Mathematician Twinoburyo dies in South Africa

DEATH   MATHEMATICS   TEACHER

A prominent Ugandan mathematician, entrepreneur and educationist based in South Africa, Stephen Twinoburyo, has died.

Twinoburyo, 49, succumbed to heart failure on Tuesday in South Africa where he had lived for decades.

According to the African Professional magazine, Twinoburyo was born and grew up in the Western district of Mbarara.

After high school, he joined Makerere University and pursued a four-year bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering.

"We were supposed to meet for dinner, he cancelled when we were at the venue.  He told us he had a heart problem and was not likely to make it," a fellow Ugandan who lives in South Africa, Joseph Tumushabe posted on Facebook.

"It was going to be my first time to meet him.  Now it's never going to be this side of life.  Why?" he mourned.

Twinoburyo told the publication that in 1994, soon after South Africa held its first democratic elections, he got the opportunity to travel to Soweto with South African veterans who were stationed in Uganda.

The ten day visit made him fall in love with the country compelling him to go back in 1997 and he never looked back.

"I was fortunate to have friends from Uganda living and working in Pretoria so life was not that lonely. My aim was to further my education in the capital city and pursue a career related to my studies. I initially struggled to get these plans going so to keep busy I started teaching maths and sciences and surprisingly, I ended up enjoying it," he recalled.

What began as a simple effort to earn extra money became a decade long career tutoring students in various colleges.

On his social media, tweeter handle profile, Twinoburyo describes himself as Chief Enlightenment Officer (CEO) at Scimatics Solutions. Mathpreneur, mathlutionary, maths educationist, writer, reader, blogger and current affairs chap.

A number of his tweets are full of mathematical jargons, symbols and graphs which attests to his love with the subject.

 Twinoburyo who was a frequent blogger on www.ugandaspeaks.wordpress.com had this to say in one of his posts about his experience in opening up his own institution:

"I sold my car to set up my business. Even my first secretary, who unlike me had a vehicle, did not believe in me along with a number of friends who thought I would not succeed in Menlo Park as it was a 'white area.' To some extent they had a point because although most black students would book classes for long periods, white parents would first do a trial run," he posted.

One mother even insisted on sitting through one of my classes to test my ability, something I rejected insisting that if her daughter found the lesson worthwhile, she would tell her. At the end of the year, the girl was so happy with the tuition that she bought me a gift to show her appreciation," Twinoburyo added.