In part 2 of this podcast, I continue shining a spotlight on the legacies of other music greats such as Tony Allen [Afrobeat co-creator], Mory Kanté [renowned Guinean vocalist and Kora player] Ahmed Ismail Hussein [Somali Music icon], Ty [acclaimed British/Nigerian Hip Hop star], Fred the Godson [New York Hip Hop star] Betty Wright [RNB legend], Little Richard [father of Modern Rock N Roll], who have fallen during these COVID-19 times.
In part one of this Podcast, I shine a spotlight on three Fallen African music Legends (Aurlus Mabele, Manu Dibango, and Joseph Shabalala) who have passed on during these apprehensive COVID-19 times.
Ugandan researchers have developed an inexpensive COVID-19 test kit that can deliver results quickly, offering hope for a “homegrown solution” to sub-Saharan Africa’s testing needs.
In this Podcast, I give you a flavour of some of the greatest Ugandan Hip Hop songs of the past decade.
One early morning 34 years ago, in the twilight days of January, the hurly-burly of life at St Mary’s College Kisubi, one of Uganda’s premier secondary schools was thrown out of gear when a group of haggard-looking government soldiers, fleeing from disheveled but heavily armed National Resistance Army [NRA] rebel soldiers scampered through the school compound.
Several volleys of automatic gunfire had earlier been heard, not far away from the school. None of the petrified students who were at the College that day had ever imagined that their school would become a flashpoint of conflict.
“It was the morning of either the 23rd or 24th of January-1986. The school had just re-opened after a holiday recess. I was in S3 then and we were in class when several rounds of automatic gunfire started going off. The firing went on for a while and then we saw government soldiers running through the compound-shedding their uniform as they fled towards the lakeside,” Andrew Magona, one of the old students, calls to mind.
“Shortly after, we saw young boys in rugs, barefoot and armed to the teeth, giving chase in what we later found was a surprise NRA attack to cut off Kampala from Entebbe.”
Ronald Mutumba, now a certified Public Accountant vividly remembers that day.
“That morning, I remember one of my roommates hastily waking me up. I was not accustomed to rising early. Because of fright, I did not even have breakfast. I remember joining other students as we figured ways of staying safe.”
Luckily for the students, the rebel soldiers were not the forbidding type.
“They were amiable and approachable. That gave us the confidence to accost them and have a chat. By the time, the rebels got back to the College, after pursuing government soldiers, some of our colleagues had picked up some discarded boots from fleeing government soldiers and had tried them on,” Magona recalls.
The rebels who by then had gotten the worst of some back and forth battles with government forces in a bid to capture Entebbe knew that their presence at the college raised the specter of a government reprisal attack and so they advised the students later on in the day to find their way to Kings College Buddo through Kawuku.
The rebels who were under the NRA's 5th battalion rationalized that Buddo would be a good sanctuary for the students since it was in an area that was under their control.
When the students led by Brother Peter Kazzekulya, who was the school’s headteacher reached Kawuku, they were advised to eschew using the main road.
They moved along a tiny checkered footpath that led them to villages such as Ssisa, Nakonge, Nsaggu, among others.
When the students with their headteacher got to Ssisa, which is about five kilometers from Kawuku, it was decided that they would camp for the night at St Peter’s Primary School.
“That night the Milky Way was resplendent with shining stars. Many of us just gazed and feasted our eyes on the starlit sky for most of the night. Very few people slept,” Nick Mujira, an old boy and now the proprietor of Inspection and Certification Company, Inspecta Africa Limited, recollects.
Earlier on as the sun hit its twilight that day, the students heard government helicopter gunships hovering through the skies.
“We had earlier been advised by the rebels to leave spaces between each other as we slept as a means of eschewing death in the event of a government helicopter attack,” Andrew Yawe, one of the old boys tells Masaabachronicle.
Rather ill-advisedly the next day, the students were given the cue to head back to the college. It was a false dawn. A few kilometers into their trek back, sounds of heavy gunfire rang out as government forces fired on fleeing rebels. The rebels met up with the students.
“The rebels were making a tactical withdrawal. There was pell-mell as we took to our heels. Everyone ran. That day was a far cry from the previous day when we calmly walked and reached the Primary school without much incident. In the process of fleeing however a stray bullet ripped through a shoe of one of our colleagues who has since passed on. The bullet grazed his ankle, causing even more panic,” Magona recalls.
Reliving the experience
On Saturday 7th March, about 55 of the College’s old boys, who lived through the chilling scare gathered to relieve the experience, principally reenacting the grueling 25km trek they made as they sought to reach Buddo in 1986.
It wasn’t just walking however for the students, most of whom were teenagers then. On occasion, they ran especially when they had gunshots.
At the crack of dawn, as glints of sunshine penetrated the school horizon, the nostalgic jaunty trekkers were flagged off from the College’s football pitch by Kazzekulya.
Dressed in tracksuits, custom made t-shirts, sneakers and shorts, the trekkers who included Fabian Kasi-the Centenary Bank Managing Director of, Brother Francis Aganze-deputy headteacher of SMACK then, Eng. Godfrey Kaaya, Godber Tumushabe- the Great Lakes Institute for Strategic Studies-Associate Director, Nick Mujira- the Inspecta Africa managing director, Charles Odaga-the Finance Trust Customer Service Manager and also the President of the SMACK old boys association seemed buoyed as we approached Kawuku.
