Why I refuse to mourn Fr Damian Grimes

Grimes, especially, subjugated timidity, ignorance and lack of exposure 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 students

EULOGY | Alfred Geresom Musamali | By refusing to mourn former Namasagali College, Kamuli, Uganda headteacher “Bloody” Rev. Fr Damian Grimes, Member of the British Empire (MBE), I, too, “Strive Regardless” – in accordance with the school motto suspectedly crafted by Fr Grimes himself. Fr Grimes also suspectedly wrote the school anthem which, in the first stanza says, “We strive to be wise,/ learned, pious, pure and true./ We’ll grace our lives with arts and skills and love of learning./ Always be there on time/ when duty calls….”. The second one promises service free from the dark stain of money’s greed. It further promises service to each other (in order to) bring God’s peace to our dear nation. The third stanza then predicts the inevitable, with others coming to occupy our places when we are gone and perhaps forgotten too. “But,” it consoles us, “if we have built here a true/ and sound foundation/ Then we will stand,/ Firm, strong against life storms”. Woe betide thee if you, staff or student alike under the Catholic priest’s tutelage, gave up hope, declined to “Strive Regardless,” and faltered to live by the aspirations in the Anthem 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 call him “Bloody” because the word never left the thin, slightly pointed lips of Fr Grimes. To the best of my memory, everything pleasurable to that tall, bulky, balding, bespectacled, beer-loving, once a smoker (but had long left the habit) white man perpetually dressed in black shoes (with white socks, though!), black trousers, black shirt (overlaying a white vest), priestly white collar and silvery rosary dangling from his neck was “Bloody”. Everything that annoyed his black-and-white draped structure was also “Bloody”. Anything astoundingly beautiful was “Bloody” too. And – you guessed right – everything unfortunately ugly was as well “Bloody”. If any prospective parents and their junior female children, for instance, objected to the children dressing in those simple design, red, skimpy, Nyanza Textile Industries Limited (Nytil) Jinja cotton dresses or the parents and their senior female children objected to the seemingly motor mechanic’s also Nytil Jinja cotton dungarees (each with Maltese-Crossed badge on the chest) that were an excuse for school uniform, all were, obviously, “Bloody”. If on the other hand the prospective parents and their junior male children objected to the tiny Nytil khaki pair of shorts with a red cloth waist band through which a piece of elastic was strewn in lieu of a better belt, what else did you expect Fr Grimes to label them – “Bloody” of course. And I cannot even imagine, anyway, how such children could ever get admitted into the Grimesian (my own coinage, in the same way as we refer to scholars of Charles Dickens as Dickensians!) school to be  nurtured into what I think I should call Grimesianism.

Why he was called Ogumpe?

The Grimesians called him “Ogumpe”, the short form that mixed some Lusoga (the local language of the Busoga sub-region in which Kamuli is located) and English to form the expression “Ogu-Imperialist”. In the local language, one person is a Musoga while many are Basoga. “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 (or school chalk in the case of some) in the other, subjugating everybody. Fr Grimes, especially, subjugated timidity, ignorance and lack of exposure out of me and implanted, in its stead, Grimesianism.

Fr Grimes students dominate public life

If the Grimesianism 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 top notch former direct students such as Uganda’s 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 and Bunya West MP Aggrey Henry Bagiire. Others are Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Vincent Waisswa Bagiire, Gender, Labour and Social Development Permanent Secretary Aggrey David Kibenge, outgoing Education Permanent Secretary Ketty Lamaro, Education Service Commission member Rose Kabogoza Musoke Izizinga and Uganda’s Ambassador to Russia Moses Kawaluuko Kisige.

The Grimesians are also well represented in the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), with National Citisenship and Immigration Director Major Gen Apollo Kasiita-Gowa and the army’s former Chief of Training and Recruitment, Brig. Gen Matthew Gureme. Gen Gureme, whose father Francis D. R. Gureme served on the Namasagali College Board of Directors for a long time, is now Uganda’s Military Attaché to Tanzania.

Others among the very many in civil roles are Stanbic (Bank) Uganda Holdings Ltd Board Chair Baker Magunda, 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. Magunda is also the current Chair of the Namasagali College Board of Governors (BoG).

At the NOSA re-union in 2018, Kisige said that Namasagali alumni in Cabinet and State Minister positions at the time totaled 18 but he could not count the number of other high ranking officials of national, multi-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 or private positions, though, especially in law, journalism, teaching and the entertainment world but they still do it with such dedication that you would notice them at a glance. One of such is Oscar Bamuhigire who has chosen to counsel the public, mainly through writing in New Vision newspapers (Vision Group), on drug addiction. Whatever else he does for a living, he has chosen that every so often he will author a short column on the dangers of consuming drugs and how to overcome the habit.

 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 unique and sometimes very controversially 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 Abbortsbury, held his hand as they prayed before the priest smoothly slipping into the after-world. Maureen said the soldierly priest (he had no record of military service, though) 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 first 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. He has also arranged for high masses at 6:30pm every day beginning today (Thursday) till the Sunday. Besides, he has  opened a dedicated phone line (+256-772-120386) through which contributions can be made to complete a befitting Father Grimes Memorial Administration Block at Namasagali. A section in the Administration Block is planned to archive all available records about the school (the rest having been burnt in a school fire a while ago). The available records include Ogumpe’s intellectual property on the unique approach to education that produced two generations of characteristically bouncing Grimesians.

But, trust him, that chap who made a pilgrimage from his seminary in Roosendaal, the Netherlands, to Rome by bicycle, a direct distance of over 1,500kms, in 1950 – he also approved in advance alumnus Daniel Musana’s architectural drawings of the type of mausoleum in which he wished his remains to be interred and NOSA is currently going about getting the relevant Catholic Church permissions to construct it on the plot of land owned by the church and occupied by the school chapel. The standing instruction in the Catholic Church is that a priest is buried wherever death finds him and, since Fr Grimes carried a UK passport, special dispensation had to be sought from both the Church and the UK Government to repartriate the remains. It is, therefore, estimated that the removal from the UK and burial at Namasagali will cost NOSA a total of UGX270m (US$72,000), of which the Government of Uganda (GoU) has donated UGX100m (US$27,000).

Over time, however, more costs could be incurred. Writing on his X (formerly Twitter) handle, Wasswa Balunywa has, for instance, suggested that the alumni go beyond the mausoleum by erecting a life-sise statue of Ogumpe so that they can make an annual pilgrimage to the site for years to come. This, says Wasswa Balunywa, would create a lasting tourism product at Namasagali which alumni sometimes fondly refer to as ’Sagali or ’Sags.

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 Fr Grimes will live for ever. However, his duty and service makes him immortal,” said Mwesigwa, an alumnus of 1994 to 1996. He also suggests that the alumni commissions the statue but in a place to be specifically called the Namasagali Square.

Irene Kharono, another alumnus, additionally suggested that instead of spending money on bouquets of flowers to adorn the grave, the mourners should create a fund for ’Sagali children that are academically endowed but facing school fees challenges. I partial agreement with Kharono’s suggestion, NOSA decreed that every mourner comes with a seedling of an indigenous tree which, after the mourners have gone, the current students of ’Sags can plant on the available land to conserve the environment. A 2018 to 2023 Strategic Plan developed with the support of the alumni said the school sits on 496 acres (201ha). A forest mainly comprising of exotic eucalyptus thrives on part of the land to serve as wood fuel for the school and the neighbouring community. So, the indigenous forest could be a great addition to eucalyptus which is no longer considered as environmentally appropriate, NOSA has argued.

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

Lake Kyoga and its marshlands are right in the geographical centre of Uganda and distinguish the southern parts of Uganda from its north as well as the east from the west. From Jinja City on the banks of Lake Victoria, the river’s Main Source, the second longest river in the world ((6,650kms) first pours into Kyoga, an expansive marshland that facilitates confluences with smaller rivers from Mt Elgon on the east. The water mass then flows out through a western outlet, plunging over the Karuma and Murchison Falls into Lake Albert on the border of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The flowing water mass at this point is referred to as the Victoria Nile, part of the White Nile. When the White Nile emerges out of Albert, though, flowing northwards again, it also becomes the Albert Nile, meandering through South Sudan till it loses that name towards the Bar-el-Gazel to remain just the White Nile. The Blue Nile, on the other hand, originates from Lake Tana in Ethiopia and converges with the White Nile in Khartoum, Sudan (North) before meandering along its way through the remaining part of South Sudan, then Sudan (North) and Egypt where the waters exit into the Mediterranean Sea via a delta at Alexandria. Busoga sub-region is most of that area immediately east of the Victoria Nile, north of Lake Victoria (Africa’s largest fresh water mass and the second largest in the world) and south of Kyoga, with Jinja City as its south-most and the district of Kamuli (together with that of Buyende) its northmost towards Kyoga.

Namasagali College, whose coordinates are 1.0118N 32.9490E, is about 90kms north of Jinja City.  At Budhumbula, three or so kilometers before entering the municipal centre in Kamuli if a traveller is from Jinja, the road to ’Sagali branches left and runs over 20 kms of murram, mostly through the Naluwoli swamp, to the riverside school. In October 1988 when I first arrived there, Namasagali was as remote as you would possibly ever get within the centre of Uganda, with few means of transport, erratic electric power supply but an abundance of mosquitoes. The People’s Transport Company (PTC) Bus left ’Sagali for Jinja at dawn via a traingular route through Kamuli then Iganga which is 40 kms east of Jinja City. Another bus started off in Jinja in the morning and drove through the same route, arriving at Namasagali at midday and departing at two o’clock so that the one which had left at dawn returns at dusk to deliver evening passengers. Other than the PTC Bus, public transport was erratic and the school community could only get away using the school’s means of transport, with permission of the headmaster and, by written policy, the headmaster is this case was “none other than Fr Damian Grimes”. Parents who happened to come to the school could also give staff and students a lift out of the jungle but very often that was inconveniencing to all the parties. I, for instance, once patched myself at the back of the pickup while a parent and his child unapologetically sat in the cabin as rain beat me up thoroughly out there. Today, I meet that student, a very successful professional in life, and we just laugh over the matter.

Name originated from locals waving at the locomotive train

Because the Victoria Nile between Jinja and the Kyoga was full of falls, rapids or cataracts (some of which have now been submerged by multiple hydro-electric power dams), and, therefore, not easily navigable, a railway line had in the earlier years of the Twentieth Century been built by British colonialists to run alongside the Busoga side to Namasagali Railway Terminus and Harbour, then in the heartland of a raw materials, especially cotton. While some of the cotton and other raw materials were coming from within Busoga, a lot of them were also coming by ferry to Namasagali, from West Nile, Acholi, Lango (especially through Masindi Port) and Teso which were across the Kyoga.

“Lamusa” is a Lusoga stem word for greeting or waving at and “Gaali” is trio for wheelbarrow, bicycle as well as locomotive train. The prefix “Na” replaces “La” when a person is referring to themselves in the stem word. So, persons who refer to themselves as greeting or waving say “Namusa”. Legend has it that in the early days of the train the Basoga personified it, believing that part of their civic duty was to go wave at it as it passed. Because the bogies were hauled by a steam engine, it occasionally stopped along the way to restock wood fuel for its furnace operations. Nothing allegedly so delighted the Basoga more than thinking that the contraption had indeed recognised their importance and stopped so that they could properly greet rather than wave at it. This was “Namusa Gaali,” reportedly the origin of the foreign mispronunciation, “Namasagali”.

So important was the Namasagali location, by virtue of its small but relatively deep bay being nevertheless sheltered from direct river winds, waves and currents, that even Kyabazinga His Royal Highness (HRH) Sir William Wilberforce Kadhumbula Gabula Nadiope (King) of Busoga, had a Water Front Mansion built there. The Water Front Mansion was fifty metres downriver from the station or harbour master’s residence that was to later become Grimes residence simply referred to as the House. The Kyabazinga, whose ancestral home is at Budhumbula, would spend months on end fishing, hunting and hosting his important guests at his Water Front Mansion. His mausoleum is at Budhumbula and his grandson is the reigning Kyabazinga, HRH William Gabula Nadiope IV. But it was not only the British colonialists and the Basoga who had interests in Namasagali. The Egyptians value the Nile as their only source of fresh water. They identified Namasagali as one of the suitable locations to establish a gauge through which they could monitor the quality and water flow levels of the river. No doubt they established many other such points along the river all the way up to Alexandria.

 Pre-Independence El Nino flooded the station, harbour, the Water Front Mansion and entire riverside infrastructure

Despite the sheltered bay, in 1961/62, El Nino rains flooded the railway terminus, harbor, Water Front Mansion, the House and the entire riverside infrastructure (rails, docks, warehouses, offices, staff housing and sports facilities) was thus abandoned by the East African Railways Corporation (EAR&H). Years later, the EAR&H handed over that infrastructure to the then Busoga District Local Government which was culturally, politically, legislatively and administratively integrated with Obwa Kyabazinga bwa (Kingdom of) Busoga under HRH Nadiope. Jinja City as well as the districts of Bugiri, Bugweri, Buyende, Iganga, Jinja, Kaliro, Kamuli, Mayuge, Namayingo and Namutumba have since been bulkanised out of the local government but the subregion is now only a cultural kingdom without the executive powers.

Anyway, by the time of the El Nino, road services had been established in many parts of the cotton and other raw materials areas so the railway was neither technically relevant nor economically viable any longer. May be the Egyptians did not desert Namasagali for long, though. When I first arrived in Namasagali, the Arab country’s experts were still regularly visiting the place to monitor their lifeline. We would see them drive in at a particular time of the month, pay a courtesy call on Fr Grimes then go about their business at the quayside. But a junk water flow gauge lying near the quayside was evidence that they may have developed better methods of monitoring the quality and flow. Beside the junk gauge stood a steam-powered crane, another landmark feature of the facilities where earlier priest Fr Patrict Neville evidently converted the railway station and harbour into an educational institution in 1967. The school had been established in 1964 at the site of the current Kamuli Township Primary School, with Grace Igaga Mutekanga (RIP) as headteacher. Then it was moved to Bukwenge where present day Busoga High School, Kamuli, stands. It was in 1965 when Fr Neville had been posted by the Mill Hill Missionaries as headteacher, under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Busoga District Local Government, that the school moved to Namasagali, taking over all the vast land and disused infrastructure that included the Kyabazinga’s Water Front Mansion. But later in 1967, Fr Neville left and Ogumpe took over to develop the school into Uganda’s biggest, most prestigious, economically self-sustaining,  well-staffed, private, mixed, fully boarding Ordinary (O) and A Level secondary school which was at its peak when I arrived there. Due to change of location, however, the school had in 1974 formally changed its name from Kamuli College to Namasagali College, Kamuli.

VIDEO: Namasagali in 1988

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

In Uganda, a “college” can be just a glorified secondary school or a true institution of higher learning. Still, while basically offering secondary school education, I found Namasagali under Fr Grimes neither just a glorified secondary school nor truly an institution of higher learning. Instead, to me it appeared to be a long stay riverside jungle holiday camp where reading books was, on the surface, one of the (sometimes by-the-way!) secondary school curriculum activities but where complex processes for development of an all-round (the head, the hand and the heart) citisen was emphasised, contrary to the practice in many other schools that dotted excessively on rote learning, examination results and superficial manilla card certificates. If a “Bloody” 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 or Mt St Mary’s Secondary School in Namagunga, all near Kampala, but was, critically, within the age-group, Namasagali was the place for their “Bloody” rich parent to drive all the way (almost 200 kms) to and from. Also if international civil servants wanted a place to keep their “Bloody” children safe while they hobnobbed globally, the well-thought out care under Ogumpe could certainly fit the need. And if any “Bloody” politicians required a place to shield their dependants from the perpetual national security turbulences, they brought the children to Namasagali. Multi-racial or other multi-cultural children were also likely to receive better socio-psychological comfort in Namasagali than under any other school in Uganda, there hardly being any international schools at that time. Besides, if an early teenage girl had regretably fallen pregnant and given birth, Namasagali was the place to admit her then keenly guide her on never to fall prey again to the appetites of sugar daddies. Or if the teenage girl was simply in the habit of jumping out through windows to attend discotheques with the sugar daddies 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 Saturday evening and where she would be, ironically, compelled to dance with boys provided they were of the same age group.

In Namasagali, female and male students alike in Advanced (A) Level secondary were strictly prohibited from interacting (let alone just dancing) with those in Ordinary (O) Level secondary, whether female or male because that would be “mixing levels”. Neither were students in the last two years of O Level secondary 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, a sort of “Lord of the Spies”, had a network that would smell that a mile away and nip it in the bud. The students were also compelled to attend a film show every Sunday but the chosen film had to be personally viewed and approved by Ogumpe as instructive and morally appropriate before it was screened – oba ebiseera ebyokubona film edho yabitoolanga wa (I wonder where he got time for censoring those films)!

Admission was conducted at the Uganda National Theatre and Cultural Centre (UNTCC) in Kampala for only a few days and, thereafter, each parent had to brave the long, dusty journey to the riverside to seek personal audience with Fr Grimes before the child was admitted. Upon being tipped by his secretary Monica Muteesi that a parent was driving in to seek admission for a child, the “Lord of the Spies” would come out of his office a hundred or so metres away from the river, 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. The exception would be for the parents who paid their Graduated Tax (GT) in the Busoga districts because their local governments had under the MoU a fees subsidy in place. However, by the time I arrived there the fees subsidy was no longer tenable and every parent had to meet full fees for their children whether they paid or not their GT in a Busoga district.

The infrastructure in Namasagali was rudimentary but the talents developed were legendary

Most of the income from the ever skyrocketing school fees is likely to have been spent on staff salaries, teaching materials (especially laboratory chemicals), health care, feeding and, infuriatingly for poorer parents, luxurious co-curricular activities. The college, for instance, put up an annual flagship three-day drama production at the UNTCC around Independence Day and sources in the know say that was always a very expensive marketing operation, eating into any possible investment in physical infrastructure as the Ugandan theatre-going habbit is even today is still too poor to enable recovery of the full costs involved. Actually, to attract me away from a Government of Uganda (GoU) job, Ogumpe did not only dangle at me a fourteen times increase in the salary GoU had been paying me but also offered me and my brother David Wepukhulu free tickets to watch “Tatiana in Paris”, the drama production at the UNTCC that year. We came away completely mesmerised by the plot of the story, the characterisation and the glamorous costumes used.

Before the annual drama production was adopted, however, the marketing gimmick was focused on boxing. The school used to host, at own expense, the national inter-schools boxing tournaments. And you can guess which schools frequently won – Namilyango College where Ogumpe had started the game as soon as he arrived in Uganda and was posted there as a teacher in 1959 then Namasagali College itself. In the Uganda Amatuer Boxing Association (UABA), Fr Grimes had risen as high as coach, then referee, then general secretary then chairman in which capacity he rubbed shoulders with Field Marshal Idi Amin Dada, himself an adent boxer.

The success of John Baker Muwanga as one of Uganda’s best boxers is testimony to the influence of Ogumpe over the game. Jonathan Musere notes that during the 1970s when at Namasagali, Muwanga “displayed himself as a skillful, dreaded and popular boxer. At the amateur national level, he is said to have defeated renowned future world champion and fellow Ugandan Cornelius Boza-Edwards (Bbosa) twice. In April 1973, the annual Golden Belt Tournament took place in Bucharest. Most of the winners and silver medalists turned out to be Cubans and Romanians. It was here that Muwanga, aged 17, first participated in international competition. Muwanga, together with his accomplices on the Uganda team–Ayub Kalule, Vitalish Bbege, and James Odwori all won bronze medals in Romania. Later in the same 1973, Muwanga fought for Uganda twice in two Urafiki (Kenya vs. Uganda) tournaments; he was victorious. Muwanga soon became overwhelmed when the veteran Ugandan boxing legend Alex Odhiambo, who had hitherto been so critical of the younger boxer, subsequently gave him the nod and the thumbs up!”

Posting in his blog (https://jonathanmuserearticles.fandom.com/wiki/John_Baker_Muwanga:_Uganda_Boxing_Biography), Musere says “Muwanga’s stint as a national amateur boxer were from 1973 to 1977 when he was also a student at Namasagali College; thereafter he attended Oslo University while he fought as a professional”.  He says Muwanga, as a light-flyweight represented Uganda at the inaugural world amateur championships held in Havana in August 1974. He was eliminated in the preliminary round by a points decision in favor of Bejhan Fuchedzhiyev (Bulgaria). “Quite notable is the aspect that a massive six of the Uganda contingent in Havana had studied at Namasagali – one of the few schools in Uganda that embraced boxing. In addition to Muwanga, those boxers that did attend Namasagali included Nsubuga, Odwori, John Byaruhanga, Vincent Byarugaba, and Shadrack Odhiambo,” writes Misere. He says according to https://boxrec.com, Muwanga started his professional career in Norway in April 1978, and ended it in October 1982, undefeated as a professional boxer with 15 wins, 0 losses, with 6 knockouts. Incidentally, Norway, where Muwanga was based, banned boxing on health grounds at the beginning of 1981.

Ogumpe said he, too, abandoned the game after reading widely and understanding that it has adverse health effects on the human body. A ’Sags alumnus who later as a staff worked closely with Ogumpe but has declined to be attributed doubts this as the main reason. Instead, the alumnus’ view is that Ogumpe had a big heart for the girl-child, aspired to involve them in every school activity yet this boxing on which he was spending a fortune was excluding them, thus the change of gimmick. Aggrey Izizinga (Rose Kaboggoza Musoke’s spouse), also an alumnus who later as one of Namasagali College deputy headteachers worked closely with Ogumpe disputes the view of this alumnus, saying the priest based his decision on clear health evidence. Whichever way, the resultant annual production with plenty of music, creative dance, choreography and drama was borne.

If new staff, parents or students, therefore, expected to find wonderful storeyed buildings, comfortable furniture and other goodies, the great expectations were dispelled right at the main gate when they encountered staff houses with cracked walls that had last been painted by the EAR&H, cob-webbed ceilings and rotting facia boards. Opportunistic flowering and non-flowering plants alike were even peeping out of or growing on top of the tiled roofs. But the walkways 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 when operations closed shop. Every other part of the spacious compound was also well mowed by a certainly very old but seemingly well maintained Mercy Fergason tractor. It is just as well that the mowing was thorough and frequent because the presence of snakes and other long or large crippy creatures in the grassy compound was no strange phenomena – and environmentally sensitive Ogumpe’s quite frightening rule of the thumb was that, rather than hit the creatures on their heads with clubs, we were only to coax them back to the forest or the river or from wherever we thought they came.

Soon after I arrived, late Dutch Father Jaap Zonneveld (Ndorobo), the perpetually pipe smocking 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 procured through Walusimbi’s Garage in Kampala and the only swimming pool in a Ugandan secondary school at that time became the pride of the establishment to which I now belonged. Kisige has explained that the swimming pool was built to prevent students and staff drowning in the river. This led to the creation of the school’s swimming club called “The Dolphines”. Kisige says that, however, whenever any members of the Dolphines proved themselves very competent, they would be permitted to swim to Bugerere on the other side of the river and back, a two way distance of more than a kilometre.

Water for domestic use was no problem but it was pumped from the river and distributed without any further purification so much so that I am amazed how I often drunk it direct from the tap and still got no running stomach. The bathrooms and toilets were basically the stained old but functional water borne system that had been left by the EAR&H and more often than not 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 dormitories 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 quarters. 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.

Some food items were a bit of a challenge. Sweet potatoes and cassava were plenty and teachers were even encouraged to simply ride to the school kitchen any day to freely pick from what the fresh stuff the neighboring community had sold to the school. But if we wanted bananas or Irish potatoes they had to be expensively brought across by boat on Wednesday, the weekly market day from Bugerere as our soils and rains did not seem to be adequately suitable for growing it. And, anyway, there were also a prodigious presence of apes of multiple sises, breeds and colours, ready to devour any garden. Then fish, ayayayah! On a full moon night the fishermen would come out of the river at past one o’clock, vending fresh fish yet we were usually too tired to attend to them. To strike a balance, we would tell them to dump the fish in the outdoor water sink so that they return during daytime to bargain the prices and get paid .

Fr Grimes was also conscious of the health risks of living in that jungle, especially the malaria caused by mosquitoes, and had in place a medical unit managed by a full time clinical officer, some nurses and a medical laboratory technician. Besides, he had on standby that orange truck and white school van to evacuate any staff or student patients to a private hospital run by the Catholic Church in Kamuli even deep into the night in need arose. This health care extended to the community as well, especially the children, given that the GoU Namasagali Health Centre had become disfunctional after the El Nino. One teacher, Silver Mejje Kawere, used to claim that he had been allocated a residence in the former health centre’s mortuary. I visited him a few times in the small room on the side of the main health centre building but I am not sure if it was formerly a mortuary.

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 prey to simple temptation caused by exposure to some body flesh, thus the skimpy uniforms. Apparently the uniforms also enabled uninhibited, swift movement of the youngsters, who were ever reminded that if any persons moved slowly they also thought slowly. The Grimesian philosophy also seems to have been that success does not come only through students gluing themselves to books but also through practical technical, sports, board games 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”. Sprinting, marathons, the various jumps, swimming, boating regatta on the river, rugby, volleyball, lawn tennis and (in the earlier days) boxing are a few among the many choices a student had to make. The troupes supervised by this “foreigner” even came top of several folk dance competitions in Busoga, with history showing Kisige as emerging among the star dancers and players of Akadongo (African thumb piano).

By-the-way, the “Lord of the Spies” personally, closely monitored every student’s participation in co-curricular  activities, awarding each student three credits for any activity and some penalties for every abscondment. Bookwork was, indeed, restricted to the classroom hours and short prep times – and punishable if a student attempted to exceed those hours. I must also, though, point out that chess was taught as a classroom subject, scheduled for four periods per class per week, with Abdul Bidi and John Nsega (both also biology teachers) also dedicated to teaching the subject because it was “an intellectually very challenging and rewarding endeavor”. ’Sags, by the way, used to host the Annual National Secondary Schools Chess Tournament, another very expensive marketing venture, and you should have been there to see Ogumpe smile as he watched one of his students make an out of ordinary move to save the Queen piece from a multiplicity of Rooks.

Besides, as many students as possible were assigned responsibility as Judges, Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, Reeves (Police), Class Monitors, Time Keepers or Games Captains – and Grimes ensured that every such official was held to account for their commissions and omissions with the seriousness of a paid national public servant in a serious country. Each office and academic achievement had a ribbon of a dedicated colour. Purple was for Judges, green for Ministers, red for Reeves and yellow oba for Time Keepers oba which other officials? Then a snow white ribbon was for top of the class performance in the preceeding term while light blue was for students who came between second and tenth in class, according to Daniel Fredrick Okiria, a 1994 to 1997 alumni who father, Joseph Tukei Okiria (RIP) was the Biology and Chemistry teacher. It was a serious offence for any official to attend class, go to the dining hall, even dance without displaying their ribbon. And, no. A student could not decline an appointment once identified by Fr Grimes (by the Grace of God, rather than elected by fellow students!) as suitable for it. Fr Grimes had, for instance, established a system where the Reeves could effectively arrest suspected offenders (even Ministers, by the way!), prosecute them (in a Students’ Court through a hierarchy of Judges) using a relatively complex coded penalties and dole out punishments to which Grimes himself (not any other staff) 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 (MDD) so he would be coming back late. Incidentally, he is said to have for some years annually during his leave in April spent fortunes arranging for this MDD group to stage their shows on drama stages somewhere in the UK.

Even in his Wednesday absence, no other staff, not even Ndorobo, administered the punishment. Sitting in the staffroom adjacent 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 the House and I never came to internalise what it was all about. Neither did I understand what it meant to “condense the lamp”. I hear the priest 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 are hesitant to disclose much to us the uninitiated.

Ogumpe caned a son of the sitting president

Now Lira Municipality MP Honourable Jimmy Akena and his elder brother United National (UN) employee Tony Akaki, sons of former President Dr Apollo Milton Obote, will not talk much either. Apparently, humble as he looks today, 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 and he could have, instead, brought some government functionary. Fr Grimes was, however, not interested in talking to the President of Uganda or his (the President’s) delegate. No. His interest was in talking to the father of Akaki, according to Kifubangabo who was his classmate. Kifubangabo says Fr Grimes eventually relented and talked to Akaki’s mother, Mama Miria Kalule Obote, before caning the boy in her presence.

It did not even matter whether you were a Reeve, except that in that case your punishment took place at the House. An alumnus of 1983 to 1986, Robert Nandhubu was a Reeve in his Senior 3 and 4. He attempted to resign, citing his inability to get enough time for academic pursuits. Every Reeve was required to arrest at least and successfully prosecute two offenders per day, failure to which the official would be charged with Neglect of Duty by Public Official (ND), which carried five Penalty Points (5P). Each P carried a lash of the cane. Nandhubu says he found that responsibility a bit too demanding on his academics and sought to quit. Instead he was charged with Lèse-majesté (LJ) which carried 25P.

“I received 25 strokes from the House for LM and I condensed in one lamp,” says Nandhubu.

Former student leaders recall disciplinary systems and structures

Moses Tefula was in Namasagali between 1970 and 1976 and became Reeve in his last three years. Tefule to the congregation at the Fr Grimes requem mass held at the Liverpool Holy Rosary Church, Altway, Aintree, Village, UK that he remembers how Fr Grimes was once passing near a boys’ dormitory when he saw a student of about the priest’s own height smoking. The priest dashed into the dormitory, grabbed the student by the collar under what is referred to as civil arrest, and dragged him to the judges who were fellow students but the case was dismissed. This is a story I have also often heard being told about why Fr Grimes actually gave up smoking. According to what I heard, in his rush Fr Grimes forgot to confiscate the kitundu (half-smoked cigarette or butt). So, in front of the student judges, the fellow student demanded evidence and, failing which, he expained in terms of physics.

“The walkway outside the dormitory and my bed inside the dormitory are equidistant. So, because Father is the same height as myself and he was smoking, he smelt his own burning tobacco and saw a reflection of his cigarette on my mouth,” argued the suspected culprit.

“If I was the one smoking, where is the kitundu?” demanded the student. Under the procedures staff were not expected to be cross-examined directly in court but the judges could go to them for explanation. The judge, therefore, went to seek explanation from the arresting officer, none other than Fr Grimes.

“Are you sure, Father, that you were yourself not smocking at that time?” asked the judge.

Fr Grimes reportedly said, “But “Bloody” Judge you know that I smoke all the time”. The student got off the hook – just like that.  Thereafter, Fr Grimes is said to have rethought his smoking habit.

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

“I recall when a student was expelled by the administration for alcohol abuse. He appealed to me and since after two days there was no (more) evidence that he was drunk, I acquitted him. Father Grimes was shocked, turned red but respected the structures,” Lumonya adds. Which brings me to Father’s temper. The militaristic priest could blush, yell at the top of his head till, I suspect, the people of Bugerere 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 (with shirts off for males) to the spot in front of staffroom called the Meditation Green (from which only a fellow students of he same class or same administrative rank could bail them out through an elaborate application process) then later to court. The next day, though, Fr Grimes would be smiling and awarding with a handshake, tour or a pink chit that entitled the bearer (same offender) to a chocolate, a biscuit or meal with Headmaster for good attempts in class, on the sports grounds or on the drama stage.

One alumnus who remembers winning such as an award despite her waywardness is Lucy Lunyolo (A Level, 1977 to 1978). Lunyolo says she wrote and read in front of Fr Grimes an earth-moving poem about her aspiration to climb higher and higher physical features such as rocks, hills and mountains. Apparently as a lower primary school pupil around Bumasikye subcounty, Mbale district, Lunyolo had been challenged to climb to the apex of the highest, steepest, rockiest hill in the vicinity and when she went to Nabumali High School for O Level she had dared climb to the Khaukha Caves on the Wanale ridge that overlooks Mbale City. Thereafter she aspired to climb Rwenzori, Uganda’s highest mountain, then Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest and, finally, Everest, the epitome of global heights. She is yet to do the last three but she has, instead, climbed the professional heights, starting as a teacher of English Language and Literature in Kampala’s Kololo Secondary School in the mid-1980s then teaching in international schools in Zambia, Botswana and Tanzania. Meanwhile, Lunyolo has also translated Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino into Lumasaaba under the title Kamalilo ka Lawino. 

The system deserved more governmental support

Technically, the school belonged to the Busoga districts which were increasingly being balkanised and not acting in tandem. It was not possible for me to get more details in the MoU signed between the Busoga districts local governments and the Mill Hill Mission but, as evidenced by the subsidies to the children whose parents paid GT in Busoga, there was initially a provision for the districts financially support the school. With time, though, the districts failed to meet their side of the bargain either by paying less than the expected percentage or not paying at all. Amidst this, the districts and individual parents were also questioning the rational for spending so much on “useless things” that were not going to earn their children top marks in national examinations. Thus, Fr Grimes increasingly relied on parents from outside Busoga to keep the school afloat by paying full costs of the education. Teacher and lawyer Ben Nsadha, for instance, attended ’Sags O Level between 1993 and 1996 then enrolled in A Level in 1997 but was quickly withdrawn by his parents due to their preference for a “hard-boiled” academic progression.

Biography of Fr Grimes

Mill Hill Missionaries have published details of Fr Grimes’ birth, education and work. They explained how he earned the MBE from the Queen of England for his “outstanding service to the people of Uganda in the field of education”. 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, Damian 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, the Jesuit 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, Damian 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 Damian ‘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, Damian 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 this outstanding service to the people of Uganda in the field of education, Damian was awarded the MBE,” said the Missioners.

I only went to Namasagali to teach and escape poverty – but “Lord of the Spies” in addition forced me to learn, the hard way, new, more productive skills and attitudes

If any staff 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 us 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.  In March, 1989, for instance, Rose Kaboggoza Musoke Izisinga, the then Head of the English Department was with her spouse Aggrey returning to the Ministry of Education for further posting instructions in a government school. Despite my reluctance, the “Lord of the Spies” 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!), my attending to the cocurricular students’ activities that fell under my department and my adhering to personal financial independence. Imagine, I was even once called to order for failing to pick my salary from the bursar’s office by midday on the last Thursday of the month – because in so delaying I was disrupting the smooth flow of the system! It seems 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 supervisory eye – even when there was clearly no possibility of him noticing me. Therefore, if I have soared as a teacher, journalist, public relations practitioner, it is partially because Fr Grimes never let me off the leash.

“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 literacy 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 more Amstrad machines, adding on to the three he had got around 1985. The Amstrad machines used Locoscript II software which is extremely crude compared to today’s versatile Windows or Apple Operating System that have a gigabyte-sized Random Access Memory (RAM), mouse interfaces and the Power Upserge Stabiliser (PUS). Amstrad had a Starter Disk in the same way as motor vehicles have ignition keys – and behaved exactly like some vehicles which, despite the driver turning on the ignition key, still need a push to start.Then the Amstrad RAM was so small that a user would hardly type in half a page before being required to save the work – an exercise that took another grinding five minutes or so. Yet with the unstable power supply and in the absence of the PUS, we stood the risk of losing everything typed if we did not regularly save our work and taking another ten minutes using the Starter Disk to reignite systems and, well, literally push. Ogumpe sat next to me one day at the line of computers (the machines were on the balcony of the House) 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 do so. 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 nonsense”. We were already trained university graduate teachers, we argued, so, what else did we need in life? The foresighted “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 because of speculative skill set requirements. So, I had gone to Namasagali in my later youth only to teach and escape poverty – 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, swimming, boating regatta, volleyball, drama and other preoccupations still came top of the examinations and are now the nearly retiring national and international cream of leaders. 

Government Education Amanya Mushega was impressed, almost instantly granted permission for resumption of Uganda’s first private university college

One of the incidents I remember most vividly was when Hon Amanya Mushega, the then GoU Education Minister came seeking a vacancy in Senior 5 for a female dependant, probably in May 1991. I bet you that the former University of Zambia (UNZA) law lecturer was not sure that Ogumpe would offer any place in the holiday camp for his dependant so he really humbled himself. That is when I experienced Ogumpe’s expertise in dealing with powerful persons whose written chit would have been enough to get their dependants admitted in Government-aided schools. Without waiting for Hon Amanya Mushega to explain what he had driven all the way to ’Sags for, the priest invited the dignitary, who certainly had little time on his hands, for a drive to the House in his (Ogumpe’s) simple Toyota car, leaving behind the posh Nissan Laurel used by GoU ministers of that time. At the House Ogumpe showed Hon Amanya Mushega the line of Amstrad computers and pointed out that, therefore, Namasagali was ready to re-establish University of London law degree courses. The courses had reportedly been unsuccessfully attempted, for females only, in 1970 or thereabout and the prospect of re-establishing them was being mauled over. But I think only Grimes knew how they operate and, possibly, only Ndorobo guessed that they would again be financially disastrous. The rest of us were ready to go with the wind in again attaining Uganda’s first private university status.

Whatever else Fr Grimes and Hon Amanya Mushega discoursed at the House, we do not know but I remember the pair coming back to the office and Hon Amanya Mushega walking away with his dependent and her letter of admission. Fr Grimes escorted them to the car park (unusual of him), saw them off then, face beaming, triumphantly came back to office via the staffroom and announced that he had been given verbal permission to begin the university. The weeks that followed saw Charles Lwanga, one of the school’s deputy headteachers, frequent Hon Amanya Mushega’s office in Kampala for a few formalities before securing a letter granting the permission to resume. Other courses, such as in Journalism and in MDD would follow later, achieving for Ogumpe even greater fame but reportedly draining the secondary school of its at that time already declining financial resources.

Before any university course could begin, however, I resigned. My spouse was near Kampala and our daughter Victo (RIP) was with my mother near our ancestral home in Mbale. I had dispersed them following failure to cop with repeated bouts of malaria but the separation was becoming unsustainable. The whole question of what my future had in stock for me had, especially, kept haunting me for three months after my students’ stellar results came out but a small disagreement in a staff meeting was the last straw that broke my back. I had typed my letter of resignation and saved it on diskette ever since my excelling students sat their examinations in March/April, 1991. When the results came out around June, I kept asking myself why I could now not go and profitably utilise this grueling experience elsewhere. Then when the spark came on, I rode a bicycle over to his (imagine!) computers at the House, took two minutes dating my letter, came back into his office and handed it to him – in person. That is when he rushed out and to consult my fellow Bagisu (Assistant Bursar Anthony Bende and Physics/Mathematics Teacher John Wanda Masifwa) who were more senior than myself. He learnt from Bende and Wanda that I had also served in other teaching positions and even in journalism before. So, he came back and declared me a “Bloody” Nomad – a nickname I am still still proud of and have even repeatedly insisted on buying Suzuki Escudo Nomade cars.

Meanwhile, the school’s finances were dwindling partially because education opportunities elsewhere countrywide were slowly opening up. In 1988, the Islamic University in Uganda (IUIU) opened its doors in Mbale, taking pressure from Uganda’s only university, Makerere. Although the IUIU is now considered a purely private establishment, it was at that time thought to be owned by the GoU because of its inter-governmental links. By 1997, the (Anglican) Church of Uganda (CoU) was also beginning to admit the first students into the private Uganda Christian University (UCU) in Mukono, soon to be followed by the Catholic Church’s Uganda Martyrs’ University (UMU) and many others. Then at secondary school, Mariam Girls School in Kisaasi, a Kampala suburb, had around 1992 opened as a private boarding school for girls, under the headship of former Nabisunsa Girls’ School headteacher Haji Swaibu Mbazira. Soon after, former Bank of Uganda (BoU) Governor Haji Sulaiman Kiggundu opened Kabojja Senior Secondary School (now the IUIU female campus) in another Kampala suburb as a boarding facility for both boys and girls. These developments all undercut the need for rich parents to drive all the way to Namasagali for whatever level of education. But even in Busoga, the same local governments that were hesitant to extend financial support to Namasagali to safely keep the girl-child in school in the early 1990s conspired to instead start Nawanyago Girls Secondary School as an affordable alternative private establishment, to be later taken over by the GoU, again undercutting the financial base of Namasagali. 

 Ogumpe turned the life of my son around

I lost contact with Ogumpe after resigning my teaching post and being baptised Nomad but I had very rich, brief interactions with him following his acrimonious departure from Namasagali due to disagreements with the Basoga on how to sustainably manage the school. Apparently the older he grew, the more financially messed up the school (and now university college) became so the Basoga pushed him out. He was to tell me later at a private dinner that when he was driving out of the school for the last time he kept deeply thinking about the fate of the school and the ideas (what I am calling Grimesianism) he had propagated there. One of his most faithful Basoga adherents had been James Gaira, who waved him off at the gate.

“I drove up to Naluwoli then turned back to the gate where I found poor Gaira still gazing into the blankness. I told him to be firm and not abandon the school, then drove away again,” Fr Grimes told me. But by around 2010, he was coming to Uganda once a year to conduct a Summer Camp at the University of Kisubi (UNIK) near Kampala. The camp was for teenagers who, having missed Namasagali, wished to undergo a few weeks of mentoring under a now retired Ogumpe. His alumni such as Flavia Kagimu Mukasa, Joanita Kagimu Mukasa (Bewulira Wandira), Grace Ibanda (former Lady High Reeve) and Enid Katorobo were organisers of the camp. At about that time I had an only son, Amos Mwassa (born after Namasagali), going through teenage challenges. The study habits, discipline and social interaction of Amos were all a great worry to my spouse and I so we dispatched him to the camp. Amos came back a theatre star, playing the main character part in a drama show put up at the UNTCC to mark end of the course. He had also learnt scrabble and chess, improved his academic performance and was now socialising better. Today, Amos is a very responsible electrical engineering technician at a private hydro-electric power generation facility.

Uganda honoured Fr Grimes with a Hero’s Medal

For these troubles, Fr Grimes was 2022 awarded Uganda’s Distinguished Order of the Crested Crane, annually conferred to citisens and non-citisens alike “who have distinguished themselves in the areas of public and private service”. Because the priest was not physically present at the Ibanda district headquarters, his medal was received by Bitature. Major General George Igumba of the UPDF read the citation for the Fr Grimes honour, saying, “During the 1979 war which ended the regime of (Field Marshal) Idi Amin, he (Fr Grimes) did not abandon his students to go back to his country, the United Kingdom. Instead, he stayed with his students and protected them to the end. He managed the secondary school in difficult, complex circumstances and gave first class education to many children, several of whom are at present in senior positions, both in government and the private sector. He was chairperson of the Education Service Commission (it was actually the Teaching Service Commission at that time) who promoted equal opportunities in the education system of Uganda by encouraging second class students and those whom society had come to term as failures to excel. He managed to build Namasagali College out of an abandoned old port and railway station to a modern college for boys and girls. He introduced an international approach …(not clear over television) which was later adopted by other schools”.

I am not privy to what he said in appreciation of the honour, but in some other circumstances he is quoted to have said, “I tried to do what I did, to please God, and in as far as you have found that helpful, it is God you should think of and thank Him, not me. It was a pleasure for me to have done this work”.

The need for urgent, comprehensive documentation, analysis and reflection on Grimesianism

I have since 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), Vision Group, 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 (NPHC). 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 humble but fulfilling 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. So, I deeply celebrate Grimesianism.

But, before we go celebrating, wait a minute! Most information on this unique approach in the Namasagali College custody was burnt in the administration block fire a while ago. I am grateful that by the time of the fire Fr Grimes had already left office and even published a 173-page book, “Uganda: My Mission” (available on Amazon) documenting some few of his approach’s achievements and frustrations. I speculate, though, that he “…may have left with personal newspapers, magazines, newsletters, bulletins,  journals, correspondences, reports, manuscripts, diaries, registers, lists, codes, schedules, photographs  and video clips from which more information could be extracted. Rev Fr Jaap Zonneveld, Simon Downie and David Allen (all RIP) are among other expatriates who could have left some personal data on Grimesianism. Some alumni such as Albert Gomes Mugumya have written about their specific experiences (The School in the Wilderness) but I am still worried that posterity may not make any sense out of that data if we who Fr Grimes nurtured do not urgently, comprehensively document, analyse and reflect on it to see what can still be revived and replicated in Africa.

In this, 1984-1990 alumnus Tony Ofungi is with me but more for touristic than educational purposes. Ofungi, who owns Maleng Travel, a destination management company, advises that one of the marketing pillars in tourism is “to sell your brand and tell your story,” adding that another is to “sell iconic immersive experiences”. He further recommends that as ’Sags we should “…put these (experiences) together and tell our own story. YouTube, TikTok and others can be ideal tools to drive and change mindsets, especially if we are to attract high value customers, value over volume and, through that, Strive Regardless”.

Nsadha, too, is with us in this scratching of brains. “Father (Grimes) loved the leadership back home (in the UK). He believed in it and appreciated it to the extent that he established a replica of Burkingham Palace in Kamuli,” says Nsadha, although Ogumpe himself ever told me in our post-Namasagali interactions that he, instead, benchmarked Medieval England rather than modern UK. Nsadha asks everyone of us to reflect on what exactly, for instance, was the intension of the Anthem. “To what extent have we lived by the brain child…? What went wrong and can we possibly use the knowledge and skills (dispensed to us through ’Sags) to mitigate the shortfalls and keep the candle burning as incubated at the inception…?” He calls on us to reflect on the last stanza of the Anthem (which says) “…Others will come to occupy our places when we are gone and perhaps forgotten”. Nsadha, ironically asks where the others are that we are taking to (or sponsoring in) this school to guarantee it continuity. “Therefore,” he points out, “when we sit and ponder about the progress of the school, we should never take it lightly, (because) it is serious and calls for immediate and long term interventions”.

Reacting to Kisige’s piece entitled “Even in its sleep, a Lion is a Lion”, Catherine Imalingat has suggested a way forward. “The (Kisige’s) opening quote sounds good for a title of a book the alumni could write capturing and documenting all different people have shared and are yet to share in memory of Fr Grimes”.

Dr Ebony Quinto (1982 to 1988) welcomes this suggestion. “I propose that in the coming weeks everyone refines their story as we wait for for a central technical writing coordinating organ that will guide on how to have a comprehensive book on Fr Grimes from our varied individual perspectives… Let us awaken the small lions in us following his death,” says Quinto. Dr Quinto was the school’s Minister for Audio and Visual Affairs. He played the guitar and, later, the keyboard in the school choir before being appointed to head the school’s brass band. He also featured in “At Mama Kapis”, the school’s 1988 drama production.

Others who have volunteered to join the editorial task force include Esther Mwambu, an alumnus of 1981 to 1987. Mwambu was Cabinet Affairs Minister between 1985 and 1987 and was to return in 1993/94 as personal assistant to Fr Grimes in charge of  his correspondences, during which time she also compiled the school’s first ever magazine. She has since worked as Assistant Hansard Editor at the National Parliament before being assigned higher responsibilities. Mwambu has offered to join the task force.

There is, however, still some dilemma. Should the alumni hurriedly produce a commemorative magazine that can be conveniently distributed at the funeral functions as former Lord High Reeve Sam Zinunula Iga (1981 to 1987) suggests or should they work at a slower pace to comprehensively document, analyse and reflect on in a book-length publication that examines what can still be revived and replicated in Africa? Hurriedly producing a magazine will leave out many issues that need the comprehensive documentation, analysis and reflection but working long term on a book that examines what can still be revived and replicated in Africa could certainly create procrastination. Secondly, whether it is producing a magazine or a book, should this be a team project or an individual initiative? In an environment where teamwork stands the risk of not moving anything forward, the individual is better off initiating and chasing the project to the end yet such a project also risks missing out on the synergy of a team.

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

The worry of Ofungi, Nsadha, myself and many other direct or indirect beneficiaries of this approach, is how to revive the Grimesianism. As we worry about that, however, may be we should as well set up marathon disco nights (this, perhaps not quite in Bitature’s compound), poetry elocution contests, chess tournaments, swimming galas or boating reggata, musical extravaganzas, drama productions, 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. Besides, in my case, I have another reason for celebration – if there was ever in my life any uniquely brief and inspiring school motto, it was that crafted by you, “Bloody” 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 specializes in the Proofreading and General Editing (PAGE) of documents and can be contacted by Tel: (+256)752-649519 and by Email: agmusamali@hotmail.com.