Grimes subjugated timidity, ignorance and lack of exposure, especially out of me. If the Grimesian spirit so still dwells in me who was only a teacher on the Namasagali staff, I guess it must dwell even much more in his former direct students
EULOGY | Alfred Geresom Musamali | By refusing to mourn Irish former Namasagali College, Kamuli, Uganda headteacher “Bloody” Rev. Fr Damien Grimes, I, too, “Strive Regardless” – in accordance with the school motto crafted by Fr Grimes himself. Woo betide thee if you, staff or student alike under the Catholic priest’s tutelage, gave up hope, declined to “Strive Regardless” because he just would not let you spiritually give up. So, while the body of Grimes himself may have given up worldly life in the morning of yesterday, Thursday, September 5, 2024, at his retirement home near Liverpool, United Kingdom (UK), that “Strive Regardless” spirit shall dwell on in me forever.
The word “Bloody” was always on his lips
I say “Bloody” because the word never left the lips of Fr Grimes. To the best of my memory, everything that pleased that tall, bulky white man perpetually dressed in black shoes, black trousers and black shirt (with a white vest under it, though!) was “Bloody”. Everything that annoyed him was also “Bloody”. Anything beautiful was “Bloody” too. And – you guessed right – everything ugly was as well “Bloody”. If any prospective female students or their parents, for instance, objected to dressing in those skimpy, red wears that were an excuse for school uniform, the students were, obviously, “Bloody”. I cannot even imagine, anyway, how such students could ever get admitted into the Grimesian (my own coinage, in the same way as we refer to scholars of Charles Dickens as Dickenesian!) school.
Why he was called Ogumpe
The Grimesians called him “Ogumpe”, the short form that mixed some Lusoga (language of the sub-region) and English to form the expression “Ogu-Imperialist”. Like in many other Bantu languages, “Ogu-” is the prefix for big, large or prominent. And “-Imperialist” is obviously English for any chap who even to date ventures into Africa with the Holy Bible in one hand and a gun in the other, subjugating everybody. Grimes subjugated timidity, ignorance and lack of exposure, especially out of me. If the Grimesian spirit so still dwells in me who was only a teacher on the Namasagali staff, I guess it must dwell even much more in his former direct students such as First Deputy Prime Minister / Kamuli Woman MP Rebecca Kadaga, Afrigo Band musician cum Bugweri Woman MP Rachael Magoola, Bunya West MP Aggrey Henry Bagiire, Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Vincent Waisswa Bagiire, outgoing Education Permanent Secretary Ketty Lamaro, Education Service Commission member Rose Kabogoza Musoke Izizinga and Uganda’s Ambassador to Russia Moses Kawaluuko Kizige.
Fr Grimes in his later years
Others among the very many are Olive Birungi Lumonya of the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA), Simba Telecoms guru Patrick Baguma Bitature, Private Sector Foundation Executive Director Stephen Asiimwe, Prof Juma Wasswa Balunywa formerly of the Makerere University Business School, former Vision Group chief executive officer Robert Kabushenga and former Daily Monitor boss Conrad Nkutu. In fact at an alumni re-union in 2018, Kizige said that Namasagali alumni in Cabinet and State Minister positions at the time numbered eighteen but he could not count the number of other high ranking officials of national and international agencies who set out on what they wish to achieve and chase their dreams in a do-or-die fashion, to the very end.
We celebrate the life of one of Africa’s longest serving Imperialists of the Twentieth Century
So, why should I mourn Ogumpe? Instead, I am just going to join all these named above – and hundreds of others who benefited from the sometimes very unconventional but all-round education offered by Fr Grimes – to celebrate the life of one of Africa’s longest serving imperialists of the Twentieth Century. Some alumni have suggested that the remains be brought back to Namasagali for burial, but so far funeral arrangements have not been finalized. Bitature, however, has offered the grounds of his Protea Hotel in Kampala for the vigils. There have been arranged High Masses at 6:30pm every day beginning yesterday (Thursday) till Sunday or whenever the funeral will be held. Bitature has also opened a dedicated phone line (+256-772-120386) through which contributions can be made to complete a befitting Administration Block at Namasagali in the priest’s memory.
Namasagali was as remote as you would ever get within the centre of Uganda
Namasagali College is about 80kms north of Jinja, the Main Source of the Nile. Located along the Nile River as it drifts towards South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt. The place was as remote as you would ever get within the center of Uganda when in September 1988 I first arrived there . Because the Nile was full of falls, rapids and cataracts (some of which have now been submerged by hydro-electric power dams), and, therefore, not easily navigable, a railway line had in the earlier years of the Twentieth Century been built to run alongside the river to Namasagali Railway Station and Harbour in the heartland of a mainly cotton growing area. While some of the cotton was coming from within Busoga (the sub-region, as opposed to Lusoga, the language), a lot of it was also coming from West Nile, Acholi, Lango and Teso which were across Lake Kyoga, the expansive marshland in which the Nile confluences with smaller rivers from Mt Elgon before plunging out through the Karuma and Murchison Falls. Lakes Kyoga and its marshlands distinguish southern parts of Uganda from its north. In 1961/62 heavy El Nino rains flooded the railway station and harbor and the entire riverside infrastructure (rails, offices, staff housing, sports facilities, etc) was thus abandoned. Anyway, by then road services had been established in many parts of the cotton areas so the railway was no longer economically viable. The Egyptians did not desert Namasagali, though. The Nile is a lifeline of Egypt and even at the peak of chaos the country’s experts still visited Namasagali to gauge the water flow in the river past the railway station and the harbor. A junk water flow gauge and a steam-powered crane are to date near the facilities where Ogumpe and another earlier priest converted the railway station and harbor into Uganda’s biggest, most prestigious, mixed, boarding, Ordinary (O) and Advanced (A) Level secondary school – which was at its peak when I arrived there.
Not exactly a school but a long stay river-side jungle holiday camp where dancing was compulsory
Namasagali under Fr Grimes was not exactly a school but a long stay riverside jungle holiday camp where reading books was just one of the by-the-way activities and where development of an all-round citizen was emphasized more. If a child had performed averagely at the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) or the Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) and could, therefore, not gain entry to King’s College, Budo or Namilyango College or Gayaza High School near Kampala, Namasagali was the place for a rich parent to drive all the way (almost 200 kms) to. Fr Grimes would come out of his office to interview, not that child but the parent, by scrutinising the make of the car in which they had arrived, the way they were dressed as well as the confidence with which they walked and talked (to gauge ability to pay the extremely high fees) then determine that the “Bloody” child indeed deserved to gain admission to that holiday camp. If an early teenage girl had the habit of jumping out through windows to attend discotheques at Kampala’s Club Silk or Ange Noir, then that “Bloody” girl qualified for admission to the holiday camp where there would be compulsory dances every other Saturday evening and where the girl would be equally compelled to dance with boys provided, they were of the same age group. Female and male students alike in A Level were strictly prohibited from interacting (let alone just dancing) with those in Lower Secondary, whether female or male because that would be “mixing levels”. Neither were students of middle school expected to “mix levels” with those either above or below them. I need not mention any non-academic interaction between staff and students, especially if it was potentially illicit – because Ogumpe’s spy network would smell it a mile away and nip it in the bud.
Every student in Namasagali had to identify a game, sport or other activity such as music, dance and drama in which to “Strive Regardless”
The Grimesian rationale, I learnt in due course, was that everybody had to be trained to control their minds and, therefore, their bodies rather than fall to simple temptation caused by exposure to some body flesh. His philosophy also seems to have been that success does not come only through students gluing themselves to books. So, every student in Namasagali had to identify a game, sport or other activity such as music, dance and drama in which to “Strive Regardless”. Bookwork was, indeed, restricted to the classroom hours and short prep times. Besides, Grimes had established a system where the students could effectively police themselves (through leaders called Reeves), prosecute themselves (through judges) using a very complex Penal Code and hand out punishments to which Grimes himself (not any other teacher) would then attend at 9:30pm or so every working day of the school term. The exception was on Wednesdays because he would have gone to teach at Makerere University Department of Music, Dance and Drama so he would be coming back late. Even then, no other staff, not even his Dutch fellow priest Fr Zonneveld (Ndorobo), administered the punishment. Sitting in the staffroom adjacent to his office late into the night as we marked the students’ exercise books, we teachers would hear cracks of canes (sometimes whacking’s of a hippo hide whip) as he disciplined the brats. I understand he required each of them to say “Thank you, Father” when he had finished punishing them, but I cannot be sure, To-date even then fellow teachers and now fellow journalists such as Robert Mudhasi and Bok Kisiki never disclose much, to we the uninitiated.
Ogumpe caned a son of the sitting president
Now Honorable Jimmy Akena and his elder Tony Akaki, sons of former President Dr Milton Obote, will not talk much either. Apparently Akaki fell into some discipline trouble in 1984 when Obote was sitting president. Fr Grimes sent the errant boy home to come back with his father. Fr Grimes was not interested in talking to the President of Uganda. No. His interest was in talking to the father of Tony Akaki. He is said to have eventually relented and talked to the mother, Mama Miria Kalule Obote, before caning the boy in her presence.
Former student Lumonya recalls similar sessions.
“He put in place systems and structures and fully respected them. Reeves arrested offenders, (had) courts of law with (student) judges where students defended themselves, and an appealing court led by the Lady Chancellor. (In my year), I was privileged to have been appointed the Lady Chancellor,” says Lumonya.
“I recall when a student was expelled by the administration for alcohol abuse. He appealed to me and since there was no evidence to prove after two days that he was drunk, I acquitted him. Father Grimes was shocked, turned red but respected the structures,” Lumonya adds.
Which brings me to Father’s temper. The veteran Second World War soldier could turn red (blush), shout at the top of his head till the people of Bugerere on the western banks of the Nile could hear. He would charge offenders too, threaten as if he was going to grab them by the neck, wring it out and throw the lifeless body over there. But he would stop just short of that on realizing that that was extra-judicious. The next minute, though, Fr Grimes would be smiling and congratulating the very person he had just come short of strangling.
In my later youth I went to Namasagali to teach and escape poverty – but Grimes in addition taught me the hard way new, more productive skills and attitudes
If any teacher understood the system and its architect’s temper, their work became very easy. But if they did not, Fr Grimes would make sure that he coaxed them to “Strive Regardless” in learning it because he did not believe in just letting staff resign. I, personally, had so many running battles with him because he demanded of me very high levels of performance, yet I was interested in cutting corners the Ugandan way. Therefore, if I have soared as a teacher, journalist, public relations practitioner, it is partially because Fr Grimes never let me off the leash. In March 1989, for instance, Kaboggoza Musoke, the then Head of the English Department returned to the Ministry of Education for further posting instructions in a government school. Despite my reluctance, Ogumpe made me new Head of Department then became even more particular about my punctuality, my speaking and writing grammatically correct English, my marking students’ books and returning them on time (or else the students reported me to him, anyway!) and my adhering to personal financial independence. He would see, hear and learn about everything good or bad I did. In turn I would eat, drink and sleep dreading his watchful supervisory eye – even when there was no possibility of him noticing me.
Namasagali alumni (R-L) Moses Kiziga, Henry Bagiire and Prof Wasswa Balunywa at the 2018 Re-union. PHOTO AG Musamali
Grimes forced me to attain computer literacy as early as 1989 and it has since earned me jobs
In particular, he forced me to attain computer literacy as early as 1989 when even well-established offices in Kampala had no computers. In April that year, he had gone for his annual leave in the UK and returned with ten Amstrad machines. Compared to today’s computers, Amstrad was nothing because you would hardly type half a page before being required to save the work – an exercise that took another five minutes. But with the unstable power supply at the riverside, we stood the risk of losing everything typed if we did not save because power upsurge stabilizers were not yet in fashion. Ogumpe sat next to me one day at the line of computers (the machines were in his residence) and noticed that I was not saving my work, so he urged me to save. I ignored him but ten minutes later it was his turn to laugh when the power went off and I lost half a day’s work. Thereafter, I joined others in becoming reluctant to pursue “these computer things,” thinking that a teacher needed more chalk and red pen than electronic contraptions. We were already trained teachers, we argued, so, what else did we need? The “Bloody” old man assured us that if we did not improve our computer literacy, he would deny us jobs come the following year. We were sure he meant it so we obliged because of the immediate jobs, rather than the future skill set. So, I had gone to Namasagali in only to teach and escape poverty (given that my first salary was fourteen times better I was earning in Government service) – but Grimes in addition taught me the hard way, new, more productive skills and attitudes. Then, guess what? My 1990/91 Senior 6 students who participated most in dancing, volleyball, drama and other preoccupations still came top of the examinations, and are now, the nearly retiring national and international cream.
If there was ever in my life any uniquely brief and inspiring school motto, it was that coined by Ogumpe
I have since resigning from Namasagali gone on to exhibit diligence, in Nabumali High School, Mbale, Uganda (1991-93), Luanshya Trades Training Institute, Copperbelt, Zambia (1994-97), New Vision Printing and Publishing Company, Kampala, Uganda (1998-2007) and the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) where I was this year the Publicity and Advocacy Advisor for the National Population and Housing Census. This is because in whatever I do, I “Strive Regardless” of the experience, of the tools, of the public criticism, of the meagre financial rewards or of the danger involved. In fact, from 1994 onwards, I have scooped jobs against my competitors because of my pioneer computer literacy and the struggle to keep pace with technology as it develops. Maybe we should as well set up marathon disco nights (this, perhaps not quite in Bitature’s compound), poetry elocution contests, swimming galas, musical extravaganzas, moot court sessions, anything to positively celebrate the life of a man who birthed no “Bloody” child of his own yet nurtured thousands of children into this perseverance. In my case, if there was ever in my life any uniquely brief and inspiring school motto, it was that coined by you, Ogumpe. Rest in Peace, Fr Grimes! Rest in Peace, Ogumpe!
