Hope Kivengere started out as a teacher, before joining the National Resistance Army struggle for five years. After the war, she worked as the President’s Press Secretary for 16 years, before moving on to writing his speeches for four years. She then left government for the African Mission in Sudan. Her next stop was Somalia, with AMISOM for five years. She has also worked with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development and is now a member of the COMESA committee of elders which engages in mediation and election observation.

She spoke to Flair magazine in 2019 in an interview that ran under the section “What I’ve Learnt”. The section featured women achievers who had retired from high profile careers, sharing lessons they had learnt about different aspects of life. These are the excerpts.

Career

We go through primary, secondary and university and, of course, acquire some level of education. However, I have learnt that you do not have to put yourself in the box of that particular thing you studied. I was trained as an educationist, but realised I could do other things. When I went to work for the President, I learnt on the job. These things can be learnt, as long as you’re determined to do it. It makes life very interesting. You keep doing different things, adding more to your education so that you look at training and education as a lifelong experience. Don’t stick to the idea ‘I was trained as, say, a teacher and that’s all I will do for the rest of my life’; no. Try out other things. If they fail, they fail, but you would have tried. The important thing is to keep learning. A career shouldn’t box you into one thing. And now with the Internet, I have taught myself so many things.

Success

All I can say is do whatever you’re doing and give it your best. You can’t sit here and say ‘oh I’ve been successful’. It is other people who can tell you if you have been successful or not. All I can say is that whatever I have been doing, I have given it my best. All you can do is ask yourself “have I done my best here?”, if the answer is yes, be satisfied. 

Failure

It will happen. You will come up with good ideas, implement them and it fails, but you shouldn’t give up. Re-examine where you went wrong; learn something from it so you can do it better next time. It shouldn’t put you down because it’s part of life.

Age

Age is really a feeling especially if you lead a healthy life. I’m a senior citizen and my health is important to me. I try to remain active. I walk every day in my garden for about 30 to 40 minutes. I tried to walk on the street but it can be dangerous. Eat well. Those things contribute a lot to age. Then have a good attitude. Don’t focus on age. I don’t sit here and lament about it…particularly if you look back and ask yourself if you have done things that you are proud of. That encourages you to continue, so that you live a happy life.

Worst advice ever given to you

I can’t think of anything. The mistakes I have made have been my own.

Family and friendship

You need them; people whom you feel are part of you. I went to Gayaza High School and I find that even after years of not seeing my classmates, because people are scattered all over the country, we still have so much in common. You relink and it’s like you never separated. These are good friendships based on shared values; if don’t have the same values, it can be a bit dicey. You’ll either separate violently, or someone may pull you into things that you don’t believe in. So I truly believe friendship should be based on common values.

Love

I have a family that has a strong, unbreakable bond. Everyone must have love in their life.

Men

I’ve observed and advise that people not have relationships based on material things. They will come and go. It should be about mutual interest and being able to communicate, but I can’t say that I have a lot of experience.

Role models

My parents, they lived by what they said. My mother inspired me from a very early age because of her commitment to the girl child. She started school at 16 in Rukungiri at a time when parents did not want girls to go to school. Later in her life, she influenced her husband to start another girls’ school in Kabale; they renamed it Bishop Kivengere Girls School.

Then my father, because he said: “I will work for God.” And he did. It wasn’t just words.

Another role model for me was Fidel Castro. I started reading about him when I was 16, living in the US. He really influenced my political thinking.

Politics

I came into it almost by default. I was a lecturer of French at IPA, which is now UMI, when four young men who had delivered arms to the bush were arrested. They were detained at Jinja Road Police, right next to IPA, where I had a room. After about three days, they broke out at night. One of them was my cousin, Jim Muhwezi. As they escaped, I think one of them was shot and died on the spot. There were gunshots. Jim hid in my room, the other, David Tinyefuza, fled. By morning, they were more soldiers around IPA. I disguised him as a woman, he shaved his moustache and I gave him a wig I had never worn. He was wearing a long skirt and a blouse.

The area behind the hostel was clear, so we pushed him through a window on the first floor.

A few hours later, I was summoned and detained at Jinja Road Police for about a week, then transferred to CPS. After that, I went to court and was released. Every week they had to stamp my slip. After three months I went to Kenya, because they were adding some trumped up charges. In Kenya, I started working with the group. We would support any way we could; receiving the wounded soldiers, doing publicity, mobilising women to support the Movement, funding, any work.

Ugandan politics

I think Uganda’s politics has gone through so many steps. When we were young there were divisions along DP and UPC lines; we never talked to the Catholics because we were Protestants; churches were attacking each other’s properties. It was really the wrong foundation. If politics is based on the wrong foot and mishandled, it can lead to a lot of harm. But if it is reviewed and mistakes corrected it can be good thing. Otherwise, how else are you going to involve people in choosing their leaders? It doesn’t have to be a dirty game.

Any regrets?

I don’t think so. I keep reviewing my life. That doesn’t mean there’ve not been mistakes but regrets, no. I want to believe that the things I have done, especially if you have genuinely done your best, you shouldn’t have regrets.

Faith

To live without a spiritual aspect is to live with a certain emptiness. Human beings are spiritual beings. That’s how God created us. You need to find a way of connecting with God. I’m talking as a Christian but whatever religion you follow, make sure you make it a part of your life. For me it has been very useful, particularly when I went to Somalia and Darfur. Starting with prayer and a Bible reading, sets the day…we had so much fear, so many challenges, people died; but my spiritual life sustained me. And especially for the young people, when you hook onto God, it helps you deal with or avoid many things.

Young women

I’m a single woman. I know there is the pressure to marry and get children, but women need to know that they are worth their salt. Their contribution to society is much higher than people realise. They are holding up families, are faithful at work. I know there are exceptions, but in general, when they join a project they will be faithful and pay back. The percentage of women drunkards is much lower than the men. When they get money they try to multiply it for the family, much more than men. But they are undervalued.

One of my biggest disappointments recently was some women MPs complaining that they were being sexually abused by big people in government who were promising them ministerial jobs. No! You’re an MP; be proud to be an MP; why seek favours for a job? You already have a good job! You’re elected by the people. We need to have self-respect and confidence.

Women can do so many things that men either can’t do or refuse to do. I saw it in public offices. Women would quickly grasp something new, but you find a male boss asking how to use a photocopy or fax machine. Men also tend to rely on other people, while women will get up and do it themselves.

However, things are changing. I work a lot with the African Union and they have been putting together mediators for Africa. During workshops when women make their presentations, they are eloquent, they know what they are talking about. But we sometimes still suffer from being denigrated and put down. I believe, 100% that women are the future.

What tools do women need to build that confidence?

Education is important and as much as possible, use that education to be independent to some extent. Yes, I would encourage women to get married and have families; that’s an ideal. But, even within the family, to have some level of independence so they can do the things they want to do. You meet women who say their husbands do not allow them to work. Why?

Words to live by

Be yourself. Whatever it is. In thinking, style, the way you speak. I am bothered by the accents I hear when I listen to radio or watch TV. When we were young, we used to call it okufoofoza. My primary education was in Rukiga. English was just a subject. Very few children went to school, most would be looking after animals while we walked to school and they would throw stones at us. Then we would start okufoofoza, imitating missionaries, saying words from geography and history. They would think we were insulting them. But we were kids. Now people are trying to adopt an accent that is not theirs. Even in church… Be yourself and not a copy of someone else.