L-R: Robinah Rwabirima, Anne Barabogoza, Freda Kiyingi, Harriet Mayanja, Saturday September 28, 2024

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When more than sixty girls enrolled in senior one at Gayaza High School in January 1967, they joined a very select group for whom secondary education offered social and economic opportunities unknown to most African females at the time. Of the 27,019 secondary school students in Uganda in 1967, only 6,426 (24 percent) were female. To be part of that small number was a blessing. To be admitted to Gayaza High School was a highly coveted badge of honour. 

The Gayaza High School uniform of well-tailored cotton dresses, available in different colours, adorned with a red-on-white crest with the school initials, pleasantly announced that the wearer was a special work in progress. The school staff, led by Joan Cox, one of the most revered headteachers of that period, offered them a well-rounded education, undergirded by Christian principles. Cox and Co. enhanced the parents’ work of molding them into refined, respectful, confident, and self-assured young women that would stand head-to-head with their male counterparts in our very patriarchal society. 

In its early years, following its founding in 1905, Gayaza was easily accessed by the daughters of Baganda chiefs, their DNA sufficient qualification for admission. The founders’ stated purpose for the school was to prepare girls for careers as very good wives and mothers, endowed with strong Christian values that would be passed on to their children. By mid-century, Gayaza had become a centre of academic excellence for girls, very much at par with top-tier boys’ schools like King’s College Budo, Nyakasura School, and St. Mary’s College, Kisubi. The main criterion for admission was evident intellectual giftedness, judged by one’s performance in national examinations.

The Gayaza cohort of ’67 was part of a unique group, a mixture of primary seven, and junior secondary school (“Primary eight”) graduates that had excelled in the national examinations of November 1966. That was the last year of junior secondary school in Uganda, henceforth replaced with primary seven alone as the transition year to high school. These girls came from a very mixed background, the majority being daughters of “ordinary” parents. Many were from rural schools.  

Socio-economic circumstances were not an impediment to a bright and disciplined child’s ambition to join a school like Gayaza High School. For example, notwithstanding her parents’ economic challenges, Jessica Kembabazi Babihuga, who was an excellent student at Kabale Girls’ School, made Gayaza her first choice for secondary education. Ephraim Babihuga, her father, who had served for years as an Anglican Church catechist and was now a member of the Kigezi District Council, still earning an extremely modest salary, encouraged his daughter to choose Gayaza.  

Mr. and Mrs. Babihuga were able to give Jessica and her twelve siblings very good education in some of the best schools in the country because the government subsidized them, paid their teachers very well, and provided the essential activities and materials for successful learning. 

Three other bright girls from Kabale Girls’ School that joined Gayaza that year were Anne Barabogoza, Evas Rwomushana, and Winnifred Kobujuna. Two came from very modest economic backgrounds. Anne was a daughter of a primary school headmaster, whose older brother Charles Musinguzi wa Barabogoza joined Kigezi College Butobere the same year. To send two children to top tier schools at the same time would have probably been unaffordable without the school subsidies to which the colonial and early post-independence governments gave high priority.  

Winnie Kobujuna was supported through junior secondary school, and perhaps at Gayaza, by her aunt who worked as a low-wage earner at Kabale Preparatory School. 

Florence Bwankosya, orphaned in infancy, was one of six children whose mother was left to raise alone when Nathan Bwankosya, her husband, died in a motor accident. Like her siblings, Florence got a very good education, entered Gayaza High School in 1967, excelled in scholarship, and became a very successful citizen.  

These are a few of the many girls in that cohort with untold inspiring stories of triumph because their parents, their teachers, and the local and central governments conspired to guarantee them success. Some received district scholarships. Others had their school fees paid by their expatriate British teachers, whose generosity was replicated by their peers in other schools. Whereas these girls’ intellectual attributes were an advantage, the most important determinant of their success was the opportunity each one received. 

Gayaza High School was a magnet that attracted girls from every part of Uganda. The names of the cohort of ’67 tell the story of the multi-ethnic mix of students that was a normal part of life in schools. The Gayaza Cohort of ’67 (and those that joined them at A-Level) included Edith Asaba, Jessica Babihuga, Edith Grace Bafakulera, Margaret Batanda, Elizabeth Tekigerwa Bakyaita, Kate Banyenzaki, Anne Barabogoza, Margaret Basaza, Jolly Bihabanyi, Florence Bwankosya, Beatrice Damba, Christine Etuusa, Christine Gafabusa, Betty Gareeba, Tabitha Galiwango, ⁠Margaret Ibanda, ⁠Sarah Irumba, Mary Kadama, Joy Kafuko, ⁠Drusilla Kaggwa, Damali Kajubi, Samali Kajubi, ⁠Mary Kakeeto, Beatrice Kakiiza, Victoria Kakooza, Joyce Kakuramatsi, Jovah Kamateeka, Robina Kasirye, Petua Katuramu, Sarah Kibirige, Gertrude Kitaburaaza, Karen Kitarisibwa, ⁠Freda Kiyingi, Winifred  Kobujuna, Joyce Kurabiraho, Sarah Kyobe,  Patricia Lubulwa, Rose Mugalya, Ruth Marirosi, Mary Masaba, Jackie Masozera, Harriet Mayanja, Winifred Mayanja, Veronica Mdoe, Ekiria  Mudido, ⁠⁠Betty Muguzi, Janet  Mulinde, ⁠Harriet Musoke, Solome Musoke, ⁠Deborah Mutashwera, Mary Muwazi, Edith Nabakooza, May Nakatudde, Susan Nantamu, Eunice Ntege, Diana Nyonyintono, Florence Odonga, Robina Rwabirima, ⁠Josline Rwamutiganzi, Evas Rwomushana, Catherine Sagala, ⁠Lydia Sembeguya, Esther Senti, and Damali Ziwa.   

What the names do not reveal is the broad socio-economic spectrum that this top girls’ school invited into its melting pot. Like most secondary schools at the time, Gayaza was an equalizer. Daughters of the relatively rich and powerful urbanites ate with, played with, learnt with, boarded with, and dressed like the daughters of rural peasants and other economic strugglers. They formed bonds that transcended superficial cleavages. 

They took their school motto seriously. “Never Give Up” was more than words to these girls. They forged paths through the treacherous and challenging years of their young adulthood, and all went on to become fine professionals, patriotic citizens, and positive contributors to humanity. 

On Saturday September 28, thirty members of Gayaza ’67 met in Entebbe for a reunion. Donning their school uniforms, they enjoyed a daylong fellowship. No doubt they felt the absence of their deceased classmates - Edith Asaba, Elizabeth Tekigerwa Bakyaita, Margaret Basaza, Jolly Bihabanyi, Christine Gafabusa, Betty Gareeba, Victoria Kakooza, Robina Kasirye (Kiyingi), Petua Katuramu, Patricia Lubulwa, Susan Nantamu, and Lydia Sembeguya – and those too unwell or unbale to join them for other reasons.  

One wishes that these wise women, who are walking libraries of unwritten knowledge and experience, would be tapped by the younger generations. There was a time when such elders offered priceless counsel to their nations. 

©Muniini K. Mulera