take place every year during the dry season.

The bishop was quite impressed and this confirmed some of his own ideas about the need for a chain of three bible schools stretching across the Diocese.

Shortly after the camp the Bishop went on leave to Australia and placed before the Federal Council of CMS a vision for these bible teaching centres. The Federal Council launched a special appeal for £20,000. Ten thousand was for a Dodoma Bible School and two lots of £5,000 for the West and Victoria Nyanza.

On his return with the promise of funds the Bishop set about choosing sites. The town of Dodoma was already short of available land and other places had problems with the availability of a permanent water supply.

At this time the then government was bringing pressure on the Diocese to upgrade all the facilities at Mvumi Girls School with new buildings. Again a permanent water supply was a major problem.

However at the same time the underground water supply at Makatupora was being developed. Our enquiries revealed the fact that there would always be water in the pipe line between the pumping station and – the PWD Camp at Msalato.

One afternoon the Bishop called Pastor (later Archdeacon) Filemoni Chidosa and myself to join him and we drove out along the North Road to look at possible places near the pipeline then under construction.

We drove along the area where Msalato now stands and then went exploring by foot into the bush. There were no signs of any recent occupation or shambas but the Bishop insisted that I climb a tree, a thorn tree! – helped up by him and Filemoni - to see if there were any signs of people in the vicinity. Having assured ourselves that this was all clear, he then entrusted Filemoni and me to set about getting access to the land. Filemoni later went to contact the local chief, whose name was Edwardi and I spoke the next morning with the District Commissioner.

We had not measured out any definite area and when the DC asked me what frontage and depth we required for the Bible School and also the proposed Girls’School I took a wild guess and said, “Oh a quarter of a mile along the road and three quarters of a mile deep”. ‘Sign this’, he said, ‘and give the Bishop my greetings’. So the Diocese had funds and a site.

At the time we had a very competent Diocesan builder, Mr. George Hart, a New Zealander. With only the briefest of sketches on a few sheets of paper the first Bible School buildings were planned. A Dar es Salaam company was experimenting with a new quick building form using what were called ‘Italframes’ and George adopted this method to build the Principal’s house, the dormitory, first chapel, dining room and kitchen. The dining room doubled as the Chapel.

The subsequent developments up until I left at the end of 1970 were funded by many organizations. Joint Action for Christian Literature Overseas (JACLO), London helped me raise the funds to build the Literature centre and upstairs accommodation. Bread for the World responded with funds to build the Womens’ block, Feed the Minds, provided funds for a classroom and library. A clergy Prayer breakfast in the States took up a collection after I spoke and gave me US$3,000 which built the print shop and bought the first offset printing press. Many Diocesan supporters responded with gifts large and small.

Many people featured voluntarily in those days or were on staff, including the Rev. Ken Short (later Bishop), Gloria Short, the Rev Peter Dawson, Marie Dawson, my wife Dorothy, Betty Durham, Nancy Collet (now Anderson), Jeanette Boyd (now Swan), Enid Stahl, Max Corbett, Noel Ndahani, Alexander Chibehe, Stone Senyagwa, Mary Hanaa, Molleni Malugu and many others who brought their own gifts, training and experience to the variety of activities which became part of Msalato.