Celebration of Life

Friends and comrades, the light has come and gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere. I do not know what to tell you and how to say it. Our beloved leader, father, Cde, mentor, educator, headmaster, principal Paulos Matjaka Nare as we called him, the father of nations, is no more. Perhaps I am wrong to say that. Nevertheless, we will not see him again as we have seen him for these many years. We will not run to him for advice and seek solace from him, and that is a terrible blow, not to the Nare clan only, but to millions and millions in this country and the world at large, and it is a little difficult to soften the blow by any other advice that I or anyone else can give you.

The light has gone out, I said, and yet I was wrong. For the light that shone on Ntate Matjaka was no ordinary light. The light that has illumined our lives for these many years will illumine this world for many more years, and a thousand years later that light will still be seen in generations to come, and the world will see it and it will give solace to innumerable hearts. For that light represents the living truth ... the eternal truths, reminding us of the right path, drawing us from error, taking us into intellectual freedom.

He has ceased to be, bereft of life, he rests in peace, he has run his race, breathed his last, and gone to meet the Great Head of Light his maker, and I guess that we're all thinking how sad it is that a man of such talent, such capability and kindness, of such intelligence should now be so suddenly spirited away at the age, remember he had achieved many of the things of which he was capable, and the baton has been passed to us. It is an honour to have crossed paths with Sir Poulos Matjaka Nare.

I remember the day he came to my class and he took over the English Language class. He was a serious man who brightened our lives with his smile and his grace. He was a son of privilege who founded J.Z Moyo High School reaching out to empower, educate and equip us with tools to survive in a volatile society called the global village.

He did it all so quietly, without ever calling attention to himself. There was in him a great promise of things to come.

During my time at J Z Moyo Ntate Paulos Matjaka was such a cheerful and invigorating presence that made it easy to adapt to the environment.

He sought to mend and nature soft spirits and to restore the strength of the free world of literacy, and to free the mental slaves of communism. These were causes hard to accomplish and heavy with risk.

Ntate Matjaka also embodied lots of other great causes by cheering us all up from Form 1 to Upper 6.We attended the same assembly point and we listened to the same address and all of us walked away with a plate of knowledge from his table His politics and policies had a freshness and optimism that won everyone, students and stuff included.

I would like to celebrate Ntate Matjaka's life.

All people you meet leave an imprint on the fabric of your life. This allows for the milestones important to us to be recognized. The big events, as well as the lesser ones should be included.

I for one would not be here and at this juncture in my life if it weren't for my beloved dearly departed principal.

I would like to thank the Matjaka family for lending us their own son, father, grandfather to be our lead, guide, mentor, father, motivator the list goes on.

I challenge you all to share your life changing moments with Ntate Paulos Matjaka directly and indirectly.

RIP Paulos Matjaka Nare. "For you fought a good fight"

Say not in grief: "He is no more", but live in thankfulness that he was.