Queen Mother: The Remarkable Life Story of Rebecca Zirimbuga Musoke

By Elizabeth Musoke Mubiru MD FACOG

Rebecca Zirimbuga Musoke, nee Kisosonkole, was born into a life of privilege in an age-old African kingdom steeped in tradition. Times changed when the kingdom was swallowed up by the British Empire and later absorbed into an independent African country. The kingdom strove to maintain its identity through the turbulence of political coups and savage regimes bent on annihilating it.

As Rebecca guided her young family through the perilous times, she held onto her faith that someday the kingdom would be restored and life would return to normal. It came as a surprise to her when her cousin, the queen mother, passed away and Rebecca was named her heir. After many years of bloodshed, times did change and the kingdom was restored. When duty called, Rebecca rose to the challenge of becoming: The Mother of the Kingdom of Buganda (Namasole)!

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jul 19, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512741520

Elizabeth Musoke Mubiru MD FACOG

Author Elizabeth Musoke Mubiru was born in England, brought up in East Africa and completed her education in the U.S.A. Her father was furthering his medical career in Paediatrics when she was born, but both her parents were born and raised in Uganda, East Africa. She followed in her father’s footsteps and became a doctor; practising Obstetrics and Gynaecology for twenty-five years. As she endeavoured to absorb the African, British and American cultures she was exposed to, she grew to appreciate her African heritage more and more. She returned to Uganda just four short months before her mother passed away. The task of building this literary monument to her parents was assisted by her siblings and her aunt. Through it all, she acknowledges the guidance and inspiration of her Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

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Copyright © 2016 Elizabeth Musoke Mubiru,M.D., F.A.C.O.G.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-4153-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4154-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4152-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016907453

WestBow Press rev. date: 8/24/2016

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF OUR PARENTS:

LATIMER KAMYA MUSOKE AND REBECCA ZIRIMBUGA MUSOKE.

THE SECRET OF THE WORLD IS LOWLY

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

1. Childhoood

2. History

3. School Days

4. Study Abroad

5. Engagement

6. Journey Home

7. Early Marriage

8. The Golden Years

9. Motherhood

10. Independence

11. Growing Family

12. Politics

13. Coup D’etat

14. Changing Times

15. Accidents

16. Hope Deferred

17. Death in the Family

18. Blindsided

19. Transitions

20. Perilous Times

21. Letting Go

22. Renaissance

23. Restoration

24. The Fall

25. Royal Wedding

26. Royal Baby

27. Confusion

28. Mama Bash

29. Infirmity

30. Thanksgiving

Epilogue

Afterword

Acknowledgements

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Glossary

References

Tributes(Uganda)

Tributes (U.K.)

Foreword

It is indeed a great and imperative idea to remember, in print, a great person in the names of Namasole (Queen Mother) Zirimbuga Rebecca, for her outstanding demeanour, activities and achievements, both overt and covert.

My appointment to the position of Katikkiro (Prime Minister) of the Kingdom of Buganda in 1994 by the Kabaka (King) of Buganda, His Majesty Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II, automatically blessed me with the privileged opportunity to interact directly with Namasole Zirimbuga. She had inherited the role from the late Lady Sarah Namasole Nalule Kabejja. The Namasole occupies a very powerful and enviable position in the Kingdom of Buganda. She is second in command in the hierarchy of the kingdom, presided over by the Kabaka; while the Katikkiro heads the kingdom’s government on behalf of the Kabaka.

In order to properly appreciate the delicate role played by Namasole Zirimbuga, it is absolutely necessary to recall that all kingdoms had earlier been abolished in Uganda, and all their properties confiscated and/or vandalised by then Prime Minister of Uganda, Apollo Milton Obote and his Central Government, in 1966. The said properties included Palaces, Kingdom Administrative Headquarters, County and Sub-County offices and residences, Courts of Law, Prisons, Schools, Namasole’s homesteads, 9000 Square Miles of land etc, etc.

It is, therefore, against the above background that Buganda Kingdom’s restoration, in 1993, must be viewed; and indeed those were the circumstances under which Namasole Zirimbuga shouldered her responsibilities. Although the thrust of the infrastructural, financial, institutional, and mobilisational restoration drives and efforts were carried out by the Katikkiro and his Cabinet on behalf of the Kabaka, much of the salient royal, cultural and traditional underpinnings were to be principally driven, directed and finalised by Namasole Zirimbuga and the clan leaders.

Generally speaking, Namasole Zirimbuga was viewed publicly as an iron lady with an outward no-nonsense attitude; but deep inside her, she was a mother-figure. She exuded a very deep love for her Kabaka and her culture, and she was extremely kind at heart and very generous to the kingdom. She made personal sacrifices in order to carry out her duties to the kingdom!! All these unique attributes came in handy as she went about executing her very delicate responsibilities. It is no wonder that she registered the resultant success and stability in the immediate and wider royal family.

This is not to say that her job was without challenges. Far from it. The kingdom she was nursing was only freshly restored, the Kabaka had been living away in exile, she was working with a brand new Katikkiro, the first Catholic, and operating in an environment where much of the Kiganda culture, customs and traditions had for a long time been quietly ostracised and largely forgotten; and most importantly, she was operating in a kingdom without sufficient money nor with powers to mobilise funds through taxation.

The Katikkiro, together with his team, and under the guidance of the Kabaka struggled to establish means of income and an improved working environment by setting up the Buganda Land Board, the CBS Radio, the Buganda Cultural and Development Foundation (BUCADEF), the Buganda Investment and Commercial Undertaking Limited (BICUL) and the Kabaka’s Education Fund. We fully furnished the hitherto empty Bulange Administrative Headquarters at Mengo; reconstructed Kabaka’s palaces; repaired Kasubi Tombs and other Cultural Sites; and secured land at Bumbu in Wakiso District for Namasole Zirimbuga’s Palace. It is painful that she passed away before the full construction was completed for her official occupation.

On a personal level, Namasole Zirimbuga treated me and loved me like her son; and by extension, treated and loved my mother, the late Mrs. Bernadeth Nantale Mulwanya, like her sister. Each time my mother came to Mengo to buy Certificates for Voluntary Contribution to the kingdom, the Namasole would spare time to be in attendance, and they would dine together for lunch. They would visit each other regularly. And when my mother passed away, Namasole Zirimbuga attended the Church Funeral Service at Lubaga Cathedral, despite her poor health at the time. I miss her greatly.

History will definitely view Namasole Zirimbuga as a great, respectable and selfless lady, who offered her services to her Kabaka and to the kingdom without any reservations whatsoever. She was understanding, accommodative, generous and approachable. She was hardworking, dedicated and exemplary, both in her official duties and in her private life and household. Namasole Zirimbuga loved her King; she loved the Royal Family; she loved Buganda, she loved Uganda, she loved people generally, and she loved her God.

I commend her outstanding demeanour, and may her soul rest in eternal peace.

J. G. MULWANYAMMULI SSEMWOGERERE

Former Katikkiro (Prime Minister) of Buganda Kingdom.

Bulange- Mengo.

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Introduction

They say some are born to greatness, some earn it and some have it thrust upon them. Rebecca had it dropped on her like a ton of bricks, against the wishes of herself and her father. She had been content to be the wife of a brilliant man and the mother of seven lively children whom she adored and who adored her. She thought her life would continue the same way indefinitely, but she learnt that with every corner you turn in life, there might be another surprise waiting for you.

Rebecca was born into a life of privilege in an age-old African kingdom steeped in tradition. Times had changed since the kingdom had been swallowed up by the British Empire in the late 1800s, and later absorbed into a newly independent African country in the early 1960s. The kingdom strove to maintain its identity through the turbulence of political coups and savage regimes bent on annihilating it. Finally, the kingdom fell to its haters and the king was exiled for life. As Rebecca guided her young family through the perilous times, she held onto her faith that someday the kingdom would be restored and life would return to ‘normal’.

Rebecca believed in a God who answered her prayers and that ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way.’ She was surrounded by the people she loved and was busy with her demanding work. Although she had grown up with them, Rebecca had little time in her busy life to interact closely with her cousins who had married into the kingdom’s royal family. Then one of Rebecca’s cousins passed away. They were holding her late cousin’s last funeral rites when she heard her name being whispered back and forth as the heir to the queen mother. She would never forget that day. The new responsibility could change her life forever!

Since the kingdom had been abolished seven years earlier in a military coup, Rebecca managed to avoid the zealous homage of those who would have recognised her for a while. But times did change and after many years of bloodshed, sweat and tears, the kingdom was restored. Elated as she was, Rebecca did not relish the thought of becoming famous. She preferred the comfort of immediate family and close friends to public acclaim. But when duty called, Rebecca set her own desires aside and rose to the challenge of becoming: The Mother of the Kingdom of Buganda (Namasole)!

This is the story of her life; a life that triumphed over perilous times, personal tragedy and painful illness to see her family grow and thrive while nurturing the restoration of the kingdom. The narrative is taken from her timeless stories, her audio tapes and her diaries and is supplemented by the loving memories of her children and grandchildren. Finally, it includes the many tributes from family and friends written to the memory of Rebecca Zirimbuga Musoke, nee Kisosonkole.

Chapter One

Childhoood

Times have changed since the ‘colonial days’ into which Rebecca was born on the 19th of February, 1932. She was the only daughter of her parents for a long time; a fact she had often lamented. One day, she asked her mother, How come every time you go to hospital they give you a boy baby?

Because that’s what God wants, her mother replied calmly.

At first she used to run to her father every time one of her brothers hit her. One day, her father said to her, Becca, you can’t keep running away the rest of your life; you must learn to fight back. So she learnt to play and fight with her five brothers; she had to show those boys she could do whatever they did. Yes, she could climb trees, kick a football and run faster than most of them, but two things had defeated her: that pesky ‘riding a bicycle’ thing and the knack of throwing at a target. While her brothers could throw rocks at the ripe mangos and knock them off the trees, she had to learn to climb; so she did. Even then, she was a determined little person. She would have learnt to ride a bicycle too, but her brothers told her that in order to learn, she had to take at least one bad fall. She was scared of that.

Mother had to continually remind Rebecca that she was a girl and should not act like the boys. Her father didn’t have to remind her. She was Daddy’s little girl; always tagging along with him whenever she had the chance to. He would take her along with him when he was surveying the land and checking on his tenants. They would take long walks together in the woods in what seemed like an exciting wilderness experience. She could talk to her father about anything, and she thought that he shared deep secrets with her, too. He thoroughly spoilt her, but that didn’t stop Rebecca from getting in trouble. Like the time they were playing on their father’s scooter and it fell on their baby brother. His screams brought their mother running to the scene of the ‘crime’. He was all right, but they all got a sound spanking for it. For some reason, Rebecca always got the soundest one. Her father always seemed to suspect that she was the ringleader, even though she wasn’t the eldest.

There was Adolphus (Dolphe), her older brother; then Josephus (Joe), who came after her; then Arnold (Spero), then Myers, then Michael (Tempora) – all before baby sister Damallie showed up. She had given up praying for a sister by then, but she had plenty of girl cousins to make up for it. There were Sarah and Damali, Uncle Christopher’s daughters; Christine and Jesse, Auntie Tolofaina’s daughters and Betty and Nancy, Auntie Marjorie’s daughters. When Rebecca was little, her father, Kupliano Lufo Bisase Kisosonkole, was a schoolteacher at the prestigious King’s College Budo, where he taught English. Her mother, Damali Najjuma Bisase Kisosonkole, was an industrious homemaker who kept an immaculate home. Their numerous aunts and uncles doted on them all. Every month, her father’s family would get together at one or the other of their homes. Their home in Budo was a particular favourite because of mother’s talents. She cooked and baked and sewed all their clothes, even the boys’ shirts and shorts. She also had a very productive vegetable garden whose produce they often ate from. Rebecca could only hope to be as industrious as her mother when she grew up.

Luganda was Rebecca’s first language. She first learnt English from her own father. He would teach her and her brothers nursery rhymes and read them bedtime stories. Her earliest memories of learning to read and write in school were painful ones. If you formed a letter incorrectly, the teacher, Mr. Samuel Nkata, would twist your ear. He would say, That’s how the letter feels when you write it the wrong way. One day, she and Dolphe were walking to school when they were chased by a dog. Rebecca must have run faster than her brother, because the next thing she knew, he had fallen down. Rebecca looked down at her brother. He wasn’t moving and didn’t respond when she called his name. Thankfully, some grown-ups who had been watching came running over and picked him up. Rebecca went on to school by herself. She sat down in class but said nothing to the teacher.

The next day the teacher asked her, Rebecca, where is your brother?

He’s at home, she replied.

What happened to him? the teacher asked. That’s when Rebecca explained that her brother had fallen down and had to be carried home. She got in trouble with the teacher because she hadn’t reported the incident, but couldn’t figure out why she had to be punished. She had really been afraid that her brother had been seriously injured, but her mother reassured her that he was going to be all right.

Rebecca didn’t remember being spanked very often by her mother. Whenever she was spanked though, Josephus would cry and refuse to eat his supper. They had nicknamed him ‘Tarzan’ because when he cried, he sounded just like Tarzan from the movie ‘Tarzan of the Apes’. He was closer to Rebecca than her other brothers and would often stick up for her. One occasion she remembered very well was when they left baby Myers playing near the sewing machine. He managed to get his finger stuck under the needle of the sewing machine. Why did he have to get himself caught up in everything, mischievous little chap? On another occasion, they heard their Aunt Alex tell their mother that the manservant Job resembled their dog, Kagezi. Rebecca and her brother Dolphe thought that was funny and repeated it. Mother didn’t think it was so funny and shut them in their room. Well, that was just an opportunity for them to shout what they had heard out through the window: Job, you look like the dog, Kagezi! Were they in trouble!

One day, Rebecca and her brothers stayed out late playing board games and came home to find all the doors of the house locked. They knew they were in trouble and were afraid to knock on any of the doors and wake up their parents. After weighing their options, they ended up sleeping on the floor of the storeroom adjacent to the front veranda. In the morning, the others nominated Rebecca to knock on the front door. Their father opened the door. He told her, Go inside, take a bath and then pack up your things. Rebecca was too scared to ask him why.

She went inside and asked her mother, What did Daddy mean?

Her mother responded, What did he say? Rebecca repeated her father’s words.

Do whatever your father told you to do, her mother said. Their father drove them all to their grandfather’s house for the holidays. Looking back, Rebecca could not remember a single incident regarding their children in which her parents had disagreed. Even when it seemed that they had not had time to discuss it, they were always of one mind regarding discipline. Rebecca had to quickly learn to be a more responsible older sister.

Rebecca took the devoted love between her parents for granted. She took it for granted that every Sunday the whole family was in church; that every evening before dinner the family would read the Bible and pray together. Regular meals at the table with the whole family, and anyone else who happened to drop in, were taken for granted, too. Rebecca’s life was full of adventure as well. She enjoyed the beauty of the interlacustrine lands they owned; the evergreen, undulating hills off the shores of Lake Victoria covered with lush vegetation and fruit trees that could be picked all year round; the noise of farm animals that heralded them from dawn till dusk; the long sunny days that made you want to skip school and the rainy seasons that always lasted too long.

Rebecca’s father owned several acres of vanilla orchards. He would often take her and her brothers out to the farm during harvest season. There he would leave them with the labourers, ostensibly to help with the harvesting and learn the value of hard work. However, the children had figured out that they could easily hide among the vines playing and chewing sugar cane until it was almost time to go home. Then they would quickly gather enough beans in their baskets to convince their father that they had been hard at work all day. That was the fertile land that Sir Winston Churchill had named ‘The Pearl of Africa’.

Chapter Two

History

Those were the ‘good old days’ when the British colonialists were still in power, but the Kabaka (King) of Buganda and his government still wielded considerable power. Father was a good storyteller. He would sit his children down and teach them the history of the family, as well as the history of the Kingdom of Buganda. The Buganda Kingdom is said to have been in existence for at least 700 years when the European explorers ‘discovered’ it in the mid-1800s. The reigning Kabaka (30th in an unbroken line of succession), Mutesa I (1856-1884), was open-minded. The banana culture (named because of the staple food of the Baganda) does not permit one to be rude to elders or visitors. About twenty years earlier, his father, Kabaka Ssuuna II (1832-1856) had welcomed the Arab traders and their Islamic religion, and now Kabaka Mutesa I invited Her Majesty (Queen Victoria of England) to send Christian missionaries. They arrived between 1875 and 1877. By this time, slavery had already been abolished in the Western world, and the Europeans appeared to want nothing more than to trade and enrich the lives of the ‘natives’ with their religion and their knowledge.

Kabaka Mwanga II succeeded his father on his death in 1884. The British had firmly established themselves in East Africa by then and were attempting to colonise the whole region on behalf of Her Majesty, the Queen of England. The ‘Scramble for Africa’ that resulted in the Berlin Conference of 1884-85 awarded Buganda to the British as part of British East Africa (Kenya and Uganda). Kabaka Mwanga became suspicious of the colonialists’ motives; their governance was beginning to interfere with his authority over his subjects as some converted to Christianity, others to Islam. He alternately cooperated with, and then rebelled against the British as they attempted to co-opt his kingdom into what they later called the ‘Protectorate of Uganda.’ At one point, he had to fight against one of his own brothers to reclaim his throne. Finally, in 1899, he and the Omukama (King) of the neighbouring Bunyoro Kingdom were banished from their kingdoms to the islands of Seychelles by the British governor. Kabaka Mwanga died in exile in the year 1903, on the very same island to which he had been banished.¹

Rebecca’s grandparents on both sides of the family had converted to Christianity when the Christian missionaries came. Although they were living in a culture steeped in tradition, they had also embraced the Western culture. Her paternal grandfather’s given name was Kungu, but when he became a Christian, he renamed himself Tefiro Kisosonkole (empty shell), saying, If a man does not have the Spirit of God in him, he is just an empty shell. Kisosonkole had distinguished himself in his service to Kabaka Mwanga II and steadily risen through the ranks of the chiefs. It was from this position that he and the Regents appointed by the British Colonialists: Apollo Kaggwa, Stanislas Mugwanya and Zakaria Kisingiri, skilfully guided the kingdom through the turbulent times, until the deposed king’s infant son, Daudi Chwa, came of age and took over the reins of the kingdom in 1914.

Tefiro Kisosonkole and his wife lost their first two children in infancy. Rebecca’s father, born in 1899, was the first child who survived infancy and they named him Kupliano Bisase. Bisase was only a few years younger than the boy king, Daudi Chwa, and Kisosonkole was elected the young king’s guardian from 1900 until 1914. Rebecca often heard the story told that when the Kabaka was going to England to attend the coronation of King George V in 1911, he was told that he didn’t need to take Kisosonkole with him because he didn’t speak English. The boy king’s reply was, If he doesn’t go, I’m not going! Eventually, the Kabaka appointed Tefiro Kisosonkole Prime Minister of the kingdom from 1927 until 1929.

Kisosonkole was a favourite in the palace courts, but he became very ill during his second year as Prime Minister and was advised to step