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29th September 2005
Namasagali glory lost
By Jeff Mbanga WEEKLY OBSERVER
If anybody seemed capable of defying Isaac Newton’s 1686 law of gravity that what goes up must come down, it was Namasagali College.The college had, in the 1990s, cemented its reputation as the undisputable cradle of the performing arts in Uganda.
For years, Namasagali had thrilled its audience in Kampala with the passion and creativity of its plays and dance performances. According to the college’s dance and drama teacher, Rose Birungi, one of the defining characteristics of the college’s productions was the use of sweet South African music – Inkatha – that was so rare on the airwaves of the time.
If there was ever a school that shaped modern drama in Uganda, it was Namasagali College. Some memorable plays like The Republic of Feminia and Great Caesar attest to this.
But yet again, Newton was spot on – what goes up must come down. And it shows when you brave the three and a half hour-drive from Kampala to Kamuli district, to see where the school’s rise to fame began.When The Weekly Observer visited the school recently, only the sweet music of birds could be heard along the lane to the staffroom.
The sound of drums is becoming rare. The calculated footsteps, moderated voices and well-practised sentences that defined the stage are slowly becoming history.
And to crown what is becoming a sad end to a dream story, the school won’t stage any play at the National Theatre this year. But how did it come to this?
The school’s headmaster, Mr. Aggrey Kintu, who was still grappling with a power outage when The Weekly Observer arrived, said, “We are in some sort of recess.” He added, “It is true the school is losing its name.” And at the moment, not staging plays seems to be the least of Kintu’s worries.
“Can you imagine the college has never been renovated since it started operating in 1964?” Kintu said, pointing to a crack that threatens to split his office into two.
Kintu, who was a student at the school in the mid 1970s, revealed that Namasagali has for a long time been in debt and is still clearing the bills that had accumulated at the National Theatre. According to him, the National Theatre charges the school Shs 500,000 per show. As a result, Namasagali can no longer afford the cost of buying costumes and transport to Kampala to stage shows, leave alone looking after the students.
Ironically, some blame the school’s financial troubles on the very man who brought fame to the school, Fr. Damian Grimes. The priest, who was headmaster of the college from 1967 to 2000, reportedly left the school in huge debt. There are even claims that Fr. Grimes, who Kintu remembers as “an icon of the college” left on bad terms. Some saw evidence of this in the fact that when the good old father organised a dinner at Grand Imperial Hotel this month, some college staff members only got to learn about it the evening before.It is claimed that while Fr. Grimes has made visits to Uganda, he is yet to return to the college.
When Fr. Grimes was contacted for a comment, he was polite but rather elusive. Asked about his legacy at the college, Fr. Grimes answered, “I left that school many years ago. I am here for a private visit and I am not giving any interviews to the press. Ok. God bless you.”
But even before the wrongs Fr. Grimes is accused of committing, the writing was already on the wall for the college. Kintu explained that many schools adopted Namasagali’s approach to drama, making it to lose its uniqueness.The school staged more than 20 plays at the National Theatre. He added that it is not just the schools that imitated Namasagali’s style, but also other dance and drama groups.
A case in point is the college’s old students, The Obsessions, that have exposed – or perhaps over-exposed, the school’s style. Ronnie Mulindwa, a founder member of The Obsessions, has no regrets though. “I was taught in Namasagali. So everything I do, everything I act has to be similar to Namasagali’s style.”
He argues, however, that Namasagali was set for demise even before The Obsessions, which won a 2004 Pearl of Africa Music award, adopted its style. “The person [Fr. Grimes] who brought the school into the limelight was gone and the people who replaced him tried copying his style but failed,” Mulindwa argued, adding, “It was simply a matter of time.”But the students that passed through the school before its decline are still basking in its past glory.
Sharon Kacungira Seanice, Radio Sanyu’s brand manager, says the culture of dance and drama at Namasagali has made her more confident in her radio shows.
“It helped me build on my self esteem,” she says. Fr. Grimes is also remembered for encouraging interaction with the opposite sex, boosting self-confidence among both girls and boys. Kintu said Grimes always told students “not to be taken as second hand goods but to settle with one partner.”
But even that culture of interaction is slowly being phased out. Birungi, who describes Fr. Grimes as a perfectionist, remembers the fancy dress ball, where students mingled and wore all sorts of attire, as a big event on the school’s social calendar. The school also held beauty contests. In all this, discipline was emphasised.
But the school is now focusing more on formal education to attract students, something that has not gone down well with everybody. Birungi, also an old girl of the school, said old students “are against spoiling the culture” of Namasagali.
As Seanice prepared to pack her bags for Nairobi for a lucrative job at Capital FM, she argued that Namasagali’s fall “is a loss to the country because we need the culture of arts and not just concentrating on chemistry and physics.”
And as Kintu admitted, “the candle is burning out.” However, he said there was still hope. He explained that with the help of former students, the college needed to come up with something unique to revive the lost glory. The ideas are there, Kintu said. But time is the one thing not on his side.
jmbanga@ugandaobserver.com
Some of Namasagali's old students
Rebecca Kadaga -Deputy Speaker, Parliament
Charles Mbiire - Chairman, MTN Uganda
Patrick Bitature - Proprietor Simba Telecom and Dembe FM.
Miria Matembe - Mbarara Woman Member of Parliament.
Alex Mukulu - Artiste
Jimmy Katumba - Musician
Julianna Kanyomozi - Singer
DJ Bangi - Presenter, Radio Sanyu
Alex Ndawula - Presenter, Capital Radio
Timothy Kalyegira - Social commentator, Daily Monitor and KFM
www.ugandaobserver.com
Hillie Billie
Grand Affair
NAMASAGALI OLD STUDENTS ASSOCIATION (NOSA)
LAUNCH
A HIGHER EDUCATION SCHOLASHIP FUND
Former students from Namasagali College, Kamuli, have set up a Non Profit Organisation with the aim of aiding under privileged individuals achieve their higher educational aspirations with a Higher Education Scholarship Fund.
NOSA (which stands for Namasagali Old Students Association NOSA) comprises of friends and former students of the college based abroad and in Uganda. NOSA Inc is a charity organisation registered in Boston, USA and will be registered in the United Kingdom and Uganda, shortly.
Former students of Namasagali are renowned for setting up individual annual reunions some of which have brought former headmaster Reverend Father Damian Grimes (MBE), as well as students, teachers and well wishers together in Uganda and the United Kingdom, for many years. Most recently in 2005 in London when Father Grimes 50 years of priesthood was commemorated.
Unlike most other established colleges in Uganda, Namasagali College has had no solid alumni structure until now. With the incorporation of former students from USA, U.K and Uganda, the idea to attach a worthy cause to the memorable reunions was realized. The first international event is to be held in Boston, USA which apart from being a reunion will be a chance to kick start and launch the scholarship fund.
The Boston reunion will be held at the Boston Marriott, Cambridge from 29th June through 1st July 2007, with all proceeds from various events that weekend going to the NOSA International Higher Education Scholarship Fund. Future annual fund-raising events will be held in different locations in rotation until such time that the fund is established and consequently the dream of what began as a small reunion idea would not only be a legacy to the great school that former students proud to have been part of but their way of giving back to the community.
NOSA Inc comprises of two main committees; the Social Committee who are responsible for setting up and organising the events and the Scholarship Fund committee who foresee the establishment and running of the fund.
The organisation is currently self funded by the committee members. However there have been donations and overwhelming support, coming from former students and friends of Namasagali College. NOSA Inc has had donations from individuals such as Mr Patrick Bitature of Simba Telecom and this together with other donations will make what is hoped to be a lasting legacy to Namasagali College!
More information is available on the website http://www.namasagalinosa.com/
or contact: secretary@namasagalinosa.com
How the curtain fell on Namasagali productions
MOSES SERUGO
One of the salient features in the stage productions was the fusion of modern dance routines performed to exotic music from artistes as diverse as Johnny Clegg and Toure Kunda
As local theatre pays homage to luminaries like the late Byron Kawadwa in its toast to 50 years of drama this month, maybe the demise of the Namasagali College “productions” will also be part of the moment of silence.
For 25 years, Namasagali College’s annual dance dramas were a red-letter event on the National Theatre's calendar until 2004 when the curtain fell on this enchanting art form. In that period, Namasagali College put on a record 25 plays from 1978 and many will recall how business in Kampala would stall every time the school’s bevy of nubile beauties clad in red mini frocks descended upon the National Theatre from Kamuli.
The storylines were rarely contrived. They were mostly wishy-washy with storybook endings where the leading man and woman ended their antagonism in a marriage of convenience. But these were high school students, mostly teenagers who made up for their lack of drama experience with lots of enthusiasm.
In fact for most theatregoers, it was never about intellectually thrilling plots although Father Damian Grimes, the school’s former headmaster and main playwright occasionally threw in a couple of well thought out plots like The Great Caesar, African Princess, In The Beginning Was The Woman and The Republic of Feminia. The dance dramas evolved from a college extra-curricular activity where Father Grimes sought a pastime to occupy both boys and girls.
The Welsh clergyman had been transferred from Namilyango College in 1967 where he had introduced boxing to the young males there. Modern dance is what he settled for as a way of instilling human qualities like self-confidence, poise, grace, clear diction and emotional sensitivity - whatever that meant.
The culture of journeying from Kamuli for the annual 160km journey to Kampala begun in 1978 when an official from the Ministry of Culture and Community Development visited the school and watched a presentation of Song of Bantu, a play about the migration of the Bantu which was an adaptation of Ipi Tombi, a South African play.
She informed her boss Mrs Mary Astles, the Minister at that time and wife to Amin’s henchman Bob Astles who in turn booked the school in the National Theatre so they could stage the play. Hence began a tradition of putting on annual stage productions in the fashion of musicals that not only won the school some accolades but also became a breeding ground for local theatrical groups.
The Ebonies sent out scouts every time Namasagali was in town and thespians like Ann Namiiro Kizito, Kwezi Kaganda, David Kute and Raymond Rushabiro are some of the present and former members of The Ebonies that were in Namasagali.
One of the salient features in the stage productions was the fusion of modern dance routines performed to exotic music from artistes as diverse as Johnny Clegg, Toure Kunda, Salif Keita, Kassav our own Percussion Discussion Africa. Songs like African Sky Blue, Impi, Ibolalethu, Fatou Yo, Oule and Kisomabwire became signature tunes of the Namasagali productions.
The dance duets - usually a sculpted lad dancing with a voluptuous lady dressed in a leotard had a sensuality about them. The group dances were always colourful - usually the celebratory dance that closed the performance in which the whole cast did the same routines in unison. It was mostly escapism drama, the kind that would take you to a fairyland, one of make-believe complete with calculated movements, exaggerated diction and well-practised sentences.
Some of the school’s plays were performed on special occasions.
The Martyrs Ballet (1986), which charted the last days of the Uganda Martyrs, was performed for Pope John Paul II during his visit to Uganda in 1993 while Street Children about the plight of street children was performed in Nairobi, Kenya in 1992 at the invitation of the Kenya National Theatre.
The phenomenon did not last and the knell of the Namasagali productions came after Father Grimes retired from Namasagali College in 2000 after 33 years of service.
The down fallThat year, the school put on The Secret Agent, the last play the elderly school head oversaw. At that time, the upcountry school, for so long a shining piece of the private schools model, was mired in financial woes. The Secret Agent, which featured some of the college’s acting alumni, was a desperate attempt at rescuing the school from its grinding debt.
After Fr. Grimes’ departure, Namasagali College became a government-run school but the post-Grimes stage productions Timeless Beauty (2001), The Silent Rebel (2002), The Xenope (2003) and The Fury (2004) visibly lacked Father Grimes’ exquisite touch. The tradition was rested in 2004 after the school played mostly to empty houses at the National Theatre.
“The productions were always expensive with transport costs, feeding and accommodation for the 70 or so students coming to Kampala. Enrolment at the school had fallen which meant there wasn’t enough money to fund the productions,” a former teacher at the college explains.
Some of the plays were impressive enough to earn national theatrical awards. Song of Bantu (1978), Song of the Gospel (1979) Song of Impi (1982) and Return To The Land of Make Believe (1985) were each named Best Production in their respective years. Jenkins Oryem who played the leading man in The Great Caesar (1989) received a Best Actor award for playing Julius Caesar.
Sadly, there is nothing much to show for the golden age of Namasagali drama in terms of posterity apart from memories of the alumni, a mention in the Cambridge Guide to African and Caribbean Theatre and maybe the browning poster of 1991’s The Spanish Romance at National Theatre’s Resource Centre.
That means some will never see Linda Bazalaki’s near-striptease as she seduces a bullfighter in The Spanish Romance or the scantily clad nubile girls doing the mourning dance in the same production. Neither will they appreciate the acting talent of people like Timothy Balamaze, Ronald Sempangi, Mohammed Muwabe, Lameck Luwemba, Marcus Kwikiriza, Linda Kibombo, Florence Oteba, Frobisher Lwanga, Sheba Kerere and Veronica Tindityebwa.
Some of the cast used the confidence built from stage experience and the ability to communicate effectively in modern life. Linda Kibombo, a newscaster with Sanyu FM is one such person. “I remember walking into Sanyu FM and meeting Olivia Cerendu, the news manager and telling her I would like to read the news at Sanyu FM. She was impressed by my boldness and offered me the job,” Kibombo recalls.
Others that found a vocation in radio include Alex Ndaula (Capital FM), Ronald Sempangi (Capital FM), Wilfred Bangi (Sanyu FM), Irene Ochwo (Radio One), Robert Kalundi Serumaga (Radio One), Gloria Kamba (Radio Sanyu), John Miles (Radio Sanyu), Robert Kabushenga (Capital Gang), Samson Bill (Radio Sanyu), Ben Wandera (Capital FM), Rita Nassuna (Radio Sanyu/Capital FM) and Alex Mukulu (Radio Simba).
A few like Ronnie Mulindwa and Frobisher Lwanga are vestiges of Namasagali’s drama heydays. Mulindwa has replicated his former school’s drama model in Obsessions’ classical theatre performances while Lwanga has continued his high school funny man character in Theatre Factory’s weekly Comedy Night skits and will soon be seen in season three of WBS TV’s suburban drama Makutano Junction.
Namasagali theatrical productions
1978 Song of Bantu
1979 Song of the Gospel
1980 Song of Sidi
1981 Song of Joseph
1982 Song of Impi
1983 Song of Bantu
1984 Land of Make Believe
1985 Return to the Land of Make Believe
1986 Mwata Yamvo and the Martyrs Ballet
1987 At Mama Kapi’s
1988 Gernsheimer's Follies
1989 The Great Ceaser
1990 Tatyana in Paris
1991 The Spanish Romance
1992 African Princess
1993 The Wife of Pankuku
1994 Amalia
1995 The Great Caesar
1996 In The Beginning Was The Woman
1997 Notorious1998 Bashi Bazook
1999 The Republic of Feminia
2000 The Secret Agent
2001 Timeless Beauty
2002 The Silent Rebel
2003 The Xenope
2004 The Fury
Sunday Monitor 2007
About Us
NOSA INTERACTIVE has been set up to include all Former Students, Teachers and Friends of Namasagali College based both abroad and in Uganda from all class eras, by NOSA INC. Its purpose: for informal views, debates and contributions from all year groups.
It is part of NOSA INC, the non-profit organisation with a mission to reunite Former Students, Teachers and friends from around the world joined in an effort to facilitate the higher education of the disadvantaged children.
It is part of NOSA INC, the non-profit organisation with a mission to reunite Former Students, Teachers and friends from around the world joined in an effort to facilitate the higher education of the disadvantaged children.
DONATIONS
Donate at any time to the Scholarship Fund through website: http://www.namasagalinosa.com/
Fund is managed by NOSA INC. a non-profit corporation registered in the State of Massachusettes. USA
Fund is managed by NOSA INC. a non-profit corporation registered in the State of Massachusettes. USA
Obituary: Former Namasagali College Student
NOSA Inc. and all members would like to send their condolences to the family of Prince Mugenyi (RIP), who died on November 27th 2007 in Kampala, and was laid to rest in Fort Portal.
May his soul rest in eternal peace.
May his soul rest in eternal peace.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
10th November 2007
NOSA Inc. and all members wish to send out congratulations to Mrs Margaret Magezi, on her birthday.
We raise our glasses to her on her special occaision and indeed her graduation to the exciting side of life's experiences.
Three cheers to the Birthday Girl!!!
NOSA Inc. and all members wish to send out congratulations to Mrs Margaret Magezi, on her birthday.
We raise our glasses to her on her special occaision and indeed her graduation to the exciting side of life's experiences.
Three cheers to the Birthday Girl!!!
Invitation!!!
Morning All,
Saturday 10/11/07 this weekend I am finally of AGE!! I can get into pubs and wine bars without showing my ID, I become a consenting Adult, I'll be the the BIG no years old, and to "Celebrate",this I'll be in the Beef Eater Coombe Road South Croydon from 8.30pm for dinner and sipping Barcardi, only to move on a bit later to 791 London road by Thornton Heath Pond for a few Jugs of Vodka, and if I'm still standing after that, I'll be dancing on Tables, Pole Dancing with a bit of Salsa..Kwasa kwasa, Paka Chini.. u name it
If you fancy a laugh a trip down memory lane of our good old South African Boogie or just join me for Booze and a bit of a Boogie! Drop me a line so I have an idea of how many are cuming
Please come along and help set my Birthday off with a BANG!!!
NB if I have forgotten anyone anti getting senile.. please pass invite on
Love and Hugs
Margaret
Saturday 10/11/07 this weekend I am finally of AGE!! I can get into pubs and wine bars without showing my ID, I become a consenting Adult, I'll be the the BIG no years old, and to "Celebrate",this I'll be in the Beef Eater Coombe Road South Croydon from 8.30pm for dinner and sipping Barcardi, only to move on a bit later to 791 London road by Thornton Heath Pond for a few Jugs of Vodka, and if I'm still standing after that, I'll be dancing on Tables, Pole Dancing with a bit of Salsa..Kwasa kwasa, Paka Chini.. u name it
If you fancy a laugh a trip down memory lane of our good old South African Boogie or just join me for Booze and a bit of a Boogie! Drop me a line so I have an idea of how many are cuming
Please come along and help set my Birthday off with a BANG!!!
NB if I have forgotten anyone anti getting senile.. please pass invite on
Love and Hugs
Margaret
Obituary: Former Namasagali Student
November 2007
Sanyu’s Bangi is dead
MOSES SERUGO
Kampala
Renowned Ugandan icon Wilfred Bangirana is dead. Bangi as he was fondly called in private FM radio and discotheque circles passed away yesterday after failing to recover from a stroke he suffered last month. Bangi, 44, carved himself a niche as an oldies radio and club DJ. His love for songs from yesteryear was showcased in a weekly Sunday afternoon show on Sanyu FM titled The Wind Down Zone.
NEW: REST IN PEACE: Bangi suffered a stroke and died yesterday morning. File photo
He also hosted a monthly oldies night at Ange Mystique, a plush nightclub in Kampala's industrial area and boasted one of the most comprehensive collections of pop music from the '70s and '80s.
Bangi had an illustrious radio career starting out on Capital FM in 1994 after which he crossed to the then Radio Sanyu in 1996. He then moved to Radio One as a pioneer DJ in 1997 after which he joined the renamed Sanyu FM in 2002 as a breakfast show co-host together with Seanice Kacungira.
At the time of his death, he was co-hosting the station's evening Sanyu Drive show alongside Angella Newman a.k.a. Crystal. He was also hosting a show, Goldies, on WBS at 3:30pm on Sundays. Bangi, born in 1963, went to Ntare School where he sat his O-levels after which he joined Namasagali College for his A-level; a school whose emphasis on the performing arts helped Bangi discover a nascent singing talent. He went on to read law at Makerere University but is not known to have practiced.
Timothy Lwanga, a colleague at Sanyu FM said Bangi was on the road to recovery before he died. "He suffered a stroke three weeks ago and was treated at Case Clinic and Mulago Hospital. It left his left arm, leg and half of his face immobile but he was undergoing physiotherapy," said Mr Lwanga.
Bangi is survived by his wife Christine and a 10-year-old daughter. Bangi's death comes several months after the death of another FM radio icon, the humorous Allan "The Cantankerous One" Mugisha and just days after the death of private FM radio trailblazer Thomas Katto. There was no word about Bangi’s funeral arrangements by press time.
http://www.monitor.co.ug/
NOSA Inc. and all its members wishes to convey heartfelt condolences to the family of Wilfred Bangirana.
May his soul rest in eternal peace.
Sanyu’s Bangi is dead
MOSES SERUGO
Kampala
Renowned Ugandan icon Wilfred Bangirana is dead. Bangi as he was fondly called in private FM radio and discotheque circles passed away yesterday after failing to recover from a stroke he suffered last month. Bangi, 44, carved himself a niche as an oldies radio and club DJ. His love for songs from yesteryear was showcased in a weekly Sunday afternoon show on Sanyu FM titled The Wind Down Zone.
NEW: REST IN PEACE: Bangi suffered a stroke and died yesterday morning. File photo
He also hosted a monthly oldies night at Ange Mystique, a plush nightclub in Kampala's industrial area and boasted one of the most comprehensive collections of pop music from the '70s and '80s.
Bangi had an illustrious radio career starting out on Capital FM in 1994 after which he crossed to the then Radio Sanyu in 1996. He then moved to Radio One as a pioneer DJ in 1997 after which he joined the renamed Sanyu FM in 2002 as a breakfast show co-host together with Seanice Kacungira.
At the time of his death, he was co-hosting the station's evening Sanyu Drive show alongside Angella Newman a.k.a. Crystal. He was also hosting a show, Goldies, on WBS at 3:30pm on Sundays. Bangi, born in 1963, went to Ntare School where he sat his O-levels after which he joined Namasagali College for his A-level; a school whose emphasis on the performing arts helped Bangi discover a nascent singing talent. He went on to read law at Makerere University but is not known to have practiced.
Timothy Lwanga, a colleague at Sanyu FM said Bangi was on the road to recovery before he died. "He suffered a stroke three weeks ago and was treated at Case Clinic and Mulago Hospital. It left his left arm, leg and half of his face immobile but he was undergoing physiotherapy," said Mr Lwanga.
Bangi is survived by his wife Christine and a 10-year-old daughter. Bangi's death comes several months after the death of another FM radio icon, the humorous Allan "The Cantankerous One" Mugisha and just days after the death of private FM radio trailblazer Thomas Katto. There was no word about Bangi’s funeral arrangements by press time.
http://www.monitor.co.ug/
NOSA Inc. and all its members wishes to convey heartfelt condolences to the family of Wilfred Bangirana.
May his soul rest in eternal peace.
Obituary
NOSA Inc. and all members wish to send heartfelt sympathy to the family of a former Namasagali Student David Mukama (1988-1990), who passed away in Daresalaam, Tanzania, on Saturday 27th October 2007.
He was a younger brother to Stephen Asiimwe (OB 1981-87)of theEast African Business Week.
The funeral service was held today, Thusday 1st November, 2007 at All Saints Cathederal -Kampala.
May his soul rest in eternal peace. __________________________________________________
He was a younger brother to Stephen Asiimwe (OB 1981-87)of theEast African Business Week.
The funeral service was held today, Thusday 1st November, 2007 at All Saints Cathederal -Kampala.
May his soul rest in eternal peace. __________________________________________________
Archives: Namasagali in the news!
29th September 2005
Namasagali glory lost
By Jeff Mbanga WEEKLY OBSERVER
If anybody seemed capable of defying Isaac Newton’s 1686 law of gravity that what goes up must come down, it was Namasagali College.The college had, in the 1990s, cemented its reputation as the undisputable cradle of the performing arts in Uganda.
For years, Namasagali had thrilled its audience in Kampala with the passion and creativity of its plays and dance performances. According to the college’s dance and drama teacher, Rose Birungi, one of the defining characteristics of the college’s productions was the use of sweet South African music – Inkatha – that was so rare on the airwaves of the time.
If there was ever a school that shaped modern drama in Uganda, it was Namasagali College. Some memorable plays like The Republic of Feminia and Great Caesar attest to this.
But yet again, Newton was spot on – what goes up must come down. And it shows when you brave the three and a half hour-drive from Kampala to Kamuli district, to see where the school’s rise to fame began.When The Weekly Observer visited the school recently, only the sweet music of birds could be heard along the lane to the staffroom.
The sound of drums is becoming rare. The calculated footsteps, moderated voices and well-practised sentences that defined the stage are slowly becoming history.
And to crown what is becoming a sad end to a dream story, the school won’t stage any play at the National Theatre this year. But how did it come to this?
The school’s headmaster, Mr. Aggrey Kintu, who was still grappling with a power outage when The Weekly Observer arrived, said, “We are in some sort of recess.” He added, “It is true the school is losing its name.” And at the moment, not staging plays seems to be the least of Kintu’s worries.
“Can you imagine the college has never been renovated since it started operating in 1964?” Kintu said, pointing to a crack that threatens to split his office into two.
Kintu, who was a student at the school in the mid 1970s, revealed that Namasagali has for a long time been in debt and is still clearing the bills that had accumulated at the National Theatre. According to him, the National Theatre charges the school Shs 500,000 per show. As a result, Namasagali can no longer afford the cost of buying costumes and transport to Kampala to stage shows, leave alone looking after the students.
Ironically, some blame the school’s financial troubles on the very man who brought fame to the school, Fr. Damian Grimes. The priest, who was headmaster of the college from 1967 to 2000, reportedly left the school in huge debt. There are even claims that Fr. Grimes, who Kintu remembers as “an icon of the college” left on bad terms. Some saw evidence of this in the fact that when the good old father organised a dinner at Grand Imperial Hotel this month, some college staff members only got to learn about it the evening before.It is claimed that while Fr. Grimes has made visits to Uganda, he is yet to return to the college.
When Fr. Grimes was contacted for a comment, he was polite but rather elusive. Asked about his legacy at the college, Fr. Grimes answered, “I left that school many years ago. I am here for a private visit and I am not giving any interviews to the press. Ok. God bless you.”
But even before the wrongs Fr. Grimes is accused of committing, the writing was already on the wall for the college. Kintu explained that many schools adopted Namasagali’s approach to drama, making it to lose its uniqueness.The school staged more than 20 plays at the National Theatre. He added that it is not just the schools that imitated Namasagali’s style, but also other dance and drama groups.
A case in point is the college’s old students, The Obsessions, that have exposed – or perhaps over-exposed, the school’s style. Ronnie Mulindwa, a founder member of The Obsessions, has no regrets though. “I was taught in Namasagali. So everything I do, everything I act has to be similar to Namasagali’s style.”
He argues, however, that Namasagali was set for demise even before The Obsessions, which won a 2004 Pearl of Africa Music award, adopted its style. “The person [Fr. Grimes] who brought the school into the limelight was gone and the people who replaced him tried copying his style but failed,” Mulindwa argued, adding, “It was simply a matter of time.”But the students that passed through the school before its decline are still basking in its past glory.
Sharon Kacungira Seanice, Radio Sanyu’s brand manager, says the culture of dance and drama at Namasagali has made her more confident in her radio shows.
“It helped me build on my self esteem,” she says. Fr. Grimes is also remembered for encouraging interaction with the opposite sex, boosting self-confidence among both girls and boys. Kintu said Grimes always told students “not to be taken as second hand goods but to settle with one partner.”
But even that culture of interaction is slowly being phased out. Birungi, who describes Fr. Grimes as a perfectionist, remembers the fancy dress ball, where students mingled and wore all sorts of attire, as a big event on the school’s social calendar. The school also held beauty contests. In all this, discipline was emphasised.
But the school is now focusing more on formal education to attract students, something that has not gone down well with everybody. Birungi, also an old girl of the school, said old students “are against spoiling the culture” of Namasagali.
As Seanice prepared to pack her bags for Nairobi for a lucrative job at Capital FM, she argued that Namasagali’s fall “is a loss to the country because we need the culture of arts and not just concentrating on chemistry and physics.”
And as Kintu admitted, “the candle is burning out.” However, he said there was still hope. He explained that with the help of former students, the college needed to come up with something unique to revive the lost glory. The ideas are there, Kintu said. But time is the one thing not on his side.
jmbanga@ugandaobserver.com
Some of Namasagali's old students
Rebecca Kadaga -Deputy Speaker, Parliament
Charles Mbiire - Chairman, MTN Uganda
Patrick Bitature - Proprietor Simba Telecom and Dembe FM.
Miria Matembe - Mbarara Woman Member of Parliament.
Alex Mukulu - Artiste
Jimmy Katumba - Musician
Julianna Kanyomozi - Singer
DJ Bangi - Presenter, Radio Sanyu
Alex Ndawula - Presenter, Capital Radio
Timothy Kalyegira - Social commentator, Daily Monitor and KFM
www.ugandaobserver.com
Which school extra-curricular activity did you enjoy most?
What did you take away from Namasagali College?
Event most enjoyed in Reunion of 2007
NOSA 2007 T-SHIRTS
NOSA Reunion 2007
Hillie Billie
SATURDAY CONFERENCE POEM
30th June 2007
Innocence Lost
We walked in pain and distress
from the office having just converted
those dreaded demerits
Having had to face the judges
begging that we were late
because rain soaked our jackets
Three months is an age
when you do not see your family
or the scent of your favorite pillow
A strange or familiar vehicle
at the main entrance
brought everyone to the window
Saturday dances were
a dream to uphold except
when you couldn’t find what to wear
Then came the Friday video nights
and a chance to sit next to
someone you held dear
The days were long
and the food was not the same
after running out of the stock from home
But time still went by
and there was always something
to look forward to all the same
A basketball game, the swimming gala,
a track meet, the cultural and creative dances
Go Panthers! Go Kobs! Go Cranes!
Go Leopards! Go Lions! Go Eagles!
We all yelled as if it
were the Olympic Games
Funny how a simple form of
distraction makes you not dread
upcoming exams
Only to mess your thoughts
by inhaling a cancer from
expensive bits of leaves
We lamented when
we were not invited
to go to the “Hilly Billy Parties”
So we created a world
of our own down by the River Nile
in a place called “Africana”
Where amid the decrepit buildings lurked the dangers of poisonous creatures
Knowing little about the sweet
but deadly nectar that we drank
made from a simple banana
‘‘Ombaki’’ was the call sign for everyone
if you were not in right place
May the ancestors help you
if you had not learnt how
to leap a wall at a frantic pace
Truth be told we learnt a lot
from it all even though
it was both good and tender
at great cost
It still must be said
that all high schools are the stages
where indeed innocence is lost
Bear in mind the failures
and never forget those who
are not with us anymore
Recall the silly but memorable expressions
and humanity that
made us all who we are
“Strive Regardless” was not only
the motto of the school
called Namasagali College
It was also for the days ahead
when we are forlorn, weak
and have lost our distinctive edge
Richard W. Wakhweya
Boston, MA (USA)
Senior 4, Class of 1982
'Innocence Lost' May 1, 2007
Innocence Lost
We walked in pain and distress
from the office having just converted
those dreaded demerits
Having had to face the judges
begging that we were late
because rain soaked our jackets
Three months is an age
when you do not see your family
or the scent of your favorite pillow
A strange or familiar vehicle
at the main entrance
brought everyone to the window
Saturday dances were
a dream to uphold except
when you couldn’t find what to wear
Then came the Friday video nights
and a chance to sit next to
someone you held dear
The days were long
and the food was not the same
after running out of the stock from home
But time still went by
and there was always something
to look forward to all the same
A basketball game, the swimming gala,
a track meet, the cultural and creative dances
Go Panthers! Go Kobs! Go Cranes!
Go Leopards! Go Lions! Go Eagles!
We all yelled as if it
were the Olympic Games
Funny how a simple form of
distraction makes you not dread
upcoming exams
Only to mess your thoughts
by inhaling a cancer from
expensive bits of leaves
We lamented when
we were not invited
to go to the “Hilly Billy Parties”
So we created a world
of our own down by the River Nile
in a place called “Africana”
Where amid the decrepit buildings lurked the dangers of poisonous creatures
Knowing little about the sweet
but deadly nectar that we drank
made from a simple banana
‘‘Ombaki’’ was the call sign for everyone
if you were not in right place
May the ancestors help you
if you had not learnt how
to leap a wall at a frantic pace
Truth be told we learnt a lot
from it all even though
it was both good and tender
at great cost
It still must be said
that all high schools are the stages
where indeed innocence is lost
Bear in mind the failures
and never forget those who
are not with us anymore
Recall the silly but memorable expressions
and humanity that
made us all who we are
“Strive Regardless” was not only
the motto of the school
called Namasagali College
It was also for the days ahead
when we are forlorn, weak
and have lost our distinctive edge
Richard W. Wakhweya
Boston, MA (USA)
Senior 4, Class of 1982
'Innocence Lost' May 1, 2007
NOSA Reunion 2007
Grand Affair
UGANDAN NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
Uganda: Namasagali Gets Scholarship Fund
New Vision (Kampala) 10 June 2007
FOR having benefited from Namasagali College, former students have set up an NGO to help under- privileged individuals achieve their higher educational aspirations through a Higher Education Scholarship Fund.
Namasagali Old Students Association (NOSA International) comprises friends and former students of the college based abroad and in Uganda.
It is a charity organisation registered in Boston, USA and will be registered in the UK and Uganda, shortly.
The first event is to be held in Boston, USA at the Boston Marriott from June 29 to July 1.
It is a reunion and a launch for the scholarship fund. All proceeds from various events that weekend will go to the Fund.
Former students of Namasagali are renowned for holding individual annual reunions, some of which have brought together former headmaster the Rev. Fr. Damian Grimes, as well as students, teachers and well-wishers in Uganda and the UK, for many years.
Unlike other established colleges, Namasagali has had no solid alumni structure until now.
Future annual fund-raising events will be held in different locations in rotation until the fund is well established.
Copyright © 2007 New Vision. All rights reserved.
New Vision (Kampala) 10 June 2007
FOR having benefited from Namasagali College, former students have set up an NGO to help under- privileged individuals achieve their higher educational aspirations through a Higher Education Scholarship Fund.
Namasagali Old Students Association (NOSA International) comprises friends and former students of the college based abroad and in Uganda.
It is a charity organisation registered in Boston, USA and will be registered in the UK and Uganda, shortly.
The first event is to be held in Boston, USA at the Boston Marriott from June 29 to July 1.
It is a reunion and a launch for the scholarship fund. All proceeds from various events that weekend will go to the Fund.
Former students of Namasagali are renowned for holding individual annual reunions, some of which have brought together former headmaster the Rev. Fr. Damian Grimes, as well as students, teachers and well-wishers in Uganda and the UK, for many years.
Unlike other established colleges, Namasagali has had no solid alumni structure until now.
Future annual fund-raising events will be held in different locations in rotation until the fund is well established.
Copyright © 2007 New Vision. All rights reserved.
Original Article for Launch Publicity as sent to The Monitor Newspaper
NAMASAGALI OLD STUDENTS ASSOCIATION (NOSA)
LAUNCH
A HIGHER EDUCATION SCHOLASHIP FUND
Former students from Namasagali College, Kamuli, have set up a Non Profit Organisation with the aim of aiding under privileged individuals achieve their higher educational aspirations with a Higher Education Scholarship Fund.
NOSA (which stands for Namasagali Old Students Association NOSA) comprises of friends and former students of the college based abroad and in Uganda. NOSA Inc is a charity organisation registered in Boston, USA and will be registered in the United Kingdom and Uganda, shortly.
Former students of Namasagali are renowned for setting up individual annual reunions some of which have brought former headmaster Reverend Father Damian Grimes (MBE), as well as students, teachers and well wishers together in Uganda and the United Kingdom, for many years. Most recently in 2005 in London when Father Grimes 50 years of priesthood was commemorated.
Unlike most other established colleges in Uganda, Namasagali College has had no solid alumni structure until now. With the incorporation of former students from USA, U.K and Uganda, the idea to attach a worthy cause to the memorable reunions was realized. The first international event is to be held in Boston, USA which apart from being a reunion will be a chance to kick start and launch the scholarship fund.
The Boston reunion will be held at the Boston Marriott, Cambridge from 29th June through 1st July 2007, with all proceeds from various events that weekend going to the NOSA International Higher Education Scholarship Fund. Future annual fund-raising events will be held in different locations in rotation until such time that the fund is established and consequently the dream of what began as a small reunion idea would not only be a legacy to the great school that former students proud to have been part of but their way of giving back to the community.
NOSA Inc comprises of two main committees; the Social Committee who are responsible for setting up and organising the events and the Scholarship Fund committee who foresee the establishment and running of the fund.
The organisation is currently self funded by the committee members. However there have been donations and overwhelming support, coming from former students and friends of Namasagali College. NOSA Inc has had donations from individuals such as Mr Patrick Bitature of Simba Telecom and this together with other donations will make what is hoped to be a lasting legacy to Namasagali College!
More information is available on the website http://www.namasagalinosa.com/
or contact: secretary@namasagalinosa.com
'Sagali in the News!
How the curtain fell on Namasagali productions
MOSES SERUGO
One of the salient features in the stage productions was the fusion of modern dance routines performed to exotic music from artistes as diverse as Johnny Clegg and Toure Kunda
As local theatre pays homage to luminaries like the late Byron Kawadwa in its toast to 50 years of drama this month, maybe the demise of the Namasagali College “productions” will also be part of the moment of silence.
For 25 years, Namasagali College’s annual dance dramas were a red-letter event on the National Theatre's calendar until 2004 when the curtain fell on this enchanting art form. In that period, Namasagali College put on a record 25 plays from 1978 and many will recall how business in Kampala would stall every time the school’s bevy of nubile beauties clad in red mini frocks descended upon the National Theatre from Kamuli.
The storylines were rarely contrived. They were mostly wishy-washy with storybook endings where the leading man and woman ended their antagonism in a marriage of convenience. But these were high school students, mostly teenagers who made up for their lack of drama experience with lots of enthusiasm.
In fact for most theatregoers, it was never about intellectually thrilling plots although Father Damian Grimes, the school’s former headmaster and main playwright occasionally threw in a couple of well thought out plots like The Great Caesar, African Princess, In The Beginning Was The Woman and The Republic of Feminia. The dance dramas evolved from a college extra-curricular activity where Father Grimes sought a pastime to occupy both boys and girls.
The Welsh clergyman had been transferred from Namilyango College in 1967 where he had introduced boxing to the young males there. Modern dance is what he settled for as a way of instilling human qualities like self-confidence, poise, grace, clear diction and emotional sensitivity - whatever that meant.
The culture of journeying from Kamuli for the annual 160km journey to Kampala begun in 1978 when an official from the Ministry of Culture and Community Development visited the school and watched a presentation of Song of Bantu, a play about the migration of the Bantu which was an adaptation of Ipi Tombi, a South African play.
She informed her boss Mrs Mary Astles, the Minister at that time and wife to Amin’s henchman Bob Astles who in turn booked the school in the National Theatre so they could stage the play. Hence began a tradition of putting on annual stage productions in the fashion of musicals that not only won the school some accolades but also became a breeding ground for local theatrical groups.
The Ebonies sent out scouts every time Namasagali was in town and thespians like Ann Namiiro Kizito, Kwezi Kaganda, David Kute and Raymond Rushabiro are some of the present and former members of The Ebonies that were in Namasagali.
One of the salient features in the stage productions was the fusion of modern dance routines performed to exotic music from artistes as diverse as Johnny Clegg, Toure Kunda, Salif Keita, Kassav our own Percussion Discussion Africa. Songs like African Sky Blue, Impi, Ibolalethu, Fatou Yo, Oule and Kisomabwire became signature tunes of the Namasagali productions.
The dance duets - usually a sculpted lad dancing with a voluptuous lady dressed in a leotard had a sensuality about them. The group dances were always colourful - usually the celebratory dance that closed the performance in which the whole cast did the same routines in unison. It was mostly escapism drama, the kind that would take you to a fairyland, one of make-believe complete with calculated movements, exaggerated diction and well-practised sentences.
Some of the school’s plays were performed on special occasions.
The Martyrs Ballet (1986), which charted the last days of the Uganda Martyrs, was performed for Pope John Paul II during his visit to Uganda in 1993 while Street Children about the plight of street children was performed in Nairobi, Kenya in 1992 at the invitation of the Kenya National Theatre.
The phenomenon did not last and the knell of the Namasagali productions came after Father Grimes retired from Namasagali College in 2000 after 33 years of service.
The down fallThat year, the school put on The Secret Agent, the last play the elderly school head oversaw. At that time, the upcountry school, for so long a shining piece of the private schools model, was mired in financial woes. The Secret Agent, which featured some of the college’s acting alumni, was a desperate attempt at rescuing the school from its grinding debt.
After Fr. Grimes’ departure, Namasagali College became a government-run school but the post-Grimes stage productions Timeless Beauty (2001), The Silent Rebel (2002), The Xenope (2003) and The Fury (2004) visibly lacked Father Grimes’ exquisite touch. The tradition was rested in 2004 after the school played mostly to empty houses at the National Theatre.
“The productions were always expensive with transport costs, feeding and accommodation for the 70 or so students coming to Kampala. Enrolment at the school had fallen which meant there wasn’t enough money to fund the productions,” a former teacher at the college explains.
Some of the plays were impressive enough to earn national theatrical awards. Song of Bantu (1978), Song of the Gospel (1979) Song of Impi (1982) and Return To The Land of Make Believe (1985) were each named Best Production in their respective years. Jenkins Oryem who played the leading man in The Great Caesar (1989) received a Best Actor award for playing Julius Caesar.
Sadly, there is nothing much to show for the golden age of Namasagali drama in terms of posterity apart from memories of the alumni, a mention in the Cambridge Guide to African and Caribbean Theatre and maybe the browning poster of 1991’s The Spanish Romance at National Theatre’s Resource Centre.
That means some will never see Linda Bazalaki’s near-striptease as she seduces a bullfighter in The Spanish Romance or the scantily clad nubile girls doing the mourning dance in the same production. Neither will they appreciate the acting talent of people like Timothy Balamaze, Ronald Sempangi, Mohammed Muwabe, Lameck Luwemba, Marcus Kwikiriza, Linda Kibombo, Florence Oteba, Frobisher Lwanga, Sheba Kerere and Veronica Tindityebwa.
Some of the cast used the confidence built from stage experience and the ability to communicate effectively in modern life. Linda Kibombo, a newscaster with Sanyu FM is one such person. “I remember walking into Sanyu FM and meeting Olivia Cerendu, the news manager and telling her I would like to read the news at Sanyu FM. She was impressed by my boldness and offered me the job,” Kibombo recalls.
Others that found a vocation in radio include Alex Ndaula (Capital FM), Ronald Sempangi (Capital FM), Wilfred Bangi (Sanyu FM), Irene Ochwo (Radio One), Robert Kalundi Serumaga (Radio One), Gloria Kamba (Radio Sanyu), John Miles (Radio Sanyu), Robert Kabushenga (Capital Gang), Samson Bill (Radio Sanyu), Ben Wandera (Capital FM), Rita Nassuna (Radio Sanyu/Capital FM) and Alex Mukulu (Radio Simba).
A few like Ronnie Mulindwa and Frobisher Lwanga are vestiges of Namasagali’s drama heydays. Mulindwa has replicated his former school’s drama model in Obsessions’ classical theatre performances while Lwanga has continued his high school funny man character in Theatre Factory’s weekly Comedy Night skits and will soon be seen in season three of WBS TV’s suburban drama Makutano Junction.
Namasagali theatrical productions
1978 Song of Bantu
1979 Song of the Gospel
1980 Song of Sidi
1981 Song of Joseph
1982 Song of Impi
1983 Song of Bantu
1984 Land of Make Believe
1985 Return to the Land of Make Believe
1986 Mwata Yamvo and the Martyrs Ballet
1987 At Mama Kapi’s
1988 Gernsheimer's Follies
1989 The Great Ceaser
1990 Tatyana in Paris
1991 The Spanish Romance
1992 African Princess
1993 The Wife of Pankuku
1994 Amalia
1995 The Great Caesar
1996 In The Beginning Was The Woman
1997 Notorious1998 Bashi Bazook
1999 The Republic of Feminia
2000 The Secret Agent
2001 Timeless Beauty
2002 The Silent Rebel
2003 The Xenope
2004 The Fury
Sunday Monitor 2007
'Sagali in the news!
Out of Africa but not for long
By Corinne McPartland
A teacher who has devoted his life to education in Africa talks to CORINNE McPARTLAND about how the continent has captured his heart.
Downie has just come back from a trip of a lifetime literally. He is staying with his sister on a short holiday before he returns to what he describes as his "homeland".
The 63-year-old, of Glentrammon Road, Orpington, was first drawn to Africa after he finished his A Levels at Dulwich College.
He decided to spend a year working there with Voluntary Service Overseas.
In 1962, after passing his exams, he embarked on a trip which would change the course of his life forever.
He went to Tanzania in eastern Africa with the intention of volunteering as a teacher but ended up working in a refugee camp.
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While there he helped families whose lives had been devastated by flooding.
As an administrator, he kept a record of people and food supplies.
Students at Namasagali University where Simon still works
Simon said: "People weren't dying like they were during the Nazi regime.
"The worst memory I have is being told by the Government to bulldoze down the camp after the refugees fled to another town.
"They had nothing to come back to when the other town didn't want them."
In 1963, Simon returned to the UK to study geography at Oxford University.
He then moved to northern Uganda to teach at a secondary school in one of the country's poorest areas.
Simon added: "The schools were poorly stocked but the children wanted to learn."
During president Idi Amin's rule in Uganda, teachers began to move away from his school. Simon said: "I stayed as I was interested in what was happening and really wanted to help.
"When Amin first came to power everyone thought he stood for something good but as his rule went on he spread terror and violence."
Amin established a so-called State Research Bureau which used death squads to murder people who did not agree with him.
Simon says his worst memory was seeing "massacre fields" full of thousands of skeletons.
During his stay in the country Simon also met his wife, Ugandan teacher Nassali Tamale.
He said: "I met her while we were marking O Level exam papers."
The couple's love blossomed and they ended up moving to Namasagali, between Lake Victoria and Lake Kyoga in northern Uganda.
The couple became an integral part of the community while teaching at the college and university there.
Simon has taught English, history and geography to more than 4,000 African schoolchildren.
He is still involved with Namasagali University as a teacher and is an administrator there.
Simon said: "It has become a kind of calling to teach these children and make their lives better."
Although Simon's health has deteriorated since he contracted malaria and he was hospitalised in England and Africa, he says he never wants to leave his home.
He said: "I have a real passion for Namasagali.
"It is somewhere I want to spend the rest of my life.
"Africa is a special place with the most wonderful people. It really has taken my heart."
12:02pm Friday 28th July 2006
Croydon Guardian
http://www.croydonguardian.co.uk/
By Corinne McPartland
A teacher who has devoted his life to education in Africa talks to CORINNE McPARTLAND about how the continent has captured his heart.
Downie has just come back from a trip of a lifetime literally. He is staying with his sister on a short holiday before he returns to what he describes as his "homeland".
The 63-year-old, of Glentrammon Road, Orpington, was first drawn to Africa after he finished his A Levels at Dulwich College.
He decided to spend a year working there with Voluntary Service Overseas.
In 1962, after passing his exams, he embarked on a trip which would change the course of his life forever.
He went to Tanzania in eastern Africa with the intention of volunteering as a teacher but ended up working in a refugee camp.
advertisement
While there he helped families whose lives had been devastated by flooding.
As an administrator, he kept a record of people and food supplies.
Students at Namasagali University where Simon still works
Simon said: "People weren't dying like they were during the Nazi regime.
"The worst memory I have is being told by the Government to bulldoze down the camp after the refugees fled to another town.
"They had nothing to come back to when the other town didn't want them."
In 1963, Simon returned to the UK to study geography at Oxford University.
He then moved to northern Uganda to teach at a secondary school in one of the country's poorest areas.
Simon added: "The schools were poorly stocked but the children wanted to learn."
During president Idi Amin's rule in Uganda, teachers began to move away from his school. Simon said: "I stayed as I was interested in what was happening and really wanted to help.
"When Amin first came to power everyone thought he stood for something good but as his rule went on he spread terror and violence."
Amin established a so-called State Research Bureau which used death squads to murder people who did not agree with him.
Simon says his worst memory was seeing "massacre fields" full of thousands of skeletons.
During his stay in the country Simon also met his wife, Ugandan teacher Nassali Tamale.
He said: "I met her while we were marking O Level exam papers."
The couple's love blossomed and they ended up moving to Namasagali, between Lake Victoria and Lake Kyoga in northern Uganda.
The couple became an integral part of the community while teaching at the college and university there.
Simon has taught English, history and geography to more than 4,000 African schoolchildren.
He is still involved with Namasagali University as a teacher and is an administrator there.
Simon said: "It has become a kind of calling to teach these children and make their lives better."
Although Simon's health has deteriorated since he contracted malaria and he was hospitalised in England and Africa, he says he never wants to leave his home.
He said: "I have a real passion for Namasagali.
"It is somewhere I want to spend the rest of my life.
"Africa is a special place with the most wonderful people. It really has taken my heart."
12:02pm Friday 28th July 2006
Croydon Guardian
http://www.croydonguardian.co.uk/
Education Quotes
Abraham Lincoln:
Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.
African proverb:
It takes a village to raise a child.
Albert Einstein:
It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry.
Albert Einstein:
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.
Alvin Toffler:
The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.
Anatole France:
The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards
Anne Frank:
Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.
Annie Sullivan:
Children require guidance and sympathy far more than instruction.
Ariel and Will Durant:
Education is the transmission of civilization.
Aristotle:
All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.
Arthur Koestler:
Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.
Barbara Tuchman:
Learning from experience is a faculty almost never practiced.
Beatrix Potter:
Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.
Ben Sweetland:
We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own.
Benjamin Jowett:
We cannot seek or attain health, wealth, learning, justice or kindness in general. Action is always specific, concrete, individualized, unique.
Bertrand Russell:
I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: 'The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that's fair.' In these words he epitomized the history of the human race.
Education and the Social Order
Bill Beattie:
The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think - rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with thoughts of other men.
Carl Rogers:
If we value independence, if we are disturbed by the growing conformity of knowledge, of values, of attitudes, which our present system induces, then we may wish to set up conditions of learning which make for uniqueness, for self-direction, and for self-initiated learning.
Charlotte Bronte:
Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education; they grow there, firm as weeds among rocks.
Clarence Darrow:
With all their faults, trade unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in men, than any other association of men.
Dean William R. Inge:
The aim of education is the knowledge not of fact, but of values.
Douglas Adams:
Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
Edith Hamilton:
It has always seemed strange to me that in our endless discussions about education so little stress is laid on the pleasure of becoming an educated person, the enormous interest it adds to life. To be able to be caught up into the world of thought -- that is to be educated.
Epictetus:
It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
Epictetus:
We must not believe the many, who say that only free people ought to be educated, but we should rather believe the philosophers who say that only the educated are free.
Discourses
Eric Hoffer:
In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
Ethel Barrymore:
You must learn day by day, year by year, to broaden your horizon. The more things you love, the more you are interested in, the more you enjoy, the more you are indignant about, the more you have left when anything happens.
Finley Peter Dunne:
Ye can lead a man up to the university, but you can't make him think.
Flannery O'Conner:
Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.
Fritz Redl:
Boredom will always remain the greatest enemy of school disciplines. If we remember that children are bored, not only when they don't happen to be interested in the subject or when the teacher doesn't make it interesting, but also when certain working conditions are out of focus with their basic needs, then we can realize what a great contributor to discipline problems boredom really is. Research has shown that boredom is closely related to frustration and that the effect of too much frustration is invariably irritability, withdrawal, rebellious opposition or aggressive rejection of the whole show.
When We Deal With Children
George Bernard Shaw:
A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education.
George Peabody:
Education: a debt due from present to future generations.
George Santayana:
Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Gloria Steinem:
The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn.
Gloria Steinem:
The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn.
Goethe:
Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.
Hannah More:
It is not so important to know everything as to appreciate what we learn.
www.wisdomqoutes.com
Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.
African proverb:
It takes a village to raise a child.
Albert Einstein:
It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry.
Albert Einstein:
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.
Alvin Toffler:
The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.
Anatole France:
The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards
Anne Frank:
Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.
Annie Sullivan:
Children require guidance and sympathy far more than instruction.
Ariel and Will Durant:
Education is the transmission of civilization.
Aristotle:
All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.
Arthur Koestler:
Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.
Barbara Tuchman:
Learning from experience is a faculty almost never practiced.
Beatrix Potter:
Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.
Ben Sweetland:
We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own.
Benjamin Jowett:
We cannot seek or attain health, wealth, learning, justice or kindness in general. Action is always specific, concrete, individualized, unique.
Bertrand Russell:
I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: 'The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that's fair.' In these words he epitomized the history of the human race.
Education and the Social Order
Bill Beattie:
The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think - rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with thoughts of other men.
Carl Rogers:
If we value independence, if we are disturbed by the growing conformity of knowledge, of values, of attitudes, which our present system induces, then we may wish to set up conditions of learning which make for uniqueness, for self-direction, and for self-initiated learning.
Charlotte Bronte:
Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education; they grow there, firm as weeds among rocks.
Clarence Darrow:
With all their faults, trade unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in men, than any other association of men.
Dean William R. Inge:
The aim of education is the knowledge not of fact, but of values.
Douglas Adams:
Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
Edith Hamilton:
It has always seemed strange to me that in our endless discussions about education so little stress is laid on the pleasure of becoming an educated person, the enormous interest it adds to life. To be able to be caught up into the world of thought -- that is to be educated.
Epictetus:
It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
Epictetus:
We must not believe the many, who say that only free people ought to be educated, but we should rather believe the philosophers who say that only the educated are free.
Discourses
Eric Hoffer:
In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
Ethel Barrymore:
You must learn day by day, year by year, to broaden your horizon. The more things you love, the more you are interested in, the more you enjoy, the more you are indignant about, the more you have left when anything happens.
Finley Peter Dunne:
Ye can lead a man up to the university, but you can't make him think.
Flannery O'Conner:
Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.
Fritz Redl:
Boredom will always remain the greatest enemy of school disciplines. If we remember that children are bored, not only when they don't happen to be interested in the subject or when the teacher doesn't make it interesting, but also when certain working conditions are out of focus with their basic needs, then we can realize what a great contributor to discipline problems boredom really is. Research has shown that boredom is closely related to frustration and that the effect of too much frustration is invariably irritability, withdrawal, rebellious opposition or aggressive rejection of the whole show.
When We Deal With Children
George Bernard Shaw:
A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education.
George Peabody:
Education: a debt due from present to future generations.
George Santayana:
Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Gloria Steinem:
The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn.
Gloria Steinem:
The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn.
Goethe:
Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.
Hannah More:
It is not so important to know everything as to appreciate what we learn.
www.wisdomqoutes.com
Past Leaders
Martin Luther King Jr
"I Have a Dream"
delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
We cannot turn back.
There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. *We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by a sign stating: "For Whites Only."* We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."¹
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."²
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last
"I Have a Dream"
delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
We cannot turn back.
There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. *We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by a sign stating: "For Whites Only."* We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."¹
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."²
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last
NOSA 2007
1 comment:
When is the next reunion and where?
Peter Otim
Mbale
Friend of Namasagali
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