MAKERERE UNIVERSITY | MAK@100 | NAWANGWE

Makerere University is today celebrating 100 years of its existence, during which it has transformed societies through human capital, numerous research outcomes, as well as science and technological innovations that have shaped Africa and the world.

President Yoweri Museveni is expected to preside over the official ceremony to end the year-long celebration activities that started in October last year.

Due to the COVID-19 restrictions and the outbreak of Ebola, only a limited number of local and international stakeholders and partners have been invited to physically attend the celebrations at the university.

Appearing on Urban Television yesterday, Makerere University vice-chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe said the institution opened its doors to 14-day students in 1922 and has since grown to become one of the most prestigious universities in Africa.

He said the celebration marks the end of a century of excellence and offers a chance to look beyond and see how to “leverage the 100 years of excellence in building a transformed society”.

“We are celebrating an history of an illustrious university, which was established in 1922 by the colonial government as a technical school, later turned into a technical college and mixed up with training artisans and masons to service the colonial masters then,” he said.

Nawangwe said Makerere had gone through many stages and each of these had in a way addressed the challenges that faced the country during that specific time.

“As a technical school, it was to provide some services to the colonial masters. Later, it became an institution that started offering a higher level of education at a time when the colonial government was consolidating its position and needed people that could run the country. They needed administrators, teachers and agricultural officers.

“As the country grew and the challenges became more and the needs different, they thought of making it a university and hence applied to the University of London and Makerere became affiliated with it.”

Nawangwe said following the struggle for independence, the challenges became different and Makerere began grooming leaders of the independence movement, who included Julius Nyerere, Kabaka Edward Mutesa, Apollo Milton Obote and Mwai Kibaki.

After independence, Makerere introduced professional programmes such as law, veterinary medicine and engineering.”

In 1963, Makerere became the University of East Africa with campuses at Makerere, Nairobi, and Dar-es-Salaam.

“In 1970, the three countries decided that they needed their own universities with all the courses that they needed to develop their own countries. So, Makerere became independent on August 1, 1970,” Nawangwe said.

“At one time, every civil servant in East Africa was trained at Makerere University. In the current setting, 90% of the country’s leadership has been trained at Makerere University. We pride ourselves in having the best school of tropical medicine in the world since 1937, and we still hold that position,” Nawangwe said.

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