How Makelele became Makerere Fred Guweddeko Professor Bakibinga recently revealed considerations of upgrading Makerere to an exclusively post-graduate university to make it an effective agent for change and development in Uganda and beyond. Consciously or unconsciously, Bakibinga was addressing the 1922 colonial governors’ ‘insult’ that an education institution could not civilise and develop Ugandan Africans. Although the universitys spokesperson refuted Bakibinga’s statement, Makerere has definitely not recovered from the insult that was borne on it in August 1922. This was when Governor Sir Robert Coryndon refused to meet Sir Apollo Kagwa over the nature of the desired native college and instead wrote in red ink on the petition the words; “call it Makelele College”. Makerere stands on three hills. Kagugube Hill has its summit behind the Guest House, Semakokiro is the Faculty of Science Parking and Nyanjja-eradde is that Water Tank and the new Food Science Department. The title Makerere is therefore not a hill as some people assume. Governor Coryndons title of Makelele was corrupted to Makerere. The insult lay in the fact that Makelele meant [and still means], artisans who engage in the noisy work of making and repairing metal products. To assert that no amount or type of education could make Africans better than mere Makeleles, [artisans of tin products] was clearly an insult. During World War I (1914-1918), the present Makerere site hosted a recruitment centre and training workshop for the carrier corps whose work was to make and repair metal plates, cups, pans, basins, gun-parts, etc when the British troops were battling General Lettow Von Vorbeck in German East African. These tin artisans were called Makelele because of the noise their work generated. One of the first fourteen students at Makerere in 1922, called Saul Bulega, was a Makelele WW (I) ex-service man. Actually, instead of studying, Bulega became an instructor in the metal workshop from 1922 up to 1931 when the subject was scrapped. Given the insult, the question for Makerere has, since 1922, been whether it was able to become an effective agent of change, transformation and development. It is whether the insult that Makerere will produce and reproduce only “Makeleles” [i.e tin repair artisans] of society, rather than agents of developmental change has been overcome. The refutation of Bakibingas ideas is tantamount to denying the existence of a thinking process about how Makerere can bury the “insult” it was born with. Makerere cannot overcome the insult borne in its title if it is closed to thinking beyond the horizon simply because it must appear to be focused to perfecting a particular policy. It is wrong for a university to seek a standstill condition. Makerere will not overcome the insult without continuously looking beyond the horizon, acquiring a progressively wider vision and evolving policies not to conserve pathetic conditions but to change them. Makerere was sought because Uganda was a “backwater’’ with people living in stone-age conditions. When Sir Apollo Kagwa mounted pressure on Governor Sir Coryndon (1919-1922) to provide college education for Ugandan natives, there was a sincere and well founded belief that Africans by nature were indolent, emotional, lazy, idiotic, untrustworthy, suscipicious, dirty, liars, irresponsible, superstitions and demonic. Africans were paying tax by force, accepting venereal disease treatment by force, growing cotton by force, dressing by force, and force was applied to make them sleep in separate huts from chicken and goats. Basic hygiene like bathing, avoiding lice, removing jiggers, digging and using pit latrines were all observed by force. Pre-1922 Ugandans had to be tricked by Christian missionaries to attend schools by linking education to baptism. Uganda natives of the time had to be coerced into non-subsistence work through laws of Kasanvu, Oluwalo, Olubimbi and Corvee. For the Africans forced into employment, a draconian Master and Servants law was applied. This law allowed the Master to punish with up to 50 Kiboko (whips), cut wages and send to prison African workers for deserting duty, being lazy, forgetful, indolent, slow, erratic, dirty and for stealing. Sir Coryndon did not believe a mere college could civilise or develop the type of natives in the Uganda of 1919-1922. He got fed-up with the unrealistic petitions for a college for natives. He refused to meet the petitioners and granted a workshop to teach “Makeleles” repairing of tin products as the best Africans of the time could achieve. The workshop for training carpenters and mechanics was mockingly called a College. That’s why Makerere College was initially under the Public Works Department. It was supervised by a works superintendent called H.O. Saville, who was a civil engineer. The language of instruction was Luganda. The challenge of Makerere University is not only to overcome the ‘insult’ but also to disprove it. Without narrowing the thinking about Makerere’s challenge to either retaining or continuing with under-graduate courses, Professor Bakibinga was on song to imply that avenues to completely bury this insult still have to be explored. Makerere initially dealt with the challenge of the then existing intellectual prejudices against Africans. Prejudices, on which the colonial policy of Indirect Rule was built, that the best thing for natives is to disrupt their traditional primitive life as little as possible and to retain it as much as possible. In its first fifteen years Makerere students were taught by Mr G. Hancock in Biology that Africans have a smaller skull than the advanced races. That this smaller African skull had thicker bone and less brain matter than advanced races (see Biometrika Journal; vol. XXIII, 1931 P. 271-314). In Anthropology, which was compulsory, Makerere students were taught that Africans experience (varying degrees of) mental disorder after puberty when the brain needs to exercise higher thinking such as; moral judgments, counting abstract thought, factual memory and responsibility. That exposure to too much European religion and education increased the danger of mental disorder. Thus early Makerere students feared to read a lot of books and feared to seek higher education because of possible mental damage. Makerere University students were also taught that an African is mentally gifted in imitation, dancing, singing, talking, hard labour and practical (not intellectual) skills. That if trained and closely supervised, two Africans could become as productive as a donkey. One of the reading lists for this subject was; The Mental Capacity of the African, by Dr H. L. Gordon, in Journal of Africa Society Vol. 33 P. 226-242,1933. The book says a leading scholar then, Dr Anderson, had closely studied over one thousand East Africans for thirty-two years and had not observed one who achieved normal European intelligence. Makerere University must salute students like A. Oginga-Odinga and Walter F. Odede who in 1937 refused to attend lessons on these dehumanising teachings. It should honour Principals like Turner (1939-45), Dr La Mont (1946-49) and various academic staff who over time questioned and corrected this kind of thinking. Makerere must also salute E. Mwai-Kibaki who in 1952 refused to receive the Governor Archer Best Student Prize when the same governors were dehumanising Africans in Kenya. Credit should go to Guild President Anyang-Nyongoo and Uganda’s NUSU President Ruhakana-Rugunda who in 1970 presented a plan to Dr Obote of how Makerere could be focused on the African conditions contained in the 1922 Coryndon’s insult. Makerere University has been able to overcome the insult that Africans are lesser humans. Proving that Africans are not sub-human is not enough without showing what we are and correctly visualising what we can be, as well as realising the vision. Democracy in Uganda started in Makerere in the 1935 Head Prefects elections. The students were required to nominate their preferred candidates, and from the top three nominees, the teaching staff appointed the Head Prefect. The 1935 three top nominees were; Y. K. Babiiha, S. B Kiseka and Y. K. Lule [all became Uganda Vice-Presidents and President]. The teaching staff appointed S.B. Kiseka for Head Prefect. Y.K Lule rejected the electoral process and had to leave for South Africa. The challenge is that 70 years after Makerere introduced democracy, elections are not yet perfected in Uganda. Candidates are still challenging the elections and still fleeing to South Africa as Lule did in 1935. It is thus clear that Makerere University has yet to overcome the insult borne on it at its inception. It is more unfortunate that Prof. Bakibingas suggestion to re-ignite the spirit of overcoming the insult was quashed in the very circles that should have supported it. The author is a researcher with the Academic Registry Department, Makerere University
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 11:25:46 +0000
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