A deep baritone voice, commanding presence, deep stare, quick wit and dark humor; is that all there is to know about Baraka Mwita? What constitutes the surface of who Baraka Mwita is?
Disclaimer: this is not an in-depth, soul searching, near to perfect description of the man. It is a biased, very superficial view of him from the eyes of a very cool guy, me.
10. He has the coolest ways of saying 'year’. Despite having spent most of his elementary school in Kagera; Baraka was arrogantly dismissive in assimilating the North-western Tanzanian accent. He still has his present continuous tenses well pressed when saying 'going’ or 'coming’. He also avoids using the accidental comparative form in certain words such as 'black' that is mispronounced as 'blacker' by the natives. His was of saying 'year' is a thing of beauty. Hearing him describe the rise of WW2 was a thing of beauty everytime he accented his famous 'year’.
9. You earn his respect or disrespect before he chooses to befriend you. 'But your explanation is more elaborate than the one she explained.’ I told him; 'I know, I just wanted to pick her brain’, he responded. Translation: I was doing my own assessment of her; Day 1, Advanced Biology class. Baraka’s inner cycle consists of people he mentally challenges with academia, trivia, politics, theology or philosophy. 'You know, the TV show Supernatural is as close as one can get to theorizing heaven. Everyone should have their unique experience of heaven while in heaven. What’s heaven for you, could be classified as boring for me.’
8. His famous catch phrases. 'You know’. His eureka moments are preceded by his famous catch phrase 'You know’, while he gently crasps your shoulder.
7. Gets bored easily. Baraka has a short fuse for repetitive tasks. Class bored him during revision sessions. For these reasons he finds it hard to make and adhere to a fixed routine. He prefers to tinker, readjust and wing his schedule on the go. Even his literature essays are never repeatitive in form or context. Same literature question that appeared in different serial exams had different, thought provoking essays. It was a thing of beauty going through his English exams. It was because of this guy that I took an interest in horning my literal skills.
6. Loves a challenge. Due to reason number 7 above. Be it pull ups, skipping rope, bike riding, tough topics in chemistry, a puzzling ECG chart, it is music to his soul.
5. He does not oversimplify. Complex concepts will be explained semi-complex with Baraka. He does not explain it to you like you are 5, he does it like you can keep up. He trusts your intelligence will keep up with his.
4. Does not know when to follow the pack. Due to reason 7. He prefers walking further, digging deeper. He does not prefer his knowledge/experiences to be titrated to a mean distribution. And this sometimes demands one doing things solo. Cons of this is he misses the general consensus of the tribe which at times reflects in certain academic works of his.
3. Idolizes symbols/imagery. He is one of those people who gets carried away with symbology. A side effect of being an avid Dan Brown fan I suppose. You should hear him go into a monologue on anagrams or why he calls/called himself snake doc.
2. An autodidact. He prefers reading vastly and reading intensively. A good habit he rubbed off from his father.
1. He is a cool guy. You might be surprised at the cases he at times takes an interest in. They are not due to their interesting pathophysiology but due to helping a patient overcome a hurdle. Such as a socioeconomic one. I remember when he advised a patient that was his neighbor to make a voyage from Morogoro to Moshi, KCMC where there was the best dermatology unit in the country. He simply gave them one name, Dr. Jovin has all your information and he will sort you out. He asked and made suggestions regarding their lodging, meals arrangements and followed through with their management.
That’s Dr. Baraka Mwita for you!!
