Gallie Kawanzaruwa

A Gentle Giant Gallie Kawanzaruwa

This is the remarkable story of one man's rise from extreme poverty in rural, colonial era Zimbabwe to success achieved against overwhelming odds. Blessing Kawanzaruwa, who died in 2017, spent his final years writing his memoirs: which serve as an inspiration to anyone feeling hopeless; anyone believing that they cannot achieve their dreams. Because he did. And if he could, anyone could. Blessing grew up at a time of immense discrimination against black Zimbabweans. In 1968, just 12.5% of them were allowed to go on to secondary school. His mother, who he doted on and provided a role model of colossal strength and love, had endured far worse - because girls were forbidden from any form of schooling, and her husband had two other wives. He married her thanks to paying dowry to her brother. This was the cultural norm; Blessing loved his father very much and writes with no imprecation of him at all. Yet as he notes, 'wives or women were a commodity to be abused'. The circumstances encountered by her and her children are unimaginable to any Westerner. Blessing moved from one school to another, struggling desperately to pay the fees required. He ended up working at one school through the holidays while his friends returned home at their leisure. Skills taught by his parents to find natural foods such as edible mushrooms and coil-trapped birds provided the food he needed to survive. Still a child, he worked on farms, had a near death experience when he was almost shot, and encountered several very close scrapes during the bloody independence war too. Yet throughout this, he persevered when so many would've been defeated. He recognised all too clearly that education could transform his life; as did his wife, Gallie, who he met very shortly after independence, and whose background mirrored his own to a quite extraordinary degree. If ever two people were pure soulmates meant to be together, it was Blessing and Gallie. They spent some years prospering in post-independence Zimbabwe; but as the world knows only too vividly, things deteriorated fast. The family successfully sought asylum in the United Kingdom. The book follows their journey there, at a time - still less than a generation ago - when refugees were far more welcome and treated so much better than they are now in Britain. Blessing writes warmly of his time in and around Sunderland, where the family settled and made lifelong friends. Their children remain there to this day. Yet still, the story was not over. He now followed Gallie to the United Arab Emirates: where she had landed a prestigious, lucrative position. But as her career advanced, his health steadily began to wane. There is a profound poignancy about this period; Blessing clearly knew his health was declining, yet his passion for education remained total. So much so that he was in the process of establishing a school in his native Zimbabwe when a stroke took him tragically early, aged just 63. Gallie was heartbroken, but desperate for her husband's story to be told, and his extraordinary legacy to be preserved. Thus she set up the BK Foundation in his memory: with the aim of educating disadvantaged children, providing a scholarship programme, and free education for orphans in Harare. The BK Academy will be fully equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and resources. All proceeds from this book will go directly to the BK Foundation. Which honours a man whose generosity, dignity, kindness and sheer humility impacted scores and scores of lives; and seeks to ensure that others can benefit from the educational opportunities which made such a difference to both Gallie and Blessing. A quiet hero and gentle giant beloved by all who knew him.