Profile: Princess Bagaya

Apr 28, 2013

Although in her 70s, Bagaya’s beauty still turns heads; her big eyes are her trademark. She is tall and medium sized with beautiful long hair. She is also articulate.

Although in her 70s, Bagaya’s beauty still turns heads; her big eyes are her trademark. She is tall and medium sized with beautiful long hair. She is also articulate.

During her heyday, the gorgeous, cultured beauty graced the cover of Harper’s Bazaar, which was then a top American society magazine.

Her childhood was not different from that of a typical Ugandan child. Bagaya would walk two miles to and from school together with other royal children.

At school, she engaged in garden work and fetched water with other children. The princess was never given special treatment. Perhaps this explains why she became hardworking, independent and successful in life.

In 1971, Bagaya was appointed Uganda’s roving ambassador and delegate to the UN, where she made her first speech.

Bagaya knows the intricacies of diplomacy.

Her success at the UN prompted Amin to propose to her. Later, she fled into exile and returned to Uganda in 1980.

Love life

In the same year, Bagaya met the love of her life, Wilbur Nyabongo. Nyabongo was an engineer with Asseyah, a Swedish company with headquarters in Nairobi.

He turned out to be her clan mate, but this did not deter the lovebirds from walking down the aisle. Among the Babiito of Toro and Bunyoro, it is acceptable for someone to marry a clan mate.

In 1981, the two secretly married in London at St. Margareta’s Church. Only two friends were present and it was kept a secret for some time.

Shortly after the wedding, Nyabongo enrolled at Oxford Air Training School where he qualified as a commercial pilot after a year. He later died in a plane crush.

Birth details

Bagaya was born to Omukama George David Kamurasi Rukiidi III and Queen Kezia Byanjeru. The king, with an imposing posture, was a disciplinarian. He had five wives, but Bagaya’s mother was the official one.

Her mother was a gifted musician and poet.

Bagaya picked interest in the kingdom affairs at a tender age. “My father devoted the evenings to talking with his subjects. We (children) were allowed to join the gathering.

Through this, I came to learn the history of Toro and all its traditions,” says Bagaya, who has been a key figure in Toro kingdom.

Within Toro kingdom, some people describe her as a heroine; an intelligent and controversial clear-headed royal.

Education

Bagaya started her education at a mission school within the kingdom. After a short stint, she was taken to Gayaza High School.

At school, she excelled as a singer and an actress. She also became a prefect.

In 1959, she left Gayaza to study at Sherbone School for girls in Dorset, England where she did entrance examinations to join Cambridge-Oxford.

She was admitted to Girton College, Cambridge, becoming one of the first three African women to be admitted there.

In 1962, Bagaya graduated from Cambridge with a bachelor’s degree in law, at a function her father attended. Three years after graduating, she was called to the English bar, the first female East African to do so.

In 1967, she was invited to London to take part in a modelling competition. After the event, she was overwhelmed by invitations from modelling agencies around the world.