Trend-setter who refuses to be one

Thu, 15 Jun 2017 09:54:25 +0000

By Annie Zulu

ALTHOUGH the first Zambian woman to be appointed chancellor of a full-fledged university, Ruth Mubanga, 60, still brushes aside descriptions of her as a trailblazer.

Ms Mubanga, who recently assumed the role of Chancellor of the University of Africa, rather defers the trailblazer description to her father, Ackson Uriah Mwale.

Her father had trekked on foot to Malawi in the colonial times to gain education. He later went on to acquire tertiary education from the then Salisbury, now Harare, Zimbabwe.

“It is people like my father and many other parents who set such compelling examples of the importance of education who deserve the accolades,’’ she says.

So, the extent to which her father had influenced her, is not incidental to who she is today.

Ruth says her father did not spare any resources to ensure that all his children got educated. And although her mother, Esnart, was not educated, she was also supportive.

“She probably understood from her own circumstances the importance of education,” Ruth says.

Her early recollection of primary school education was at Woodlands Primary School in Lusaka.

After that, she attended St Monica’s Secondary School in Chipata, Eastern Province.

Upon completion of her secondary education, she was accepted at the University of Zambia (UNZA) where she obtained a Bachelor of Science in Education.

She later obtained Masters in Education at Southampton University, United Kingdom and also holds a post-graduate diploma from the University of Leeds, among her other notable academic qualifications.

Her appointment as Chancellor of the University of Africa was best captured by the Vice Chancellor Tobias Doyer who said: “The appointment is groundbreaking and the extent to which she is in tune with the needs of higher education is demonstrated by her many decades helping to shape Zambia’s education system.”

Stressing the impetus of her elevation, Mr Doyer said Ms Mubanga’s appointment came at the time when higher education was being challenged by the citadel of driving development through research and producing human resource relevant to economic development.

“This is one of the great contributions the new chancellor would bring to the university,” he says.

Before her appointment at this leading private tertiary education provider, Ruth had served as head teacher at Kabulonga Girls Secondary School and later principal at then Nkuruma Teacher Training College, now a university.

Her stint in education extended to serving in the public service where she held several positions of responsibility.

By the time of her retirement from the public service, she had headed several directorates in education where she had been involved in shaping policies and education reforms for more than three decades.

She is now more than familiar with programmes such as improving access to education for girls and raising standards.

Her colleagues at the University of Africa say Ruth rarely wishes to acknowledge her own personal accomplishments.

What they all seem to agree on is how she readily acknowledges other people’s contribution in making a change effort successful.

Deputy Vice Chancellor Dr. Dorothy Mushibwe recalls: “When Ruth was asked to step into the role of chancellor, she had mixed reactions about it.

‘‘She was challenged by the responsibilities, but she wanted to get on with doing what she felt she did best – harnessing the collective wisdom of teams to meet high performance objectives,” Dr Mushibwe said.

On improving girl-child access, Ruth has a particular passion. She says: “Improving access is one thing and ensuring quality of something needs to a lot more work.”

According to her, the disparities extend to higher levels of education. This limits women access to better economic opportunities and influence in society.

For Ruth, this meant tertiary institutions needed to re-think approaches to addressing societal issues.

“It is for this reason that the theme of empowerment is at the core of what we do at the University of Africa. It goes to the core beliefs about what kind of graduates we want to produce and the position we want to occupy in Zambia,” she says.

Officiating at recent graduation ceremony of her university, she told the graduands that they were joining the 6 percent of the world elite who had a degree or diploma. She stressed that the remaining 94 percent would not be empowered.

The choice of her words had a clear view of empowering the graduates; and empowering other people is a constant reminder of what, and should, define her.

Outside the academia, Ruth counts reading, gardening and baking among her interests.

A widow, Ruth says spending time with her 17-year-old son, Brian Moses, is priceless. And this disclosure makes Ruth more compelling as the heroines we crave for are also caring and loving mothers.