What it Takes to Be a Campus Gentleman

Machuka's Album Photo by Emmanuel Yegon

It is obvious that a gentleman is masked to conduct himself in some habits that favour women at most times. For instance, he is expected to open doors for her, give her his jacket when the cold sets in, compliments her sincerely and often, paying for her bills among others.

Campus is one of the best places where a growing man can practice habbits of a gentleman being. Thanks to the presence of the opposite gender in these academic institutions. Not until lately that one could notice enormous weird behaviours of some young campus men. 

Normally, we expect each and every student to be the cook in his or her kitchen and wash the utensils used. Not until recently some norms have been broken for the sake of making others be happy. Some campus men will rather wash utensils and scrub cooking pots in the ladies’ hostels-they are not theirs.

Hard to believe that the owner of the utensils might be comfortably watching a movie she cannot pose even for a moment. Maybe some men are losing their place in the society and the reverse works best for them. Imagine being spotted in a kitchen full of ladies washing their utensils and you are comfortably scrubbing a ladies’ cooking pot. Haha man, this is a big joke. Kama ni kuitwa gentleman, acha ikae.

You call her awesome, babe and all the sweet nothings yet you are the number one enemy of her. She sneers at you when you have passed by her on the roads. She back bites you, creates untruthful stories about you; just because you want to be a gentleman to her you blind yourself with the unpleasant names to her ears. Alright, it will cost you your dignity and you will be worth a slave to your own self.

A campus gentleman can use all his last coins to buy her chipo and saucesage yet meal times such as breakfast and lunch are mistakenly added to the day times or rather in the dictionaries. He can go hungry to make her feel cared for.

Most campus gentlemen approve the phrase, ‘mwanaume ni effort’. Some will just forgo their urgent duties to escort that beautiful lass with a curvy fruity body to the supermarkets to carry her shopping. Funny, he will not be bought for even a sweet. It is not outlawed to take heed to such action but be vigilant. You might just be the ‘punda’ of her time.

There are a number of cases concerning alcoholic ladies in campuses. Sometimes they take the advantage to call on innocent gentlemen in the middle of the night just to pick them from the clubs. Just because you showed an interest in her, you hurriedly take the chance but not the advantage.

Furthermore, some campus gentlemen will escort their ‘girlfriends’ to their boyfriends claiming that they are offering security, not knowing they are just giving company. That is what it takes to be a campus gentleman- you escort a lady to the ‘fisi’ unknowingly. Hehe.

Certainly, some will pretend to be complimenting half-naked donned campus ladies. Sometimes they will love walking with such beauties. But in their hearts they dislike it.