A photo from the past

Everyone was a teenager once…
Ilboru Secondary School, Arusha, north Tanzania, Autumn 1972.
We are all studying hard.
Main O levels exams are around the corner. We have just done sports, showered, now we are breezing in the late evening sun with tea mugs; waiting for dinner, then prep.
Prep meant more reading, more digging, more books.
Everyone wanted to do well and pass.
Ilboru was highly regarded those days with teachers from all over the world. You couldn’t be a lazy pupil and be at this school…You had to have very excellent grades to come here.
Boarding schools are intense places. We would be there for almost five months, away from home. The bondage amongst the young is incredible.
If you look closely you will notice we are all wearing jeans the new “bad boy” trouser of the early 1970’s. We would swap into bell-bottoms when going out to dance and meet the girls…
I was in a gang. The gringos. But the word gang didn’t mean guns and knives. It meant sharing similar tastes. Music, dancing, sports, arts, hanging out. Four years of sweet youth. A few months after this photo was taken by a boy named Emmanuel, I never met these guys again. In fact almost all of them have vanished from my life. Meciri, with glasses on the right, I heard, died. Bandido the second, was shot in 1981 in very mysterious circumstances. Actually, I was with him earlier that day before his demise. I had not seen him for nine years. He was a charismatic guy and you can tell by the way he is standing; like a model. He had been abroad studying and he was doing well.
Tony, on my left, passed away, last year.
I am the shy guy peering into the tea mug. What the hell is inside that cup? A fly? I was very broody. Really into myself, my music and my writing.
I don’t know what happened to Miro (from Zanzibar) staring into the distance, standing on my right. Although the soft spoken Miro was older and a class ahead, he loved hanging out with us, juniors.
Youth is a strange time and hanging out, the ultimate good time.
And what about Emmanuel the photographer? He was the unofficial multi-talented snapper of the school. Rarely spoke, always chuckled, patient, a budding bio-chemist. Never heard of him, never saw him ever since.
And those trees, behind us. Under them was a lovely stream. I can still hear the water dripping and chirping birds, wow...singing. Arusha has one of the most lovely scenes and retains wonderful landscapes, wild game tourist reserves, lakes and mountains. Serengeti where the famous "Lion King" Hollywood film story is based is not so far away from here. Beautiful Arusha is today the most expensive region of Tanzania.