Daring for love
EASTER'S theme of selfless love, played in the field of danger, is well appreciated in the experience of the Reverend Canon Peter Kigozi. The 93-year-old retired priest was motivated by love to venture into a relationship that sparked off confrontation with the Buganda Kingdom.
By Irene Nabusoba
EASTER'S theme of selfless love, played in the field of danger, is well appreciated in the experience of the Reverend Canon Peter Kigozi. The 93-year-old retired priest was motivated by love to venture into a relationship that sparked off confrontation with the Buganda Kingdom.
In 1941, Kigozi, a mukoopi (a commoner) a teacher in the Kabaka’s palace, defied Buganda tradition and married Irene Drusilla Namaganda, who was not only Kabaka Daudi Chwa II’s widow but also the Namasole (a queen mother).
In Buganda, a Nabagereka is the official wife of the Kabaka and the reigning queen. She graduates to the title of Namasole when her son becomes Kabaka. Namaganda was the mother of Kabaka Edward Mutesa II, father to the current king, Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II.
Grace Ssemakula, the head of the Olugave (Pangolin) clan, says it is abominable for a queen to re-marry even when the Kabaka dies. “It was unheard of. Once a Kabaka’s wife, always a Kabaka’s wife; whether he is dead or alive. There is the Christian vow that ‘till death do us part’ but Buganda tradition does not recognise it. And the fact that she was a queen mother was even more major because Kabaka taadibwako mukopi (a Kabaka must never be replaced by a commoner,†Ssemakula says.
When a Kabaka dies young, like it happened with Kabaka Daudi Chwa, these ladies stay in palaces or at other royal compounds. However, Ssemakula says, should one decide to move on after the death of the Kabaka (which is very rare because they also delight in the fact that they are queens), she would have to forfeit all her privileges. She would start by vacating the lusaka (queen mother’s palace) and live like a commoner. And that is what Namaganda decided to do in order to marry Kigozi.
Kigozi was aware of the risk. Indeed, they survived death narrowly after they chose to wed from Kibuye, Makindye in 1941, two years after the death of King Daudi Chwa II.
“Many Baganda subjects waited for them outside the church, with stones, clubs and spears to kill them but someone helped the couple to escape,†Semakula says.
Some sections of Baganda say that Kigozi was arrested and imprisoned but because there was no law under the colonial government that forbade marrying a Namasole, he was freed. But a Buganda official who prefers anonymity says that the couple voluntarily fled the country to neighbouring Kenya (Nairobi) out of fear.
“In their absence, some Baganda sympathisers negotiated with the Lukiiko to accord some respect to the mother of the reigning Kabaka (Mutesa) and allow them return home.
“The kingdom agreed that they should settle not less than a 40km radius from Kampala. Ham Mukasa, who was then the Ssaza (county) chief of Kyaggwe, offered Namaganda a piece of land in Ngogwe where they settled,†the source reveals.
He also set up a school there (Ngogwe Baskerville Primary School) where he continued with his career and pioneered the need for Sunday School as a good Christian foundation for young children.
Where it started It all started when Kigozi was teaching royals in the palace. Born on October 25, 1915, Kigozi says he went to Makerere Police School, then Kampala Normal School and trained as a teacher. He later worked as a school master in Soroti Police from where he was called to teach in the Nabagereka Primary School in the palace. This is where he met his beloved.
When the Kabaka died in 1939 at the age of 44, Kigozi is alleged to have immediately announced that he wanted to marry the Namasole. He put his case before the then governor, a mzungu (white), who could not understand why he should be stopped and gave a go-ahead. However, he reservedly consulted the Katikkiro Martin Luther Nsibirwa who also blessed the marriage, something that earned him a sacking from the Kingdom in 1943. But a year later, he was reinstated.
According to Sarah Natollo, 90, who was Namaganda's niece and maid from the age of three, Namaganda could have been ‘misled’ by religion. “Her ‘saved’ colleagues made her believe that it was normal to move on. That religion was above the conservative culture. Well she knew the implications, but we are often tempted. It is worse when you are in love,†Nattollo says. Nattollo later became Namaganda’s heir and lives in her palace today.
She says, born to Clement Katongole, Namaganda was a very graceful and down-to-earth woman. She was very kind and worked closely with her subjects. She had set up a school (Nabagereka School) in the palace; may be that is how she met Kigozi.
“She was very beautiful, learned and talented; she used to play netball. She produced two children with the Kabaka: Julian Lwantale and Kabaka Edward Mutesa Walugembe the second. With Kigozi, she also produced two children, but only one survived. Namaganda fell sick shortly after her baby died and was ill for a long time. She was taken abroad for treatment, where she died,†Natollo narrates.
Simon Peter Kigozi, the music director at Makerere Full Gospel Church, who is one of the nine grandchildren of Namaganda and Kigozi, says his father died in 1994.
He, just like many Baganda close to the kingdom, does not want to talk about that issue. Somehow, the Kigozi-Namaganda affair is not something many Baganda want to talk about. “I do not want to talk about that issue because many Baganda say it embarrasses them. And as long as there is a reigning king like now, I have to keep my mouth shut and close history behind me.
“I wrote a book in the 1940s about the whole saga and I was blocked from publishing it. It was in Swahilli and I will forever keep my peace. You can ask me about my life now and I will gladly tell it,†Kigozi says.
With today’s laws, maybe they would have gotten past that controversy on a human rights argument. But Francis Gimara, an advocate is not so confident.
“It still comes to what legal system is prevailing. It appears that in those days, customary law was very strong. But much as the laws have kept changing, the law still recognises customary marriages so long as they are not repugnant to the dignity, welfare or interest of marginalised groups like women,†he says.
Nevertheless, Kigozi’s love for Namaganda was one to reckon with. His grandson, commonly known as SP, says that after the death of Namaganda (his grandmother) in the early 1950s, Kigozi took long to remarry.
He is now happily married to Erina Kigozi, also a retired teacher. They have been married for 44 years now and surely he has God’s blessing with getting a hand in marriage. But how better would you define sacrificial love as you celebrate Easter?
EASTER'S theme of selfless love, played in the field of danger, is well appreciated in the experience of the Reverend Canon Peter Kigozi. The 93-year-old retired priest was motivated by love to venture into a relationship that sparked off confrontation with the Buganda Kingdom.
In 1941, Kigozi, a mukoopi (a commoner) a teacher in the Kabaka’s palace, defied Buganda tradition and married Irene Drusilla Namaganda, who was not only Kabaka Daudi Chwa II’s widow but also the Namasole (a queen mother).
In Buganda, a Nabagereka is the official wife of the Kabaka and the reigning queen. She graduates to the title of Namasole when her son becomes Kabaka. Namaganda was the mother of Kabaka Edward Mutesa II, father to the current king, Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II.
Grace Ssemakula, the head of the Olugave (Pangolin) clan, says it is abominable for a queen to re-marry even when the Kabaka dies. “It was unheard of. Once a Kabaka’s wife, always a Kabaka’s wife; whether he is dead or alive. There is the Christian vow that ‘till death do us part’ but Buganda tradition does not recognise it. And the fact that she was a queen mother was even more major because Kabaka taadibwako mukopi (a Kabaka must never be replaced by a commoner,†Ssemakula says.
When a Kabaka dies young, like it happened with Kabaka Daudi Chwa, these ladies stay in palaces or at other royal compounds. However, Ssemakula says, should one decide to move on after the death of the Kabaka (which is very rare because they also delight in the fact that they are queens), she would have to forfeit all her privileges. She would start by vacating the lusaka (queen mother’s palace) and live like a commoner. And that is what Namaganda decided to do in order to marry Kigozi.
Kigozi was aware of the risk. Indeed, they survived death narrowly after they chose to wed from Kibuye, Makindye in 1941, two years after the death of King Daudi Chwa II.
“Many Baganda subjects waited for them outside the church, with stones, clubs and spears to kill them but someone helped the couple to escape,†Semakula says.
Some sections of Baganda say that Kigozi was arrested and imprisoned but because there was no law under the colonial government that forbade marrying a Namasole, he was freed. But a Buganda official who prefers anonymity says that the couple voluntarily fled the country to neighbouring Kenya (Nairobi) out of fear.
“In their absence, some Baganda sympathisers negotiated with the Lukiiko to accord some respect to the mother of the reigning Kabaka (Mutesa) and allow them return home.
“The kingdom agreed that they should settle not less than a 40km radius from Kampala. Ham Mukasa, who was then the Ssaza (county) chief of Kyaggwe, offered Namaganda a piece of land in Ngogwe where they settled,†the source reveals.
He also set up a school there (Ngogwe Baskerville Primary School) where he continued with his career and pioneered the need for Sunday School as a good Christian foundation for young children.
Where it started It all started when Kigozi was teaching royals in the palace. Born on October 25, 1915, Kigozi says he went to Makerere Police School, then Kampala Normal School and trained as a teacher. He later worked as a school master in Soroti Police from where he was called to teach in the Nabagereka Primary School in the palace. This is where he met his beloved.
When the Kabaka died in 1939 at the age of 44, Kigozi is alleged to have immediately announced that he wanted to marry the Namasole. He put his case before the then governor, a mzungu (white), who could not understand why he should be stopped and gave a go-ahead. However, he reservedly consulted the Katikkiro Martin Luther Nsibirwa who also blessed the marriage, something that earned him a sacking from the Kingdom in 1943. But a year later, he was reinstated.
According to Sarah Natollo, 90, who was Namaganda's niece and maid from the age of three, Namaganda could have been ‘misled’ by religion. “Her ‘saved’ colleagues made her believe that it was normal to move on. That religion was above the conservative culture. Well she knew the implications, but we are often tempted. It is worse when you are in love,†Nattollo says. Nattollo later became Namaganda’s heir and lives in her palace today.
She says, born to Clement Katongole, Namaganda was a very graceful and down-to-earth woman. She was very kind and worked closely with her subjects. She had set up a school (Nabagereka School) in the palace; may be that is how she met Kigozi.
“She was very beautiful, learned and talented; she used to play netball. She produced two children with the Kabaka: Julian Lwantale and Kabaka Edward Mutesa Walugembe the second. With Kigozi, she also produced two children, but only one survived. Namaganda fell sick shortly after her baby died and was ill for a long time. She was taken abroad for treatment, where she died,†Natollo narrates.
Simon Peter Kigozi, the music director at Makerere Full Gospel Church, who is one of the nine grandchildren of Namaganda and Kigozi, says his father died in 1994.
He, just like many Baganda close to the kingdom, does not want to talk about that issue. Somehow, the Kigozi-Namaganda affair is not something many Baganda want to talk about. “I do not want to talk about that issue because many Baganda say it embarrasses them. And as long as there is a reigning king like now, I have to keep my mouth shut and close history behind me.
“I wrote a book in the 1940s about the whole saga and I was blocked from publishing it. It was in Swahilli and I will forever keep my peace. You can ask me about my life now and I will gladly tell it,†Kigozi says.
With today’s laws, maybe they would have gotten past that controversy on a human rights argument. But Francis Gimara, an advocate is not so confident.
“It still comes to what legal system is prevailing. It appears that in those days, customary law was very strong. But much as the laws have kept changing, the law still recognises customary marriages so long as they are not repugnant to the dignity, welfare or interest of marginalised groups like women,†he says.
Nevertheless, Kigozi’s love for Namaganda was one to reckon with. His grandson, commonly known as SP, says that after the death of Namaganda (his grandmother) in the early 1950s, Kigozi took long to remarry.
He is now happily married to Erina Kigozi, also a retired teacher. They have been married for 44 years now and surely he has God’s blessing with getting a hand in marriage. But how better would you define sacrificial love as you celebrate Easter?