Kenyan Journal
By Jacob Lester
Associate Professor of Biology,
Saint Mary's College of California

Jacob Lester, Associate Professor of Biology, and Jane Sangwine-Yager, Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, from Saint Mary's College of California, spent last summer teaching at Christ the Teacher Institute for Education (CTIE) in Nairobi, Kenya.

Previously, Jacob had taught at Bethlehem University and at De La Salle University in Manila in the Philippines. What appears here is a personal journal account of his experience in Kenya as well as an historical account of CTIE's early beginnings by Brother L. Raphael Patton, FSC.

"As a teacher, it was a supreme privilege to examine human ancestry in Kenya...I was as much a beneficiary of learning as were my students."

In the summer of 1998, I was invited to teach a course in introductory science to students of Christ the Teacher Institute for Education (CTIE), an entity of Tangaza College and a constituent college of the Catholic University of East Africa. CTIE and its community house sit in the central highlands of Kenya, in Karen-Nairobi. The town is named after Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen), author of Out of Africa.

Much of the exposure to science that many of these students have is only through technology. While it may be difficult for us to imagine young people arriving at the college level and planning to be teachers without some experience in science, it is a common condition outside the West.

I titled my course "History and Science: Key Readings in the Physical, Chemical, and Life Sciences" and modeled its instruction on the seminar method we use in the Integral Program (an integrated liberal arts approach) at Saint Mary's College of California. Tangaza has no equipment or laboratories for science, so I had to illustrate examples on the board and validate principles in the field. One field experience included an extended trip into the Rift Valley, where we studied concepts of systematics and taxonomy in biology. We experienced the astronomy of equatorial African skies and grasped the basics of human origins and evolution at Olorgesailie, one of Louis and Mary Leakey's early sites for homo erectus. While on this trip, we met and communicated with the Maasai people who continue to live as they have for centuries. Truly, it was the opportunity of a lifetime.

As a teacher, it was a supreme privilege to examine human ancestry in Kenya, where humanity began, and to make it clear to my young African students that humans are not only indigenous to Africa but that all people have their distant ancestry in Kenya. I was as much a beneficiary of learning as were my students. Imagine having a classroom of young people whose immediate families are still tribal and living in ancestral villages. Among my pupils were Tanzanians, Dinka (from Sudan), Yuruba (from Nigeria), and Kikuyu and Luo (from Kenya).

My time in Kenya included a four-day safari to the Maasai Mara, an immense preserve in southwestern Kenya at the northern end of the Serengetti Plain. It is the primary range of the Maasai people. I also visited the National Museum of Kenya, which houses the main collection of priceless human artifacts.

It was and is a blessing to share in the community life of the largest and oldest Catholic religious order dedicated to education. The community house was usually buzzing every night after evening prayer with conversation and news of events in this very different world. It was indeed a rare and precious experience.

The Hand of Providence:
A Brief History of Christ the Teacher Institute for Education (CTIE)
by Brother L. Raphael Patton, FSC

In 1991, the Brothers in Kenya realized that, even though they had administered schools there since the 1960s and even though they were offering a large number of new vocations, there was no provision for teacher-training. Further, the local superiors and headmasters all agreed it would be a poor idea to send the young Brothers to the United States or Europe to learn how to teach in Africa. Public institutions of higher education in Africa leaned toward chaos, with strikes, lack of funding, faculty firings, and poor management.

Brother Leonard Courtney, FSC, was enlisted to establish a normal school for the Brothers. He had served at Saint Mary's University in Winona, Minnesota and was Chair of the Education Department at Saint Mary's University and at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Even though he was recently retired and 77 years old, he went off to Africa to begin a new career. This was the first sign of Providence in support of the new training programs for the Brothers in East Africa. While he was met with goodwill in abundance, Brother Leonard found almost nothing in the way of organization and funding. After forming and meeting with a board of advisors, he and the board members decided to open a school that would serve all prospective religious teachers being trained in Nairobi, not just the new Brothers. Still basic challenges existed. They needed a campus, facilities, and faculty.

Once again, Providence intervened. The advisors found Tangaza College in Langata-Nairobi an ideal place for their program. Tangaza (Kiswahili for Annunciation) was built by a dozen religious orders to be the major seminary for all of them. The orders pooled their money to purchase the land and build the facilities. Then they established a common theological library.

The first class of eleven students for CTIE arrived in August, 1992. Among them were five De La Salle Christian Brothers, one Consolata Brother, two sisters, two laymen, and one laywoman -- ten Kenyans and one Eritrean. They attended classes, but CTIE was still working on the accreditation that was necessary for students to actually receive their degrees.

In January, 1993, Brother Leonard's successor, Brother L. Raphael Patton, FSC, arrived. After a series of administrative maneuvers in Africa to secure the government's endorsement for offering a Bachelor of Arts degree and a teaching certificate, Providence intervened again. This time, Saint Mary's University of Winona, under the leadership of Brother Louis DeThomasis, FSC, fully supported a plan to grant an American degree. It was decided that a three-year teacher certificate program could be set up with an eye to both Kenyan civil requirements and Minnesota demands for quality control. And, if all went well, a four-year baccalaureate was planned out for those certificate students who qualified. The new college would fall under SMU governance and was to be called Christ the Teacher Institute for Education.

Clearly, the sign of God's Providence is evident in the events that resulted in CTIE. Students at CTIE come from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Botswana, Kenya, Brazil, Nigeria, and India. The faculty include professors from state universities who often find teaching at CTIE more professionally rewarding than teaching in public institutions. Slowly but inexorably, the hand of divine Providence led to the creation of CTIE. As a result, Catholic education in East Africa has been greatly enhanced. Saint John Baptist de La Salle must be proud.

[Added Note] CTIE faculty and staff presently include: as Director; Br. Ronald Roggenback, FSC, (San Francisco District). As instructors; Br. John O'Neill, FSC, (San Francisco District), Br. James Leahy, FSC, (New York District), formerly of Saint Mary's College of California; and Joan Haan, retired teacher from Christian Brothers High School, Sacramento and Coordinator for Shared Mission for the District of East Africa.