Why I refuse to mourn Fr Damien Grimes

 Grimes subjugated timidity, ignorance and lack of exposure, especially out of me. If the Grimesian spirit so still dwells in me who was only a teacher on the Namasagali staff, I guess it must dwell even much more in his former direct students

EULOGY | Alfred Geresom Musamali |  By refusing to mourn Welsh former Namasagali College, Kamuli, Uganda headteacher “Bloody” Rev. Fr Damien Grimes, Member of the British Empire (MBE), I, too, “Strive Regardless” – in accordance with the school motto suspectedly crafted by Fr Grimes himself. Woo betide thee if you, staff or student alike under the Catholic priest’s tutelage, gave up hope, declined to “Strive Regardless” because he just would not let you spiritually surrender yourself to fate. So, while the body of Fr Grimes himself may have given up worldly life at the age of 93 year on Wednesday, September 4, 2024 at Abbortsbury Care Home, Southport, United Kingdom (UK), that “Strive Regardless” spirit shall dwell on in me throughout my lifetime and, by the Grace of God, beyond.

The word “Bloody” was always on his lips

I say “Bloody” because the word never left the thin, slightly pointed lips of Fr Grimes. To the best of my memory, everything that pleased that tall, bulky, bispectacled, beer-loving white man perpetually dressed in black shoes, black trousers, black shirt (overlaying a white vest under it, though!), priestly collar and silvery rosary dangling from his neck was “Bloody”. Everything that annoyed him was also “Bloody”. Anything beautiful was “Bloody” too. And – you guessed right – everything ugly was as well “Bloody”. If any prospective female students or their parents, for instance, objected to dressing in those skimpy, red,  wears (with Maltese-Crossed badge on the chest) that were an excuse for school uniform, the students were, obviously, “Bloody”. I cannot even imagine, anyway, how such students could ever get admitted into the Grimesian (my own coinage, in the same way as we refer to scholars of Charles Dickens as Dickenesians!) school.

Why he was called Ogumpe?

The Grimesians called him “Ogumpe”, the short form that mixed some Lusoga (language of the sub-region) and English to form the expression “Ogu-Imperialist”. Like in many other Bantu languages, “Ogu-” is the prefix for big, large or prominent. And “-Imperialist” is obviously English for any chap who even to date ventures into Africa with the Holy Bible in one hand and a gun in the other, subjugating everybody. Grimes subjugated timidity, ignorance and lack of exposure, especially out of me. If the Grimesian spirit so still dwells in me who was only a teacher on the Namasagali staff for three years, I guess it must dwell even much more in his former direct students such as First Deputy Prime Minister / Kamuli Woman MP Rebecca Kadaga, women rights activist and former integrity minister Miria Matembe, Afrigo Band musician cum Bugweri Woman MP Rachael Magoola, Bunya West MP Aggrey Henry Bagiire, Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Vincent Waisswa Bagiire, outgoing Education Permanent Secretary Ketty Lamaro, Education Service Commission member Rose Kabogoza Musoke Izizinga and Uganda’s Ambassador to Russia Moses Kawaluuko Kizige.

Fr Grimes students dominate public life

Others among the very many are Olive Birungi Lumonya of the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA), Charles Mbiire of MTN, Simba Telecoms guru Patrick Baguma Bitature, Private Sector Foundation Executive Director Stephen Asiimwe, Prof Juma Wasswa Balunywa formerly of the Makerere University Business School, former Vision Group chief executive officer Robert Kabushenga and former Daily Monitor boss Conrad Nkutu. In fact at an alumni re-union in 2018, Kizige said that Namasagali alumni in Cabinet and State Minister positions at the time numbered eighteen but he could not count the number of other high ranking officials of national and international agencies who set out on what they wish to achieve and chase their dreams in a do-or-die fashion, to the very end. Some other alumni occupy quite low end humble public lives but they do it with such dedication that you would notice them at a glance.

We celebrate the life of one of Africa’s longest serving Imperialists of the Twentieth Century

So, why should I mourn Ogumpe? Instead, I am just going to join all these named above – and hundreds of others who benefited from the sometimes very unconventional but all-round education offered by Fr Grimes – to celebrate the life of one of Africa’s longest serving Imperialists of the Twentieth Century. Maureen Mwagale Mabwa, commonly referred to as Mama Alumni, was beside Fr Grimes during his last hours at the Care Home. Mwagale Mabwa said the priest had willed that his remains be brought back to Uganda where he served for 43 years and that they be buried at Namasagali, although by the time this page went live (technical jargon in online publishing!) definitive funeral arrangements had not yet been finalised. Bitature, however, has offered the grounds of his Protea Hotel Gardens in Kololo, Kampala for the vigils. There have been arranged high masses at 6:30pm every day beginning yesterday (Thursday) till Sunday or whenever the funeral will be held. Bitature has also opening a dedicated phone line (+256-772-120386) through which contributions can be made to complete a befitting Administration Block at Namasagali in the priest’s memory.

Irene Kharono, another alumnus, suggested that instead of spending money on flowers, the mourners should create a fund for children that are academically endowedbut facing school fees challenges. As for Nathan Mwesigwa, the demise has even caught him by surprise.

“It is sad that the giant on whose shoulders many of us stood in order to see far is gone. The inner child in me used to believe that Father Grimes will live for ever. However, his duty and service makes him immortal,” said Mwesigwa, an alumnus of A Level 1994/96. He suggests that the alumni commission a life size statue of the late in a place to be called Namasagali Square.

Namasagali was as remote as you would ever get within the centre of Uganda

Namasagali College is about 80kms north of Jinja, the Main Source of the Nile. Located along the eastern banks of the Nile river as it drifts towards South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt, the place was in September 1988 when I first arrived there as remote as you would ever get within the centre of Uganda, with few means of transport, erratic electric power supply and an abandance of mosquitoes. Because the Nile was full of falls, rapids and cataracts (some of which have now been submerged by hydro-electric power dams), and, therefore, not easily navigable, a railway line had in the earlier years of the Twentieth Century been built to run alongside the eastern banks of the river to Namasagali Railway Station and Harbour in the heartland of a mainly cotton growing area. While some of the cotton was coming from within Busoga (the sub-region, as opposed to Lusoga, the language), a lot of it was also coming from West Nile, Acholi, Lango and Teso which were across Lake Kyoga, the expansive marshland in which the Nile confluences with smaller rivers from Mt Elgon before plunging out through the Karuma and Murchison Falls. Lake Kyoga and its marshlands distinguish southern parts of Uganda from its north. In 1961/62 heavy El Nino rains flooded the railway station and harbour and the entire riverside infrastructure (rails, docks, offices, staff housing, sports facilities, etc) was thus abandoned by the East African Railways Corporation (EAR&H) and handed over to the then Busoga District Local Government. The districts of Bugiri, Bugweri, Budiope, Iganga, Jinja, Kaliro, Kamuli, Mayuge, Namayingo and Namutumba as well as Jinja City have since been curved out of the local government but the whole subregion remains a cultural kingdom headed by the Kyabazinga. Anyway, by then road services had been established in many parts of the cotton areas so the railway was no longer technically relevant or economically viable. The Egyptians did not desert Namasagali, though. The Nile is a lifeline of Egypt and even at the peak of chaos that country’s experts still regularly visited Namasagali to gauge the water flow in the river past the railway station and the harbour. A junk water flow gauge and a steam-powered crane are to date near the facilities where the Ogumpe and another earlier priest converted the railway station and harbour into Uganda’s biggest, private, most prestigious, mixed, boarding, Ordinary (O) and Advanced (A) Level secondary school which was at its peak when I arrived there.

VIDEO: Namasagali in 1988

Not exactly a school but a long stay river-side jungle holiday camp where dancing was compulsory

Namasagali under Fr Grimes was not exactly a school but a long stay riverside jungle holiday camp where reading books was just one of the (sometimes by-the-way!) activities and where development of an all-round (the head, the hand and the heart) citizen was emphasised, contrary to the practice in many other schools than dotted on rote learning, examination results and superficial manilla card certificates. If a child had performed averagely at the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) or the Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) and could, therefore, not gain entry to King’s College, Budo or Namilyango College or Gayaza High School near Kampala but was, critically, within the age-group, Namasagali was the place for a rich parent to drive all the way (almost 200 kms) to. Fr Grimes would come out of his office, stand characteristically hands akimbo in the doorway to interview, not that child but the parent, by scrutinising the make of the car in which they had arrived, the way they were dressed as well as the confidence with which they walked and talked (to gauge ability to pay the comparatively very high fees) then determine that the “Bloody” child indeed deserved to gain admission to that holiday camp. If an early tenage girl had the habit of jumping out through windows to attend discotheques at Kampala’s Club Silk or Ange Noir, then that “Bloody” girl qualified for admission to the holiday camp where there would be compulsory dances every other Saturday evening and where the girl would be equally compeled to dance with boys provided they were of the same age group. Female and male students alike in A Level were strictly prohibited from interacting (let alone just dancing) with those in Lower Secondary, whether female or male because that would be “mixing levels”. Neither were students of  middle school expected to “mix levels” with those either above or below them. I need not mention any non-academic interaction between staff and students, especially if it was potentially illicit – because Ogumpe’s spy network would smell it a mile away and nip it in the bud.

The infrastructure in Namasagali was rudimentary

Most of the income from the high school fees is likely to have been spent on staff salaries, text books, feeding and student coccuricular activities. Therefore, if new staff, parents or students expected to find wonderful infrastructure, with modern storreyed buildings, comfortable furniture and other luxaries, the great expectation was dispelled right at the main gate when they encountered staff houses with cracked walls, cob-webbed ceilings and rotting facia boards. Opportunistics flowering and non-flowering plants were even peaping out of or growing on top of tile roofs. But the walkways were were spotlessly swept every morning by ageing Keribino Kunguru, one of the Kenyan Jaluos who had come to work for the EAR&H and had been left behind as a relic where their operations closed shop. Every other part of the spacious compound was also well mowed by a Mercy Fergason tractor was certainly very old but well maintained. Soon after I arrived late Dutch Father Jaap Zonneveld (Ndorobo), the bursar, also arranged to get from his home country or wherever a brand new orange Mercedes Benz truck which along with a brand new Toyota Hiace school van and the only swimming pool in a Ugandan secondary school at that time became the pride of the establishment.

The administrative offices, staffroom and classrooms had hard furniture which had seen a few repairs here and there. Water was no problem but it was pumped from the river and distributed without any further reticulation so much so that I am amazed how I often drunk it direct from the tap and still got no running stomack. The bathrooms and toilets were basically what had been left by the EAR&H and they more often required carrying water from an external tap. Then to beat the power blackouts, one diesel generator had been installed to serve the administration block, classrooms and library while another served the dining hall which was a bit far from the other facilities. I do not, however, remember, how the student domitories and staff quarters (which on the boys’ side fused into each other) were powered during the blackouts. And my own residence, though, was an old church behind the library rather than among the fused facilities. The residence was partitioned into two parts so that my colleague Francis Kaleebi occupied the further side while I staged my bed on the former alter.

Every student in Namasagali had to identify a game, sport or other activity such as music, dance and drama in which to “Strive Regardless”

The Grimesian rationale, I learnt in due course, was that everybody had to be trained to control their minds and, therefore, their bodies rather than fall to simple temptation caused by exposure to some body flesh. His philophy also seems to have been that success does not come only through students gluing themselves to books but also through practical technical, sports and the performing arts skills. So, every student in Namasagali had to identify a game, sport or other activity such as music, dance and drama in which to “Strive Regardless”. Bookwork was, indeed, restricted to the classroom hours and short prep times – and punishable if a student attempted to exceed those hours. Besides, Grimes had established a system where the students could effectively police themselves (through leaders called Reeves), prosecute themselves (through Judges) using a relatively complex coded penalties and hand out punishments to which Grimes himself (not any other teacher) would then attend at 9:30pm or so every working day of the school term. The exception was on Wednesdays because he would have gone to teach at Makerere University Department of Music, Dance and Drama so he would be coming back late. Even then, no other staff, not even his Dutch fellow priest Fr Zonneveld, administered the punishment. Sitting in the staffroom adjuscent to his office late into the night as we marked the students’ exercise books, we teachers would eavesdrop on cracks of canes (sometimes whackings of a hippohide whip) as he disciplined the brats. There was also a mysterious punishment called “scrubbing” but it took place at his residence and I never came to internalise what it was all about. I understand he required each of them to say “Thank you, Father” when he had finished administering to them whatever punishment but, again, I cannot be sure as to-date even then fellow teachers and now fellow journalists such as Robert Mudhasi, Michael Brian Kibubangabo and Bok Kisiki who had earlier been his students never disclose much to we the uninitiated.

Ogumpe caned a son of the sitting president

Now Honourable Jimmy Akena and his elder brother Tony Akaki, sons of former President Dr Milton Obote, will not talk much either. Apparently Akaki fell into some discipline trouble in 1984 when Obote was sitting president. Fr Grimes sent the errant boy home to come back with his father. Fr Grimes was not interested in talking to the President of Uganda. No. His interest was in talking to the father of Tony Akaki, according to Kifubangabo who was his classmate. Kifubangabo says Fr Grimes eventually relented and talked toTony Akaki’s mother, Mama Miria Kalule Obote, before caning the boy in her presence.

Former student Lumonya recalls disciplinary systems and structures

“He put in place systems and structures and fully respected them. Reeves arrested offenders, (had) courts of law with (student) judges where students defended themselves, and an appealing court led by the Lady Chancellor. (In my year), I was previleged to have been appointed the Lady Chancellow,” says Lumonya.

“I recall when a student was expelled by the administration for alcohol abuse. He appealed to me and since there was no evidence to proove after two days that he was drunk, I acquited him. Father Grimes was shocked, turned red but respected the structures,” Lumonya adds. Which brings me to Father’s temper. The soldier-like priest could blush, yell at the top of his head till, I suspect, the people of Bugerere half a kilometre away on the western banks of the Nile could hear. He would charge at offenders too, threaten as if he was going to grab them by the neck in civil arrest, wring it out and throw the lifeless body over there. But he would stop just short of that on realising that that was extra-judicial and call a Reeve to take the suspected offender to the spot in front of staffroom called the Meditation Green then later to court. The next day, though, Fr Grimes would be smiling and congratulating with a handshake and a chocolate the same offender for good attempts in class, on the sports grounds or on the drama stage.

Biography of Fr Grimes

Mill Hill Missionaries have published details of Fr Grimes’ birth, education and work. They explained how he earned the MBE. According to the Mill Hill Missionaries, Fr Grimes was born on the 11th of June, 1931 in Wakefield, North-East England. “His father was John Grimes, a Railway Guard, and his mother was Mary Grimes, nee Parkinson. He was born into a small family with one brother and one sister,” said Mill Hill Missionaries. They said his early years in education were spent in his local primary school, after which he partly completed his Secondary Education at Saint Michael’s College in Leeds.

“Feeling called to the missionary priesthood with the Mill Hill Missionaries, he completed his Certificate in Secondary Education at our College in Burn Hall near Durham (1947-1949). From there, he progressed onto the study of Philosophy in the Missiehuis in Roosendaal, Holland (1949-1951),” the missionaries said.

“Upon completion of his studies there, he continued his preparation for the priesthood by studying Theology at Saint Joseph’s College, Mill Hill, London, England (1951-1955). As his theological studies drew to completion, Damien took the Perpetual Oath in the Chapel of Saint Joseph’s College on the 5th of May, 1954. In the same Chapel, the following year, he was ordained a priest at the hands of Cardinal Bernard Griffin on the 10th of July, 1955,” they added.

The missionaries said recognising his aptitude for studies, Fr Grimes first appointment was to Further Studies at the University of Glasgow, where he graduated with a BA in History in 1958 and to complete his ability to teach, he graduated from Jordanhill College in Glasgow with a Post Graduate Diploma in Education.

“In late 1959, Damien was appointed to work in Uganda and was appointed onto the staff of Namilyango College. There he worked for eight years. In 1967 he was appointed Headmaster at Kamuli College, Namasagali, situated in the Diocese of Jinja. It was here that Damien ‘planted’ his heart and strove for over thirty years to maintain the College and raise its standards in so many ways,” according to the Mill Hill Missionaries communique.

“Even during the difficult years of the Amin Presidency, Damien kept the College going by offering a comprehensive education to its pupils. He encouraged his pupils to excel in education which would prepare them for life. Such pastime as boxing, drama, gymnastics and chess he encouraged enthusiastically and successfully…. In recognition of his outstanding service to the people of Uganda in the field of education, Damien was awarded the MBE.

In my later youth I went to Namasagali to teach and escape poverty – but Grimes in addition forced me to learn the hard way new, more productive skills and attitudes

If any teacher understood the system and its architect’s temper, their work became very easy. But if they did not, Fr Grimes would make sure that he coaxed them to “Strive Regardless” in learning it because he did not believe in just letting staff resign themselves to fate. I, personally, had so many running battles with him because he demanded of me very high levels of performance yet I was interested in cutting corners the Ugandan way. Therefore, if I have soared as a teacher, journalist, public relations practitioner, it is partially because Fr Grimes never let me off the leash. In March, 1989, for instance, Kaboggoza Musoke, the then Head of the English Department was returning to the Ministry of Education for further posting instructions in a government school. Despite my reluctance, Ogumpe made me new Head of Department then became even more particular about my punctuality, my speaking and writing grammatically correct English, my marking students’ books and returning them on time (or else the students reported me to him, anyway!) and my adhering to personal financial independence. I still imagine he would see, hear and learn about everything good or bad I did. In turn I would eat, drink, walk and sleep dreading his watchful suervisory eye – even when there was clearly no possibility of him noticing me.

“He could not take any mediocrity,” said Kaboggoza Musoke.

Grimes forced me to attain computer literacy as early as 1989 and it has since earned me jobs

In particular, the Catholic priest ignored my Protestantism traits and forced me to attain computer literate as early as 1989 when even well established offices in Kampala had no computers. In April that year, he had gone for his annual leave in the UK and returned with ten Amstrad machines. Compared to today’s computers, Amstrad was nothing in terms of memory bites because you would hardly type in half a page before being required to save the work – an exercise that took another grinding five minutes. But with the unstable power supply, we stood the risk of losing everything typed if we did not regularly save because power upserge stabilisers were not yet in fashion. Ogumpe sat next to me one day at the line of computers (the machines were on the balcony of his water front residence) and noticed through his tinted glass spectacles (or even above them, as he was sometimes want to do!) that I was not saving my work so he urged me to save. I ignored him, obviously to his fury, but ten minutes later it was his turn to this time laugh (instead of shouting for Bugerere to hear!) when the power went off and I lost half a day’s work. Thereafter, I joined others in becoming reluctant to pursue “these computer things,” thinking that a teacher needed more chalk and red pen than electronic contraptions. We were already trained university graduate teachers, we argued, so, what else did we need in life? The “Bloody” old man assured us that the world was ever changing and that if we did not march with the changes he would deny us jobs come the following year. We were sure he meant it so we obliged because of the immediate jobs rather than the because of speculative skill set requirements. So, I had gone to Namasagali in my later youth only to teach and escape poverty (given that my first salary was fourteen times better I was earning in Government service) – but Grimes in addition forced me to learn the hard way new, more productive skills and attitudes. Besides, guess what? My 1990/91 Senior 6 students who participated most in dancing, volleyball, drama and other preoccupations still came top of the examinations and are now the nearly retiring national and international cream of leaders.

If there was ever in my life any uniquely brief and inspiring school motto, it was that coined by Ogumpe

I have since resigning from Namasagali gone on to exhibit the same diligence Grimes required of me, in Nabumali High School, Mbale, Uganda (1991-93), Luanshya Trades Training Institute, Copperbelt, Zambia (1994-97), New Vision Printing and Publishing Company, Kampala, Uganda (1998-2007) and the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) where I was this year the Publicity and Advocacy Advisor for the National Population and Housing Census. This is because in whatever I do, I “Strive Regardless” of the experience, of the tools, of the public criticism, of the meagre financial rewards or of the danger involved. In fact from 1994 onwards, I have scooped jobs against my competitors because of my perpetual struggle to keep pace with the technology as it develops, my consciousness that every English grammar rule matters and my believe that I can do anything and succeed if I put my mind to it.

For that matter, may be we should as well set up marathon disco nights (this, perhaps not quite in Bitature’s compound), poetry elocution contests, swimming galas, musical extravaganzas, moot court sessions, anything to positively celebrate the life of a man who birthed no “Bloody” child of his own yet nurtured thousands of children into this perseverance.  In my case, if there was ever in my life any uniquely brief and inspiring school motto, it was that crafted by you, Ogumpe. Rest in Peace, Fr Grimes! Rest in Peace, Ogumpe!

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The author is Founding Director of Vicnam International Communications Ltd, a private firm of communications, public relations and information management consultants. He specialises in the Proofreading and General Editing (PAGE) of documents and can be contacted by Tel: (+256)752-649519 and by Email: agmusamali@hotmail.com.