Old School Associations and some really crazy names

Sep 17, 2014

A few weeks ago somebody put a picture of an old building on one of those numerous Facebook pages that I somehow belong to. He then went on to challenge group members to name the school where that building was.

By Kalungi Kabuye

A few weeks ago somebody put a picture of an old building on one of those numerous Facebook pages that I somehow belong to. He then went on to challenge group members to name the school where that building was.


After about 50 comments that varied from “is that a kitchen?” to “whose tomb is that?” somebody wrote that, “if you didn’t go to SHACK you didn’t go to school”. Another 10 comments or so agreed that it was indeed a shack, and wondered who could go to school there.


That was when the original poster, obviously irritated, explained that SHACK actually stood for St Henry’s Kitovu.


There was almost a collective gasp of shock, on the page. “You call your school SHACK?” somebody asked in disbelief. “Do you have any idea what it really means?”


There is an increasing sense of pride among old students of different schools, and a need to proclaim it to the world. It is no longer only the ‘elite’ schools that are proud of their alma maters, but all and sundry now not only find pride in their old schools, they have formed associations to celebrate them. 


They have all moved on from plain Old Boys (OBs) and Old Girls (OGs), to some rally interesting, like the SHACK of above

. My old school does not have one of those, thank God, but just goes under the plain and simple Old Budonians Club.


My first experience with old school association was when I heard about MACOSSA, made of people who had studied in Makerere College School. I had friends there, and in any case it did sound kind of funky, as in the famous Makossa sound from West Africa. So that was cool.


It took me a while to get my mind around SMACK, and the SMACKISTS, who are old students of St. Mary’s College, Kisubi.

There are a whole bunch of schools names St. Mary’s College this or another; so do we have SMACN (Namagunga maybe; or Namawojolo)? Do we have a SMACB (St. Mary’s College Bukomansimbi), maybe? The permutations are endless. 


Then in yet another group, somebody asked if there were any ‘Ngonians’ there. That really intrigued me, as at first thought it sounded very much like one of those alien races that are always bringing problems in the Star Trek movie series. My inquiry brought some very cold responses.


It turns out ‘Ngonians’ are old students of Namilyango College; why they chose an alien-like-sounding name for their old boys association beats me.


So with all these new schools and colleges sprouting, we could have some very crazy sounding old schools associations.

Will those from Old Kampala Secondary School refer to themselves as OKS? Or will St. Lawrence London College old students call themselves LOCOs? I hope Maryhill Secondary School old students will not refer to themselves as ‘Mtseeeew’.


But old students from St. Mary’s Namagunga beat everybody else hands down, they have at least five different associations: there is NOGs (Namgunga OGs), NOGA UG (also Namagunga OGs), and there others with no acronyms but all made up of old students of Namagunga.


Trinity College, Nabbingo sounds really respectable, one would think; so why would old students come up with TRICONA as the name of their association? Really sounds like a SACCO of sorts formed by Kikuubo traders putting their money together to buy loads of old clothes (mivumba) from North Korea.


On another note it was kind of disappointing to find that our polished colleagues from Gayaza have an association they refer to as GOGA (Gayaza Old Girls Association). Nothing really wrong with that but anybody that speaks Luganda must have many jokes to tell around that word.
 

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