I was born on November 23, 1976 in Mulago Hospital to the late Fredrick Ssewalu and Mariam Nalubega of Buwate, Wakiso district. I am the eight born in a family of 12. Though my father was polygamous, he never missed Sunday prayers.
The good thing I love about my family is that most of us were from different mothers, but we were close - we never fought as children and there was no discrimination among us. My mother never got the opportunity to stay with my father. She took me to my father’s home at the age of three because she was still young and could not look after me.
We never lacked at home, but my father never wanted to pay for us school fees. He was also a strict disciplinarian. One day he shouted at me and I urinated in my trousers. As a child, I was very naughty, was never willing to do any house chores.
The fact that my father was very strict, did not stop me from fighting at the well, stealing old people’s sugar cane and making bad jokes at people.
My childhood dream was to become a lawyer, but no one at home believed in me. Whenever I told them that I wanted to be a lawyer, they would laugh at me and make jokes that law was not for everyone and I should wake up. My older brother used to say that if he ever found me in a court as a lawyer, he would beat me up.
That is how I was discouraged.I was a moody child. In fact, most of my relatives never wanted to take me to their homes for the holidays. It was hard to deal with me. If anyone annoyed me, I would spend a day without talking to anyone.
One day, my father upset me and I ran away from home. I went to my aunt’s place and asked her the whereabouts of my real mother. She told me that my mother was married to another man and was staying in Nakifuma. I decided to go to my older sister’s shop in Ntinda to work for her and get some transport to go and look for my mother. My sister welcomed me and told me to work in her shop for two hours. She gave me sh2,000 and sent me back home.
Instead, I boarded a taxi to Nakifuma to look for my mother. I asked boda boda men to direct me to my mother’s home. I managed to trace her and when I reached her home, she was not around. Everyone who saw me asked me to identify myself. I explained myself and my sister told me to wait outside because she was not sure I was telling the truth.
My mother returned at 7:00pm. She looked at me with surprised eyes and asked me how I got to her. She cried and hugged me tight.
I started telling her all the bad things that had happened at home. I wanted her to feel sorry for me and take me away from my father’s home. She laughed at me and advised me to endure the suffering. She told me to pack my bags and go back. I picked up my bags and went to my cousin’s place in Owino.
I told him that my father had chased me away from home. He welcomed me to his home for two days. Little did I know that he had contacted my father to come and see me and find out why I ran away from home.
As I lay in bed, I heard a knock at the door. It was my father. He pulled me up and beat me up thoroughly. In the taxi, he quarreled all the way back to his home.
After about a week back home, my step mother sent me to the well. Instead of fetching water, I decided to play with my friends. The jerry can got lost. I went back home and hid in the kitchen trying to cook up a good lie of how I had lost the jerry can. That day God was not on my side. My step mother found me, but did not say a word.
She put a knife into the fire and when it was red hot, she placed it on my lap. I will never forget that day. I cried till my father came back, but the most disturbing bit was that my father blamed me and wanted to beat me up.
I bear the scar on my lap.
I went to Kira Primary School for primary; Kira SSS up to S2. I then joined Kampala Secondary School, but dropped out in S5 because I had no school fees. I had picked interest in music and started doing karaoke with the late Umalu Katumba.
That is where I met Grace Ssekamate and Geoffrey Lutaya, then we formed Eagles Production.
Cousin's Comment
Haruna Mubiru, also a musician, describes Semakula as a stubborn boy who used to escape from home every Friday to go out to dance. “He was the thief at home. If one of us lost something, the first suspect would be Mesach.
Whenever he came back from school before us, he would eat our food and finish everything that was kept for us, like juice. Everyone complained about him.”
As told to Carol Kasujja