Kutama College


Kutama College is a Catholic, independent, boarding, high school located near Norton in the Zvimba area, 80 kilometres southwest of Harare. Grown out of a Mission station founded in 1914 et run by the Marist Brothers Kutama has a student population of about 900 pupils.
Kutama College was ranked 69th out of the top 100 best high schools in Africa by Africa Almanac in 2003, based upon quality of education, student engagement, strength and activities of alumni, school profile, internet and news visibility.
The school moto "Esse Quam Videri" is Latin meaning "to be, rather than to seem".

History

Founded prior to the Second World War by English Jesuit Priests at the request of Bishop Aston Chichester, Kutama was one of the first institutions to offer high school education to students of African descent in colonial Rhodesia. Its Jesuit origins are reflected in its official name, St Francis Xavier College. The school is part of Kutama Mission, a Catholic mission originally run by Jesuits but now run by the Marist Brothers, a Catholic order devoted to educational work.
The school's first headmaster was Father Jerome O'Hea, an Irish-born priest after whom the local mission hospital is named. Its most famous headmaster was James Anthony Chinamasa, a Kutama College old boy and elder brother of Zimbabwean Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa. The present headmaster is Br Jacob Mutingwende who took over from Br Bernard Chirombe, who served as deputy headmaster under Stephen Muchenje who retired at the end of 2008.

Houses

Like most high schools in Zimbabwe, which follow the traditional British school system, students at Kutama are divided into four houses each having its own colour: