Kkolokolo article on Kafeero contemporaries.
Eng. Herman Ssebazza, Prof. P. Masha, Joseph Mukasa Blikuddembe and Prof. Thaddeus Babiiha
BRO. KAFEERO's LEADING IVY LEAGUE SMACK COLLEAGUES.
Many were the Bro. Kafeero contemporaries who made it to great leading international universities like Cambridge, Oxford, Sorbonne, etc in Europe, and to the most prestigious USA's Ivy League Universities such as Harvard, Colombia, Brown, Princeton, etc and their other equivalents such as Stanford, University of California (Berkely), etc.. Most of these were well known to Bro. Kafeero during their student days at St. Mary's College Kisubi. At that time the College was one of the best known African schools in the USA. The prestige of the Brothers of Christian Instructions and their very excellent work in Uganda were to account for SMACK's renown in the US, just as elsewhere.
And scholarships would regularly pile in the Headmaster’s office proposing offers to these most leading US institutions. All our candidates shone, once there!
A mere sample selection of names has come out with these four luminaries, two on the sciences and two on the arts. For the sciences there is Pergrine Masha and Herman Ssebazza, both were very popular all rounder students and they were very brilliant! On several occasions our publication has shown how Masha, promoted from S2 to S4 following recommendations from Prof J. C. Kiwanuka and Mr. Basil Kiwanuka, and the rest in whose subjects Masha simply outshone... came to beat the whole nation with a six in the O-Levels and to become the first candidate to pass four subjects at Principal level for his HSC.
When he got to Makerere University he was made tutor while still a student! He got a very phenomenal first class (92%) and was admitted to Colombia University for his PhD in Physics and he eventually won another PhD in Astrophysics which brought him to NASA circles!
Masha is a down-to-earth person and has won many awards in his career!
Eng. Herman Ssebazza was also among the best candidates in Uganda for both O / A-Levels. He was one of that class that offered French and Additional Maths at O-Level and he got four Principals at HSC. He
taught at SMACK before leaving for Brown University where he was a distinguished student doing Aeronautical engineering and at the same time playing in the University's First Eleven.
He worked for many years for UNDP in Africa and in Canada where he now does many things including leading the Ivy League Universities Association in his home city. Ssebazza was in the same year as Brother Kafeero in the O-Level. And he was admitted to Brown University at the same time as Late Prof Gaston Ndyajunwoha, also a classmate.
Both Masha and Ssebazza initiated projects for Uganda.
Our Artsmen, Prof. Babiiha and Prof. J. B. Mukasa were on the Literature side. Both got a First Class at Makerere and Babiiha went to Brown for PhD while Mukasa won admission in California. Babiiha had been in the US on an exchange programme while at SMACK (S3). Babiiha was a year behind Bro. Kafeero and Mukasa was two years ahead. He belonged to that great year that produced other eminent Professors such as Roy Mugerwa, I. Kakande, Omaswa, Rodrigues, Lobo, and Kenyan Appeals Court Justice L. B. Ouma and ex-UPU Director (Geneva) Hon Mr. J. Elotu, etc...
When Mukasa went to California University several SMACK individuals, including famous Prof. Peter Muyanda Mutebi (ex- Director UNESCO-Nairobi) had already been there and done wonders. Prof. Mukasa, who was once a very great HP, runs a charitable project in Uganda.
It's important to recall one great name, a Kafeero contemporary, that did Harvard and obtained a PhD in International Relations. That was Dr. Henry Bwambale, the first Omukonzo to get a PhD. He was a very formidable student at SMACK and Makerere where he led the Makerere Rural Development Society which sold very well the University's caring image to the local people.
Dr. G. H. Kkolokolo
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