Musaazi, the long forgotten grandfather of Uganda's independence struggle

Little is known about the grandfather of Uganda’s Independence , Ignatius  Kangave Musaazi by those who live in the present times.

But in the books of history, Musaazi is a household name.

Decades after he passed on, family members are saddened by the fact that as times go by,  his works will be erased because the government is not doing enough to uphold what he stood for.

Ignatius Kangave Musaazi is one of the few lucky Ugandan Heroes buried at the Kololo independence grounds along side professor Yusuf Kironde Lule.

However, had it not been for his works that deserved him such a burial place, he would be resting at Timuna village in Luweero District alongside his parents.

On Bombo road  after Wobulenzi town, we branch off to a dusty bumpy road.

With not many landmarks after about 20 minutes on the road, we get to Timuna trading centre. Here stands a dilapidated classroom block and a church.

One of Musaazi's grandchildren Muguluma, tells us this land was given to the church and school by Ignatius Kangave Musaazi himself. However, the school block seems to have died with him although   there exist new blocks .

Just a few meters ahead is a well kept green scaped graveyard with a seemingly newly painted house.

The house backyard is surrounded by various graves in the lineage of the Musaazi including that of  his beloved wife Naume Nakalawa Musaazi buried far away from his partner.

In the house are two graves of I.K Musaazi’ s parents Zakayo Edward and Kangave Nankyama .

It is this house under renovation that it is believed could have been Musaazi's final resting place had he not been buried at Kololo.

The space could be used in future by his heir Edward Kangave Musaazi currently staying with his sister at Muyenga.

Sick and elderly, Edward Kangave now in advanced age, still reminisces the times with his father .

He says it was not an easy childhood  for them because of their father’s political activeness.

Ignatius Kangave Musaazi formed the first political party in Uganda, Uganda National Congress (UNC) party on Sunday 2 March 1952 and became its first President.

Musaazi had formed the Uganda African Farmers Union (UAFU) in 1947. The union was blamed for the 1949 riots and banned as a result.

He then formed the Federation of Partnerships of Uganda African Farmers (FPUAF) union following the banning of the Uganda African Farmers Union.

He gave up his job as a teacher at the department of education, at what was then Makerere University College (later became Makerere University), in order to help African farmers oppose the prevailing unfairness in trade, especially for cotton.

Edward Kangave said:  “He was rarely home because he was often times arrested. We sometimes had to go with him to where he was imprisoned most of the time, districts in the North of Uganda.”

Kangave said with an ever absent father, their mother worked hard to keep the family together and see them through school. Kangave said  that even after retiring from active politics, his father remained influential. His health bills were also always paid by the government plus other support.

“After the NRA guerrilla war, he was given a monthly allowance of about Shs 5000 which came from the NRM secretariat though it never lasted long”.

In 1991, Ignatius Musaazi passed away at Mengo hospital. Because of his historical contribution, was never to be buried at his ancestral home but rather at Kololo.

Kangave is disappointed that his father's legacy has been allowed to fade by government.

He says with the liberalisation on the economy, the farmers have been left to the mercy of buyers and middlemen who scoop most of the profits.

He said even the dream of an agricultural university that his father had started with the help of the Soviet Union, never saw the light of day.

Much as a few lectures in memory of his father have been done, they have not yielded results.

Six of Musaazi’s 11 children are still alive but none has been successful in politics.

Edward Kangave tried to contest for the chair of Nakaseke and Kaasang’ombe sub-counties between 1993 and 2006 and failed to win both times.

A daughter, Elizabeth, ran for Woman MP for Nakaseke district in 2011, but was defeated by Rosemary Namayanja.

Grandchildren and some of his other daughters  two of whom we met and interfaced with at Muyenga, said what their father and grandfather went through was enough to scare them away from politics.