Brother Kyemwa in the middle with his teachers.
Brother Anthony Joseph Kyemwa was first African
Headmaster of St. Mary’s College from 1969 to 1980. He was born in 1930 had Primary Education at
Busubizi from 1939-1945. He went to
Kisubi Junior and Senior Secondary School (now St. Mary’s College Kisubi) and
was in Lourdel House. Joined Mt. St.
Theresa to train as a Brother 1952-1954.
Later went to Makerere University 1954-1959 offering Fine Art. Was posted to St. Leo’s College Kyegobe in
Fort Portal, later joining St. Mary’s College as a teacher in 1961.
In 1965 he left for a second Novitiate to
Britain, later went to USA where he studied at the University of Notre Dame for
a Masters degree in School Administration.
Brother Kyemwa on Graduating with a Masters Degree
Brother Kyemwa was successor to Brother David
Denicourt. He took office heading 90%
expatriate staff with a challenge to uphold the school standards and also
improve on it. By the time he left
office, the staff was 99% indigenous.
Brother Kyemwa initially continued with the
expansion of the school inherited from his predecessors to 5 streams initially,
and he accordingly went to expand accommodation. He built some pre-fabricated classrooms and
also improved and enlarged dormitories and toilets. With the departure of the expatriates during
the early 1970’s, the number of White lay teachers and White Brothers dwindled
and there was need to recruit more lay African teachers, who soon out numbered
the Brothers on the staff, thus the rush to put up new as well as expansion of
the staff quarters. However, after 1973,
the intake was cut down to a total of 120 students on admission to senior one.
Brother Anthony Joseph Kyemwa was appointed
first African Headmaster of St. Mary’s College Kisubi, ending the 43-year era
of the White Brothers. He was Headmaster for 11 years he officially handed over
office to Brother (Dr) Kafeero in 1982 after a three years’ leave abroad.
Brother Kyemwa’s administration wanted to
change the approach to Education at St. Mary’s College, so he sent out teachers
to other schools to collect information in respect of school administration;
school programmes; teachers conditions; school activities and
organization. The information got was
compiled and comparisons made with what was being done at St. Mary’s then,
hence a new approach leading to the changing of the expatriates’ approach hence
the re-birth of St. Mary’s College Kisubi.
Dr.Onegi Obel
The Eagle Magazine
Team Interviewed Dr. Geofrey Onegi Obel (Old Boy of SMACK) and below is the
Excerpt:
The Eagle: What do you remember most about SMACK?
Geofrey Onegi Obel: When I think about SMACK, the first thing that comes to my mind is Brother
Anthony Kyemwa.
The Eagle: Why?
Geofrey Onegi Obel: He was kind of role model to us, a very strong figure, parental and also
very nice as long as you did not cross his way.
The Statue of the Virgin Mary in the
Dormitory Area
Brother Anthony Kyemwa is personally the
Architect of the Artwork of a Life – Size Statue of the Virgin Mary (Our Lady
Of Kisubi) located in the middle of the Dormitory Quadrangle. He put up this
Artwork when he was still a student of Fine Art at Makerere University. It is a symbol of spiritual nourishment of
SMACK.
President
Obote RIP Visited SMACK in 1969
Prefects greet President Obote
Late President Obote visited the school on
March 15, 1969. The Current Affairs Club of the school invited him. He
delivered a very animating speech to the school community in the Assembly Hall
on “The current political trend in Uganda”.
Speaking on the issue of integration, Obote
firmly told his audience that the integration, which at times was called nation
building, could not be willed. “I, as
President of Uganda, you as youths of Uganda, our fathers or any other person
in Uganda cannot do just as God did in the creation of the earth. It is not within our power as human beings to
say “Let there be integration” and to hope or expect that we shall have
integration tomorrow morning. We have to
work consciously towards integration and perhaps the most encouraging element
in this conscious effort to build one Uganda is what I have already referred
to, namely, the positive response of our youth in supporting this policy.”
Obote went to explain: “I do not think it
necessary that I should discuss with you why this trend in the affairs of
Uganda should be encouraged. It is
this. Before the coming of the British,
the world of our grandfathers ended with the tribal boundaries.
It would be a disservice to our youth if they
were to grow in the twentieth century or in the centuries to come, in the world
of our grandfathers. To you, your vision
is greater than what our grandfathers had and your area of operation must be in
Uganda as a whole and not just some corner of this beautiful land. It is easy to formulate this type of policy,
the policy of integration, the policy of building one Uganda, but it is another
thing to define what must be done and be able to do it.
There is still tremendous prejudice in our
country. There is considerable ignorance
of how people in different parts of Uganda live. Here again it is just not possible to will
away prejudices, but we must work consciously to remove them. We must show by example that we mean to build
one Uganda. You might have heard in the
past of prejudices of various types.
Some cover religion; some cover what this or that tribe eats or do. These matters can end if only we have the
determination to remove them from our society and one way of removing them is
to show by example that all those who believe in the unity of Uganda, all those
who want to accept the people of Uganda of every description, must discourage
the others who still live in the past and must themselves bring forth examples
that will, for instance, make it absolutely clear that a Catholic is as good as
a Protestant, and that a Muslim is as much a human being as a Christian. We must encourage the people of Uganda,
particularly the young, to mix freely with their compatriots from all areas of
Uganda.”
Idi
Amin Visited St. Mary’s College in 1970
Amin at SMACK
Idi Amin as Commander and Chief of Defence
Staff (Uganda Armed Forces) visited the school.
He came with his officers for two reasons:
To offer condolences for the 12 boys who had
lost their lives in a road accident involving an army lorry and the school
truck.
To interest the students to join the National
Army as Officer Cadets.
When Idi Amin was taken around, he saw mounted
skeletons in the Biology Laboratory. He
made an offer of bones of a Tiger for mounting.
Mr Sebastian Nsubuga says that, “the dead Tiger’s carcass was brought to
him. He removed some of the flesh and
put the remains in water to facilitate the rotting. Thereafter, the remaining flesh got off
easily, them he used glue to stick the bones together and them the skeleton was
put in the current infrastructure.”
The Tiger bones donated by Amin
It is alleged that the Tiger killed a warden by
the name of Matovu at Entebbe Zoo (Uganda Wildlife Education Centre) as he gave
it food. It is then that the animal was
shot, and eventually the bones donated by Idi Amin to SMACK.
Brother Kyemwa with a
former Head prefect at SMACK who is a Medical Doctor
The
developments during Brother Kyemwa’s time included:
As the White Brothers got phased out slowly,
there was a challenge to build staff houses for the non – Brother Teachers,
hence the construction of the staff quarters found along SMACK Road. These were strategically located at the
school land borders. In addition, he
expanded, those houses, which existed from accommodating 2 teachers to four, by
adding two extensions on each structure.
1.
He bought a
bus for the school in replacement of the Lorry, which had been involved in an
accident in 1964. This innovation
excited students very much.
2.
A modern
Electrically Operated Kitchen was built to replace the firewood one.
3.
More
Classrooms were built (the two blocks behind the Main Administration Block),
the Agriculture block, the Bursar’s block and the 2nd HSc dormitory (near
Mugwanya and Kiwanuka Dormitories).
4.
A Parlour for
the students was built (currently it is the school canteen).
6.
A
cement/concrete basketball court at the western end of the main athletic field
was made, it was offered by an American Peace Corp Teacher’s family.
7.
The school
uniform was re-established consisting of a white shirt and Grey trousers
supplied at the school. Sports uniforms
were also supplied according to house colours and badges. Navy blue shorts with golden lining on either
side were added for all students.
8.
House Masters
slept in their houses using the central dormitory cubicles between the two
wings of each dormitory. These lived
closer to the members of their houses as a family.
9.
Every
Wednesday, sick students would be accompanied by the school nurse in the school
bus to Entebbe Hospital where they would be treated free of charge.
10. Interschool dances Sosh were normally
held during daytime to avoid traveling at night due to rampant acts of
insecurity during the 1970’s.
1. A second Water tank was put up.
Assumed
right of way
A personal account by Brother Anthony Kyemwa of
one of the challenges he had as Headmaster during the Late President Idi Amin’s
time.
One morning in the 1970’s, a soldier in Army
Uniform came to the Headmaster’s Office at St. Mary’s College. He wanted to force me to bring back a student
whom I had sent home indefinitely because of gross misconduct pending the next
Board of Governors meeting. He made his
way past a number of students waiting at the Headmaster’s Office and closed the
door behind him.
He then inquired from me about the boy in
question whom he said was at his residence at Entebbe Military Barracks. He wanted him back into the school
immediately. I asked if he was the
parent or a relative of the boy. He
retorted saying that he had come from the Intelligence Military Wing. I told him that he had taken a wrong
procedure. He would have to go through
his Commander to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Defence who would, in
turn, talk to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, down to the
proper officer who would finally contact me about the matter at hand.
He told me that the Intelligence Military men
had “right of way” to anyone in the country!
He followed his statement by picking up the telephone to speak to his
officers. I was quick to ask him whether
or not he would foot the bill of the call, because all school expenses had to
be accounted for. Without answering my
inquiry, he went ahead and pretended to be talking to somebody at the other
end. I asked him for his identity card
and he handed me one from the pocket of his trousers. I read his name and the number of the
card. The moment I started writing down
the information, he snatched it away from me.
I thought that was a weakness on his part. He told me as he went out that Johnny must be
back in school the following day!
I quickly wrote down his name and number of the
identity card he had just shown me and called up the officer concerned at the
Ministry of Education to inform him about the incident. He blamed me for letting the Military man
into my office to which I answered that he had forced himself into my office.
He asked me if I had taken down any information
about him and I gave him the above information.
I also described his hands, which bore white scars like somebody burnt
by fire or acid.
After several weeks, the soldier was brought to
my office; his wrists cuffed and between two military men and an officer who
had led them. The officer asked the
would-be prisoner to repeat what he had ordered me to do about the student I
had sent home. The victim did not give
any answer; instead he bent his head and looked at the floor. The officer
apologized for the intrusion of the soldier in school matters, and the group
walked out.
The Eagle Magazine team of 2004 Interviewed Dr.
Simon Kagugube and below is an Excerpt.
Dr Simon
Kagugube was at St. Mary’s College from 1970 to 1975
The Eagle:
Any negative memories of SMACK?
Dr Simon
Kagugube: No negative memories, none at all. A
few difficult times maybe. For me it was
very good. I don’t have anything to
regret. I have been to America for 6
years, Yale…all over;
Kisubi is the best place I have lived in
period. There are no serious worries
when in SMACK. No negative memories,
tough moment’s maybe. When I was House
Prefect for Kiwanuka there was a near strike.
That was one of the most challenging moments in SMACK, not
negative. We were new prefects and there
was a near strike in the school. And
remember these were Amin’s days they could bring Military Police! As leaders we had to balance the pressure of
the students and the administration. So,
we collected all the students, had them sit in the middle of the school buildings
that is (Administration block, the Chapel, Chemistry Laboratory and HSc Block),
we then asked them to write down all their grievances. I was assigned the role of writing out these
grievances because of my good English Language.
I sat in Cubicle A (HSc Building) and for the bigger part of the night I
was writing. And, remember Brother
Anthony Kyemwa (the Headmaster) was the type whose No! was a NO! Nonetheless, we had very good working
relationship with him. There was respect
for each other. I wrote out the
students’ complaints and gave students to reproduce (I still have the original
copy in my papers). I read it out to the
students; that is before the entire school.
We had to control the crowd… charisma, and I felt like a real
politician. Brother Kyemwa insisted on
reading it to the members of staff himself.
The staff members came out asking why we were so hard. However, I am very proud of that effort.
The Eagle: Any role SMACK has played in your
life?
Dr. Kagugube: My whole life
in SMACK; right from S1 one is called a gentlemen. That makes you feel that you are
somebody. It builds self-confidence;
mine has never suffered. You never feel
like anybody is better than you. You
interact with very many people from all over.
Education was fantastic, went to Makerere and was one of the best,
excelled at Yale University for my Masters, went on for my Ph.D. I am able to fit anywhere because of such an
education…
The Eagle: How would you compare yourself with
say people from Buddo?
Dr. Kagugube: SMACK is the best.
Asked about
what led St. Mary’s College Kisubi to be at the height of glory and fame it
enjoys as far as academics is concerned, Brother Kyemwa said, “ In my opinion,
the aspirations of the students and staff led to the rise of the school. There was a strong spirit of competitiveness
with other leading schools; that is Kings College Buddo, Mt. St. Mary’s
Namagunga, Namilyango to mention but a few.”
Brother Kyemwa’s message to the SMACK community
if they are to maintain the established tradition of excellence is: “Discipline
should be emphasized because it is with discipline that one can concentrate on
one’s work. There should also be a
strong school spirit among the students because this unites them in all
aspects.” “When I meet former students
of St. Mary’s College Kisubi, they always thank me for having emphasized
discipline.”
The vehicle Brother Kyemwa used most of the time when he was Headmaster
