Makerere goes wild as Nnabagereka visits

Celebrations to welcome the queen (Nnabagereka) of Buganda, Sylvia Nagginda Luswata, to Makerere University last Friday started as early as 10am, with multitudes, mostly students, thronging the university campus, even though the guest was scheduled to arrive at 2pm.

Accompanied by a five-vehicle convoy, the queen, popularly referred to as Maama wa Buganda (Buganda’s mother), arrived a couple of hours behind schedule, having earlier attended the funeral service of the late Prince John Barigye at St Paul’s cathedral Namirembe. The convoy was met with wild celebration and an extravagant display of loyalty to the Buganda kingdom.

Hundreds of excited youth, led by members of Baganda Nkobazambogo Students Association, mobbed the queen’s car, screaming “Maama atuuse; Ssabasajja awangaale! (The queen has arrived; hail the king!)”

Female students covered the vehicles’ way with flower petals, as their male colleagues lay their shirts on the ground for the royal wheels to pass. When the Nnabagereka stepped out of her car, one excited male student shouted: “Akyaali mbooko!” (Luganda slang for “she’s still very pretty”), sending the royal entourage into bouts of laughter.

In the company of members from the Buganda royal family, foreign dignitaries and ministers from both the central and Mengo governments, the Nnabagereka was ushered into the Main hall onto a red-carpeted aisle. “

Her visit is very important to us [Baganda students] because this is the first time she is coming here. I will live to remember this day,” said Ahmed Bukenya, vice chairperson of Nkobazambogo. When the Nnabagereka rose to deliver her speech, at 6:30pm, students shot up to their feet, some blowing vuvuzelas, others clicking away at their cameras, and other still, prostrating.

Through her Nnabagereka Development Foundation (NDF), which advocates education of the girl-child, the queen donated 15 new computers to the university’s Female Scholarship Initiative (FSI), for which she is patron.

“After studying and working abroad for more than 25 years, I longed to come back home and serve my country. As a woman, I feel for the bad state of the girl-child in Uganda,” she said. She added that since 2001, through sponsorship from the Carnegie Corporation of New York (an American foundation with interest in promoting higher education), more than 690 FSI beneficiaries had received scholarships.

“The number is expected to increase since we renewed our partnership with Carnegie,” she said. “Most of our beneficiaries are disadvantaged girls from the northern and eastern regions.”

The function was attended by some prominent personalities, including Honorary Consuls of Liberia and Trinidad and Tobago, several academicians, the minister of finance Maria Kiwanuka, Prince David Wasajja and several top entrepreneurs.

Prof  Venansius Baryamureeba, the university Vice Chancellor, hailed Buganda kingdom for boosting education in Uganda. “The likes of Ssekabaka Mutesa I, Edward Mutesa II, Martin Luther Nsibirwa, Prof Apolo Nsibambi, Prof Livingstone Luboobi and most recently, Nnabagereka Sylivia, have all been champions of higher education in this country. We have set aside scholarships in their honour to help underprivileged Ugandan students,” Baryamureeba said.

Due to time constraints, the Nnabagereka was unable to visit the house where her great grandfather-in-law, Kabaka Mutesa II, lived while he studied History and English at Makerere between 1943 and1945. The university council pledged to renovate the house, which will house offices for the NDF, Nkobazambogo and other Buganda associations at the university.

The queen’s departure was preceded by a melodramatic poem recited by members of Nkobazambogo in adoration of the Buganda royal family. The Nnabagereka has, in the recent past, received international acclaim for her fight for women and children’s rights and for championing girl-child education through NDF and the Ekisaakaate programme (an annual cultural retreat where children are taught Buganda traditions and norms).

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