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John Nagenda handed away in March, solely a month earlier than his 84th birthday. He can be mourned for his intelligence and generosity, however above all, for his glorious sense of humour. Cameron Duodo recollects his conferences with the celebrated Ugandan author, political determine and sportsman.
John Nagenda, who died in Kampala, Uganda, on 4 March 2023, aged 84, was one of many writers who emerged within the former British colonies in Africa, after their international locations had gained their independence from Britain.
I met him at an African Writers’ Convention – the primary of its type – organised at Makerere College, Kampala, in 1962.
From Ghana, the delegates had been myself, Efua Sutherland and Kofi Awoonor; from Nigeria got here Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka and Chris Okigbo; whereas South Africa’s delegates included Ezekiel (later Iskiya) Mphahlele, Lewis Nkosi, Bloke Modisane and Bob Leshoai.
As a result of colonial Africa had been arbitrarily divided into inflexible geographical “grids”, with Africans infrequently crossing the borders to satisfy each other in individual, the Makerere convention uniquely enabled African writers to find the actual individuals who had been behind the continent’s plethora of geographical labels.
I personally bear in mind what a thrill it was to satisfy black South Africans for the primary time in my life.
By the point I went to Kampala in 1962, I had been uncovered to reviews about South Africa, by DRUM Journal (whose Ghana editor I had simply develop into.) DRUM had initially been born in South Africa, however had quickly sprouted a number of “offshoots”: in Ghana, Nigeria, East Africa and Central Africa.
So, I used to be thrilled to satisfy in individual, Mphahlele (or “Zeke” as everybody known as him) and Bloke and Lewis (all of whose bylines I had come throughout within the “mom” South African version of DRUM. In truth, I’d secretly been hoping, after studying that South Africans can be on the convention, that the most well-liked author on DRUM (South Africa) Can Themba (whose very brave “Mr DRUM” collection of tales, had titillated the entire continent for years) would attend. However alas, he didn’t. I by no means met him as a result of he was quickly killed whereas pursuing one in every of his adventurous tales.
I used to be late in arriving in Kampala for the convention, however on arrival, my compatriot Kofi Awoonor handed on to me the delegates who welcomed friendship, as in opposition to those that had been considerably aloof. The previous included the sensible poet from Nigeria, Chris Okigbo, who bravely fought for his Ibo folks on the warfront, through the blood-soaked Biafran civil battle (1967-70). However the friendliest man was a younger Ugandan author known as John Nagenda.
Friendship with John Nagenda was simply probably the most auspicious that I managed to domesticate on the Makerere Convention. It was to final a lifetime, although I didn’t know that on the time, in fact.
Trademark humour
Nagenda, who was 26 years previous, was studying English at Makerere. He was vigorous and – enjoyable. Good-looking and athletic in construct, his trademark was to be extraordinarily extraordinarily humorous about all types of conditions. He was amused on the response of us West Africans to the best way some Ugandans pronounced sure phrases in English.
Usually, our feedback on the topic would have been resented by an East African, however Nagenda, who had largely been educated by academics from the UK in a number of the finest faculties in Uganda, understood the issue of these Ugandans who didn’t possess the command of spoken English that he had been capable of purchase. He defined to us that the ki-Swahili language,which was a type of East African lingua franca, had, perforce, taken over sure frequent English expressions utterly.
As an illustration (he stated) what we and different English audio system known as “roundabouts”, had been known as kipileftis (“hold left right here!”) in Uganda! We laughed so much at that, and sought new phrases from him so as to add to our assortment. We thus discovered him to be one of the unprejudiced human beings to be related to. Certainly, when pressed about what he believed in, (in his later years) he outlined himself as a “humanist”.
On leaving Makerere with a very good diploma in English, he was head-hunted by the Oxford College Press as its consultant in East Africa – a place that enabled him to advertise the writing careers of a few of East Africa’s writers.
Exile in Britain
I re-encountered John Nagenda in England within the Eighties. Because it occurred, John had left Uganda for political causes, conscious as he was that his sharp tongue and haughty angle in direction of political ineptitude may make him a goal for imprisonment and even assassination, particularly through the time when the fearsome Common Dr Idi Amin Dada was making Uganda the laughing inventory of the world.
“Good riddance!” Nagenda was quoted as having usually stated sarcastically of rulers he didn’t fancy, like Milton Obote, Idi Amin and Paulo Muwanga, all former “Heads of State” whose rule despatched Nagenda into exile at totally different instances.
In Obote’s case, he earned Nagenda’s anger by what Ofwono Opondo, writing within the Uganda Monitor newspaper, recollects as “the overthrow, destruction and abolition of [the] Buganda monarchy in Might 1966”. (Nagenda got here from Buganda aristocratic inventory.)
As for Amin (Opondo information) “Nagenda as soon as wrote that Amin lived for much longer than he deserved as a result of, all through his life, Amin was a mannequin of a nasty profession. Idi Amin’s many hobbies included expediting the journeys of others to heaven, outstanding amongst them [being] Chief Justice Ben Kiwanuka, Vice Chancellor of Makerere College Frank Kalimuzo, Archbishop Janan Luwum, and several other ministers together with James Ochola, Alex Ojera, Kalema, Charles Oboth Ofumbi, and Erinayo Eryema.”
Earlier than going to stay in exile in Britain, John had achieved fame as the one black African to play within the Cricket World Cup of 1975. (He bowled for East and Central Africa in a staff made up of Ugandans, Kenyans and Tanganyikans.) His participation within the World Cup match earned him an invite to a reception in Buckingham Palace, London.
Nagenda described his World Cup expertise as life-changing – “simply think about” (he stated) “rubbing wrists” in individual, because it had been, with the likes of Vivian Richards and Michael Holding [West Indies], Imran Khan [Pakistan] and the opposite cricket geniuses that one had been seeing on TV!”
Nice stylist
Ugandan obituarists haven’t been parsimonious in lauding Nagenda’s type of writing. One famous that Nagenda’s One Man’s Week column within the New Imaginative and prescient newspaper was “gone, and with it, the flourish type. Or, as he would say, ‘by no means throw away previous pantyhose. Use the previous ones to tie gutters, child-proof cupboards, tie bathroom flappers, or grasp Christmas ornaments….’”
He may have added “if a possum takes up residence in your shed, seize a barbecue brush to coax him out. If he doesn’t go away, brush him for twenty minutes and let him keep.”
It’s worthy of be aware that John fulfilled our Makerere Convention expectations and printed a novel entitled The Seasons of Thomas Tebo. He additionally printed a youngsters’s e book entitled Mukasa.
Throughout his days spent in exile in England, John helped to run a extremely esteemed cricket journal. I met him at a pub close to the journal’s places of work, one afternoon. He was surrounded by a bevy of fairly woman admirers, who made certain that he didn’t drink an excessive amount of white wine, and that the horses he fancied, had been value betting on!
Adviser to Museveni
Round 1985, he known as me in London and launched me to a Ugandan politician, whom he wished me to interview for one of many papers I used to be writing for – Chief M Ok O Abiola’s African Harmony.
The Ugandan politician was Eriya Kategaya, and he was one of many high leaders of a motion that had been shaped by Ugandan exiles, known as the Nationwide Resistance Motion (NRM).
Kategaya stated he belonged to the NRM military and that they wished to grab energy in Uganda by guerrilla warfare. I used to be sceptical, for I knew that Africa’s political panorama was suffering from all method of “revolutionary” actions, most of whom spent their time in European capitals and did little or no preventing on the bottom in Africa.
However Eriya Kategaya’s modesty and obvious seriousness of objective gained me over, and I gave the interview fairly a very good play.
Inside months, the NRA had achieved battlefield victory in Uganda! And I used to be despatched by the London Observer to go to Kampala to cowl the story. The brand new Ugandan Prime Minister, Mr Samson Kisekka, gave me an unique interview, and two of his sons took me into the Ugandan countryside to learn the way a lot help the NRM had within the rural areas.
I used to be astounded to search out that at a highway junction, a few unarmed civilians had been guarding an individual who had offered to different folks, rationed items equipped to him for his household’s use.
Stunned, I queried: “However he can run away, if he’s being guarded solely by unarmed males?”
The guards shot again: “Run away to the place?” I realised, then, that the NRM was a really revolutionary motion with grassroots help. It had organised the countryside the countryside into parishes by which all choices had been taken collectively. There was nowhere for a legal suspect to run to!
John Nagenda turned Senior Adviser to the NRM chief, President Yoweri Museveni. Museveni has been ruling since 1986 – regardless of John typically going out on a limb and ribbiing him gently to retire. Ignored, he persistently says Museveni ought to retire after “coaching” another person to take over the management of the nation. “For for those who don’t search for a successor, you gained’t discover one!” he noticed in a TV interview. He laughed at the concept that he would possibly wish to do the job himself.
“I DO work for the person!” he retorted. “You may’t dictate to your boss, are you able to?”
John additionally had issues coping with the Kabaka of Buganda, Ronald Mutesi, whom he helped again into energy. Driving two headstrong horses in Uganda – Museveni and the Kabaka – should have tried his resourcefulness enormously.
John handed solely a month earlier than his 84th birthday. He can be mourned for his intelligence and generosity, however above all, for his glorious sense of humour.
He undoubtedly had an excellent innings. However I’m inconsolable, however. My heartfelt condolences go to his spouse, Marion, and their youngsters.
Click on to learn articles by John Nagenda in New African.
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