Friends
I have stated that this series is intending to go after the massive lies
that have been chocked into our throats by Acholis and Langis since 1979. I
have also written a piece about Jonan Luwum which has been attacked as a
piece from a very bad man going after a very religious leader we need to
praise. Well guess what? It is not only myself that knew how conniving Jonan
Luwum was, here is a foreigner that knew how Luwum knew about Acholis try to
over throw our government. This is in tomorrows Uganda main paper. And I
simply fail to understand why Acholis have a problem
understanding/registering that their time to lie is simply up.
Jonan Luwum was a killer let us kindly move on. Geez
Janani Luwum knew of a coup plot by Acholis - Ford
Ms Margaret Ford during the interview in Kampala last week. PHOTO BY RACHEL
MABALA
By Henry Lubega
Posted Sunday, November 23 2014 at 02:00
Calling. She came as a secretary from the Church Missionary Society, but
little did she know that she was walking onto the chess board of Ugandas
politics as a pawn. Margaret Ford was Archbishop Janani Luwums secretary up
to the time of his death in 1977. She spoke with Sunday Monitors Henry
Lubega.
I am a farmers daughter who grew up in a typical village in Nottinghamshire
[in the UK] overlooking Lincoln Cathedral. I come from a Christian family
but was dismissive of the Billy Graham sort of evangelism, until when I
attended a youth rally in Sheffield in 1970, then I was a secretary with the
Church Missionary Society (CMS) youth department in London. When the Church
of Uganda wrote to the CMS requesting for a missionary secretary to work
with the new Bishop of Gulu, I was posted to Uganda where I arrived in
January 1972. When he left Gulu after being appointed archbishop in 1974, I
stayed there working with the new Bishop Benon Ogwal. Two years later when
Jananis secretary, also a missionary secretary from the CMS in London, went
on leave and got engaged, Janani asked me to come and work with him in
Kampala. I recall one Saturday morning Bishop Ogwal called me to his office
and said, I have received a letter from the Archbishop asking you to go and
work with him in Kampala. By May 1976 I was a resident of Namirembe hill,
residing just below the provincial office. On Namirembe hill we lived as a
family, food and water were in short supply. Kampala turned into a city of
rumours. No venturing out after sunset and at night we kept awake, fearful
of midnight knocks on the door.
Things fall apart
A number of events started happening that grabbed the Archbishops concern.
First was the death in June 1976 of Teresa Nanziri-Bukenya. The
eight-months-pregnant then warden of Africa Hall [Makerere University] paid
with her life when she refused to sign a false statement about the
disappearance of a Kenyan girl. When Janani heard of her death, he wept.
When students learnt of Teresas death at the beginning of a new academic
year, they wanted to stage a strike to register their protest, but the vice
chancellor prevailed over them.
However, on August 3 when the army had surrounded the university because
students had opposed the way Amins son who was flashing his gun around the
university and the way his security detail was treating them Janani went to
the university where he found all offices closed.
The following day he returned to the university with Cardinal Emmanuel
Nsubuga to meet the vice-chancellor, who did not tell the two religious
leaders what exactly was happening at the university. He painted a calm
picture at the campus only to hear later that students had been herded into
trucks and taken to Makindye Military Police Barracks. It took the
intervention of the vice president to have the students released.
Outside the university fiasco was the raid at Entebbe airport by the Israeli
commandos to rescue their nationals in a hijacked plane. Amin reacted by
accusing the Kenyan president Jomo Kenyatta of supporting his enemies. In
response, Kenyatta reminded him of Ugandas trade debts to Kenya, and
ordered no more goods to come into Uganda through Kenya until all the debts
were settled. This caused a fuel crisis; public transport came to a
standstill making the already bad situation worse. Church officials and
government institutions were given a small allocation of petrol, for
instance Mengo hospital was allowed to keep one ambulance on the road.
These events forced both the Anglican and Catholic churches to make
political criticism, a thing they had desisted from doing for some time. The
first of the joint religious efforts to bring government to account for its
actions was when Janani and Cardinal Nsubuga agreed to call the bishops of
both churches to a joint meeting at Lweza. Also invited was the Mufti of
Uganda.
I drove to Lweza with Janani on the morning of August 26, it was Thursday.
Janani was asked to chair the meeting and I was one of the three secretaries
appointed to take minutes of that meeting, one from each religious group
present. Those in the meeting were convinced that it would be wrong to keep
quiet about what was happening in the country. They discussed the killings,
harassment, looting and the excessive power given to the intelligence
officers.
The meeting ended having agreed to have a meeting with the president to talk
things over and to share their concern, but it was never granted. Instead,
Amin sent a warning to Janani reprimanding him for having held a meeting
without permission, and demanded minutes of the meeting, which were also
sent to him. From this time on, Janani was seen by the authorities as the
leader of those opposed to the government.
After the daily office prayers at 8 Oclock, people would walk in the office
saying My husband has not come back, or my son has been taken and Janani
would jump into his car and go to the various places where people were often
taken and ask why a particular individual had been arrested.
Initially, the security men would apologise saying Oh your Grace, we are
very sorry, we did it by mistake and release the person. But this was short
lived as the killing and disappearance continued in bigger numbers. During
the annual coup anniversary in 1977, Amin declared a number of days public
holidays to celebrate the anniversary, with the main celebrations at Nakivub
stadium. Janani attended. When he returned, I asked him who else was there.
I, the cardinal, Amin, and the soldiers were [at Nakivubo], but there were
no people. This upset Amin very much, Janani said.
The following weekend was the consecration of the new Bishop of Ankole at
Bweranyangi grounds where close to 30,000 people attended.
In his sermon that day, Bishop Festo [Kivengere] said to the new bishop:
You have now been given a position of leadership, are you going to use it
to uphold people or to push their faces into the dust. People knew that
Festo was saying this to Amin; his leadership was not upholding people but
putting them down. On the way back to Kampala I recall Bishop Okoth saying
to Janani, If you and Festo are not careful you will get us all killed.
Journey to martyrdom
Jananis official residence was raided by security operatives who searched
for weapons and accused him of being part of a group plotting a coup against
the government. When this happened, everybody was disgusted and this led to
the calling of a meeting for all Anglican bishops. After the meeting, a
small team was set up to draft a response to the raid at Jananis home.
Festo and I were part of the draft committee, his choice of words was very
critical of the government. I typed the letter that was to be presented to
Amin, but I can tell you there is always a Judas in every situation. This
letter was leaked from the provincial office because Amin got wind of the
letter before it got to him.
However, Janani had told me earlier that there are some Acholis planning a
coup. He knew something was afoot, he knew his people and they confided in
him. But I know he was not involved in the coup plans, his idea of
forgiveness was against that of the Acholis of kill your enemies. Amin knew
the best way to get Janani was to accuse him of plotting against his
government.
I had plans of travelling to Kisumu [in Kenya] to sort out tuition related
issues of one of the girls I was supporting before the events at Namirembe
happened. Following these events, I decided to postpone my travel but Bishop
Festo insisted that I leave and take the letter to Bishop Henry Okullu of
Kisumu.
Bishop Festo told me, Tell Henry time has come for the world to know what
is happening in Uganda. Bishop Okullu had contacts in foreign media having
been a journalist earlier. I confirm that its me who took that letter out
of Uganda and it found its way to London before Amin received his copy.
With that letter in London, Amin could no longer hide what he was doing.
Thereafter, he was determined to get rid of Janani. He called together a big
meeting which was like a trial of Jesus where they separated him from the
rest and later killed him.
I returned from Kenya on a Thursday just after the death of Janani and on
Saturday the bishops decided that I should not stay in the country and must
leave immediately. I was taken over the border by a fellow called John; he
had been involved in smuggling bibles in the country, pretending to be two
expatriates going to Kenya for a weekend break.
Along the way, I tore the minutes of the last bishops meeting and scattered
the pieces along the road. Also before departure, I and the provincial
secretary then, Canon Wesonga, burnt all church records showing how much
foreign aid it was receiving, thus creating a gap in the church archives.
When I got to Kisumu, Bishop Henry asked me to write what had happened in
Uganda. And in May 1977, I went back to England and I did some research and
wrote the manuscript for the book Janani, the making of a martyr published
in 1978.
Missionary refuge
While in London, the CMS got a request from the archbishop of Juba asking
for a secretary missionary. That was how I ended up in Juba in late 1978
where I stayed until 1983. My leaving Juba was caused by a book The Uganda
Holocaust in which the author mentioned me by name as the person who had
taken the Bishops letter out of Uganda.
When my identity was made public, it was no longer safe for me to stay in
Juba. The authorities in Sudan learnt that I had been living in Juba and
they sent police to pick me up, fortunately I was in London on leave, my
neighbour alerted the CMS in Nairobi of the situation and they stopped me
from coming back.
I stayed in London until 1984, until another request a missionary secretary
from the Bishop of Egypt came and I was assigned to Egypt where I stayed for
10 years, and eventually I retired in Lincoln in 1995 because by that time I
was 65 and at that age I could not be hired. I had reached the retirement
age. But I kept my links with the Anglican Church in Uganda, Sudan and
Egypt.
EM
On the 49th Parallel
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in
anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni
katika machafuko"
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