The Inspiring Story of My Bonosa!

P Diana Mahama, affectionately called MyBonosa, is the best thing that ever happened to me as a teacher. I am not a professional teacher, but I have a decade of experience teaching wonderful students in some of the most prestigious private schools in Tamale. I did teaching as a side hustle (or struggle).

I met Diana at Faith Hill School, one of the excellent private schools in Tamale. She will later become the apple of my eye. I had just completed nursing school and applied to teach there as a math and science teacher. Later, I taught ICT too.

I prepared Diana and her colleagues in these subjects towards their first external exams, the BECE. I was an unconventional teacher. I brought practicality to whatever I taught. I stretched the students’ brains to their elastic limits. For instance, I will not give the length and width of a rectangle and ask them to find the area. Area = L x W is easy and straightforward. My question will be like this.

“The length of a rectangle is a centimetre more than its width. If the ratio of its perimeter to area is 11:15, find the width.”

The students were not conversant with multidisciplinary problems. And it took them time to gain their balance. This was where Diana stood out. She understood complex math problems like a Seer. And her logical and methodical chronology in working through math problems was poetic and beautiful. Diana, at one point, earned the moniker “The Witch” from her peers, a testament to her enchanting understanding of complex concepts.

Many times, the steps I used in solving math problems with the class were always similar to those in her presentation. At a point, I personally felt Diana was part of my thought process. She used to solve my tricky math problems as if she were part of my thought process that conceived the question. Other times, she will use an easy-peasy approach, leaving me in a complete light bulb moment.

There were days I would walk to Diana, hold her hand, just to be sure that I was interfacing with a human being and not a Greek goddess of Athena. There were days when I felt like just eating her up. No pun intended. Diana was frighteningly intelligent. And as a sapiosexual, I was so enamoured with her.

I used to fight “The Witch” name as her peers used to call her, until she bedazzled me in class. She guided me to solve my own math problem: a mistake that has completely eluded the whole class. Indeed, only the Third Eye of “The Witch” could spot such a delicate error.

My love for Diana grew fonder. At some point, there was an edict from me that “MyBonosa is always right”. Thus, if she reports you to me, you’re wrong, and if you report her to me, you’re wrong. This edict was fun as her peers playfully hit her around in apparent violation of the decree.

Bonosa was not MyBonosa’s name. It is her elder sister’s. I just liked the name and started calling her by that but always with “My”. Her peers used to tease me, “Sir, she is not Your Bonosa. She’s Our Bonosa”. Eventually, MyBonosa replaced her real name, Diana, in the mouths of everyone, including teachers.

Diana was also very good at English. I remember how I used to read her captivating essays from her English teachers, Van-Ess Alootey and Abdul-Kahad Alhassan. I never missed an opportunity to read through Diana’s essay because there was always a vocabulary to learn from it. I wasn’t particularly surprised that Diana could write so creatively, like the daughter of Shakespeare. Diana had this quirky habit of using her revision week to read fat novels. She would get lost in fat novels during revision week, as if her end-of-term examination questions would come from them.

In their final year, I initiated “The Hot Breakfast” for the class. It was an early-morning brain teaser to test their speed and preparedness. The questions were tricky and a notch higher. On the first day, one of the questions read:

A rat runs around a vertical circular drum of diameter of 14 metres and a height of 5 metres. Calculate

(a) the distance covered by the rat.

(b) the volume of water the drum can take.

(Hint: The first question is looking for the circumference of a circle, and the second is the volume of a cylinder. The rat’s role, however, serves as a practicality within the realm of mathematics, albeit a clever distraction.)

MyBonosa solved all the questions in record time. She refused to be distracted. She solidified her position in my heart. Diana’s ability to map a practical math problem to its topic was like a stroke of a magic wand. MyBonosa was just the right amount of dopamine everyone needs daily in their lives. I remember Elisha asking me cheekily on this rat question, “So sir, what will be the relevance of the distance covered by the rat in our future?” Elisha will later go to Prempeh College and graduate with straight A’s. He also graduated last year from Legon’s medical school.

MyBonosa topped her year group in the BECE and got admitted to Holy Child. One day, I met her brother, Smith M W King and he told me that My Very Own Bonosa was doing visual arts in Holy Child. I was so outraged and incensed. With all due respect to the visual arts, I told Smith that Diana’s full potential was under serious suffocation. I said Diana must leave the school the next academic year, as if I had the final say in her education. Thankfully, Smith was sold on the idea. And the family started working on a possible transfer to a different school.

I took it upon myself to have a conversation with Diana over the phone. I presented her with countless reasons—a million to be precise—urging her to consider leaving that school the next academic year. The course she was pursuing didn’t resonate with her; she felt a deep sense of dissatisfaction with the program that had been imposed on her against her wishes. The discontent was palpable in her voice, which had lost its usual warmth. The field of visual arts didn’t bring her happiness; it was evident she was struggling. She confided in me that “Elective Maths” was one of her four electives and it was the only elective subject she found interesting and had strong affinity for. She said the rest of the visual arts electives were not stimulating enough.

Holy Child said she could not make it to the science class, and visual arts was the only program they could offer her. There was some promise to consider her for the science class after the first term, but it never happened, even though she demonstrated beyond all reasonable doubt that she was a worthy candidate to pursue the science program.

I kept in touch, and eventually she had the long-awaited transfer from Holy Child to St Rose’s in Akwatia, Eastern Region to start as a first-year science student. I was so happy that she left. I knew MyBonosa: she loved Holy Child like her child. Letting go might have been tough for her. Trust me, a lot of unyielding teenagers today would stay for the name. I was worried that Diana’s obsession with Holy Child might get in her way of finding her foot in her new school. But I was as well positive about the enormous prospects of science that awaits her after completion.

I encouraged her to keep being “The Witch” I am so proud to associate with. I told her something very instructive, “The course you read is more important than the school you attend. After you complete school, the world will interact mostly with what you read, not the school you attend.”

Sometime in her second year at Rose’s, we had a telephone conversation. I wanted to know that her spirits have not been dampened by the fact that she fell a year below her peers. She shared with me that her ICT tutor was genuinely impressed by her achievements and couldn’t help but inquire about the source of her extensive knowledge. She proudly mentioned my name, “Uncle Confidence,” and readily provided him (the tutor) with my contact details, as he had requested. I was so happy with this piece of information. Clearly, MyBonosa was back in her element.

At last, MyBonosa emerged triumphantly from St. Rose’s with sterling grades. I flaunted it everywhere on social media with pride. She secured admission to UDS

Medical School, and today, she stands before us as Dr. Mahama Princess Diana MyBonosa.

As I reflect, I find that my intense devotion has reached a crescendo of fulfilment. Her journey fills me with boundless joy and an overwhelming sense of pride.

PS: MyBonosa graduated with five of her juniors back at Faith Hill.

* Life is not a race. People ahead of you aren’t necessarily better than you.

* The destination is more important than the route. Focus. Keep journeying.

* Your association is important but your mindset is more important.

By Hanan-Confidence Abdul