Go well, Ithe wa Wangari, a gentle giant who was ahead of his time

Josiah Mwangi Njema, dead and set to be buried tomorrow.[File, Standard]

One of the important women in my life lost her dad this week. When she phoned on Sunday morning, I knew instantly that that was the call I had dreaded over the last five months.

The man in question was pretty much a 21st century man, even though he was born at the beginning of the last century. He started his formal education at Buxton Primary Schooling in Mombasa, where a doting an uncle had taken him.

Ultimately, he would join the Alliance High School in Kikuyu and subsequently, Kagumo. He did well enough to join the University College, as the University of Nairobi was known then, but the pull towards work saw him join private firms, including The Standard. He diligently raised his family, taking them with him to Nairobi and Mombasa, where he was deployed. The norm and custom in that age was to leave women and children in the village.

Having embraced Christian faith, including serving as a Sunday school teacher during his Alliance days, he was among the congregation of 50 people who staked out at the YMCA Hostel in South C. This early church was the forerunner of the present day St Paul’s ACK in Nairobi West, and where we met this week to plan his funeral.

Long before activism and women empowerment became popular social fads, he bequeathed his sister a chunk of his own land to ensure she was not destitute. Such was the generosity of Josiah Mwangi Njema aka Ithe wa Wangari, who has rested at ripe age of 96. He’ll be laid to rest tomorrow at his farm in Kihari village in Kairo, Murang’a. Our condolences, Maitu Wangari.