Alexander Mackay introduced technical education in Uganda

To mark 50 years of Uganda’s independence, New Vision will, until October 9, 2012, be publishing highlights of events and profi ling personalities who have shaped the history of this country. Today, JOSEPH SSEMUTOOKE searches the archives and brings you the story of how technical education was introduced in Uganda

In response to Kabaka Mutesa’s 1885 letter inviting missionaries to his kingdom, in 1886 England’s Church Missionary Society (CMS) sent a group of eight volunteers to Mutesa’s Buganda kingdom.

The group, led by reverends Shergold Smith and C.T. Wilson, set out for Mombasa in April that year and arrived in Buganda in June 1887. There is no doubt the spread of Christianity and Western civilisation in Uganda is owed to that entire pioneer batch who ventured on a road never traveled before.

But the story of that batch clearly shows that it was the youngest of the group, a then 27-year-old named Alexander Mackay, who would go on to put in a larger shift than his colleagues, out-live them all in Buganda and also leave the largest legacy of them all.

Mackay’s story has been written in innumerable publications, but all versions tell of a man who not only preached to spread the gospel in Buganda, rather one who also taught Ugandans how to read and write, as well as equipping them with the skills of performing technical tasks using modern technology.

History shows him as the first person to equip native Ugandans with the skills of performing technical tasks using modern technology.

Church roots in Scotland
According to the many biographies written about him, Alexander Murdoch Mckay was born in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1849 to a minister of the Free Church of Scotland. Mackay was a bright student at school and completed his earlier training at a Church college. 

His father had wanted him to become a church minister in Scotland. However, his life seemed destined for a different path after he enrolled for a four-year engineering course at the University of Edinburgh.

Thereafter, Mackay went to Germany where he got the job that eventually, saw him rise through the ranks to become a chief engineer of a large factory.

Destiny beckons, Mackay enrolls for missionary work in Africa
The Dictionary of African Christian Biography indicates that Mackay’s missionary work ambitions could have been sparked by an advert he saw in a Scottish language paper while he was in Germany. The advert was from the CMS, seeking volunteer missionaries ready to go to Buganda.

This was also after explorer and journalist Henry Murton Stanley, who had been at Mutesa’s court, wrote a letter in England’s Daily Telegraph detailing the need for missionaries.

“It is not the mere preacher, however, that is wanted here. It is the practical Christian, who can teach people how to become Christians, cure their diseases, build dwellings, teach farming, and turn his hand to anything, like a sailor,” Stanley’s letter had indicated.

After reading the advert, Mackay immediately wrote to the missionary society, offering to volunteer go help teach Mutesa’s people “how to be useful Christians.” Mackay was a leader of a local Bible group in his neighbourhood in Germany.

Within six months, he was heading to Zanzibar, where he arrived two months later. He, however, arrived in Buganda in November, 1887 after battling a bout of malaria at the coast for months.

Wins Mutesa’s favour for missionaries
The White Man of Work, one of the biographies that extensively covers Mackay’s life in Buganda, shows that by the time he arrived at Mutesa’s court, the Kabaka was bitter with the other missionaries who had arrived before him.

Mutesa had expected the missionaries to make gun powder and guns among other practical works, but was disappointed that they were only preaching and teaching the people how to read and write. He was on the verge of expelling the misionaries because he felt they were of no use to him and the kingdom.

He was to change his attitude when Mackay arrived and started offering practical services, thanks to his engineering skills.

The young engineer repaired Mutesa’s guns, constructed bridges and set up a mechanical workshop, where he made tables and chairs, among other items. This earned him the nickname The White Man of work.

“From the onset, Mackay became the Kakaba’s and chiefs’ favourite missionary because of the services he was rendering. Often, Mackay’s workshop was filled with chiefs and slaves, who would watch him curiously as he toiled with his tools,” writes Sophia Lyon Fahs in The White Man of Work.

Teaches natives how to read and write The White Man of Work further shows that after winning the Kabaka over, Mackay added new impetus to the missionaries’ efforts.

Although he had arrived when Mutesa I had decreed against missionary education, the decree was cancelled within month of his arrival. This came after Mackay convinced the kabaka that only literate people could learn the things he was making.

Sophia Fahs indicates that because Mutesa was enthusiastic about book knowledge, he commanded all his chiefs, offi cials, pages, wives and soldiers to enroll in missionary classes.

Thereafter, it was common to find Mackay with large sheets of papers, writing big letters, making easy syllables, or words and sentences and surrounded by learners. He taught them the English alphabet and how to spell the Luganda words.

Eventually, there was a huge rise in the number of learners to the extent that the missionary teachers were overwhelmed.

Missionaries introduce technical education
Mackay did not stop at teaching natives how to read and write, but ensured that they gained some technical skills.

This was to be his most sucessful and productive venture. “It did not satisfy Mackay to have the crowds look up to him as the great man able to make anything like a lubale (god).

His ambition was to gather pupils and to teach them to make useful things for their people,” writes Sophia Fahs. He taught natives how to construct bridges, roads and improved crop husbandry.

He also equipped the learners with skills on how to build better houses, make advanced tools like hoes, chairs and tables.

It is indicated that, actually, Mackay had began teaching Tanzanians technical skills on his way to Buganda. He is said to have supervised the building a road wide enough for oxcarts, extending to about 230 miles into the interior.

The sad end of a pioneer teacher
As the missionary work was taking root in Buganda in 1884, Kabaka Mutesa I died. He was succeeded by Mwanga, who shortly after turned harsh to missionaries and their followers.

Mwanga dismissed Mackay from Buganda in 1886, after the missionary had been in Buganda for almost nine years. Mackay withdrew and settled on the southern shores of Lake Victoria in the present-day Tanzania, where he kept on teaching, translating and printing the scriptures.

He, however, kept in touch with his former Christian congregation in Buganda because he hoped to return to the kingdom, which was his second home. But this was not to be. In 1890, after 13 years in Africa, Mackay died of malaria when he was just 40 years old. His body was buried in Tanzania.

His efforts as a missionary and teacher set a strong foundation for the growth of the church and education, especially technical training in the land he had made his second home.