Uncle Eliphaz, known in full as Eliphaz Simwatachela Konayuma, was the young brother to my late father. He was born in 1939 and died in July 2001 at the age of 62. Ba Eliphaz was an accomplished educator who rose from the ranks of a teacher in Southern Province to an Education Officer in Kasempa, in North-Western Province. He was married to Diana Njase with whom he had the following children: Gustav, Peggy, Sladden, Obrien, Africa and Emmanuel.
Uncle Eliphaz was a handsome and generally quiet man, but when you were with him, he had a number of stories to tell. He was a humorous man with a winsome smile. He was also an intelligent and smart man with a characteristic style of combing hair backwards which I copied for some time as a child. As a smart man, in terms of bathing he could take at least an hour to bath!
Uncle Eliphaz would visit our home regularly especially when we lived in Emmasdale in Lusaka. My late young sister Linda stayed at the home of Uncle Eliphaz in Monze when she began her primary school. This was because in those days it was not easy to get a Grade 1 place in Lusaka, so my parents decided to take my sister to Monze where my Uncle was a headteacher.
In terms of work, Uncle Eliphaz was an accomplished educator who was well known as a teacher educator. He was known for having a good handwriting which he tried to influence his student teachers to have. I have two friends both named Aggie, Aggie Malipenga and Aggie Ngoma and also my cousins who had workmates and classmates that passed through his hands as trainee teachers that speak highly of my uncle, especially his handwriting. It is said that he had among the best handwriting as a lecturer and was even given an award. He worked in Southern and North-Western provinces.
Uncle Eliphaz was also an avid reader. When he visited us he would devour my late fathers books like no man’s business. If there is one thing I have learnt from him and my late father, it is the love of reading. Ba Eliphaz is also known for translating a book “I Loved a Girl” by Walter Trobish into Citonga “Ndakayanda Musimbi”. There used to be a copy of the book at the Kafue Secondary School library when I was a student librarian from 1984 to 1985. The books by Walter Trobisch were popular amongst Christian young people at the time.
Uncle Eliphaz passed on in July 2001 in Kasempa where he was buried. The Kaonde people among whom he lived and worked, mourned him well and played a leading role in the funeral arrangements. I travelled for the funeral from Kitwe where I was living at the time. Though it is 21 years since he passed on, memories of him are still fresh.
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