A few weeks after I started senior one at King’s College Budo in 1967, three young men from Kigyezi joined the school to start their A-level education. James Ndagijimana Birihanze of Kabaare, Sam Ngirabakunzi of Kisoro, and Erinasani Tumwesigye wa Bampabura of Rubaya, Ndorwa were among the brightest people that I came to know and admire. All three became my friends and mentors, each with an impact that has endured. 

Sadly, Ngirabakunzi died in 1970, and Birihanze was killed in December 1972 or January 1973. By God’s grace, Tumwesigye had the opportunity to live and serve humanity into old age. He died last week, on Thursday June 5^th, at the age of 78. Though we mourn him, we celebrate his life with thanksgiving to the Lord who put him to great use and, through him, furthered the education of many people.

Tumwesigye wa Bampabura was a member of Baakarobwa Clan. He belonged to the subclan of Abarihira of Nyachonga ya Buriba bwa Kihiirwa kya Macumu. His muziro (totem) was ente ngoobe (a dark-skinned cow with brown linear patches). Born on December 23, 1946, at Karujanga, Rubaya, Ndorwa, Kigyezi, Tumwesigye was the first child of Merabu Bamwenegwire and her husband Nasaneiri Bampabura. His mother was a homemaker, and his father a catechist in the Native Anglican Church of Uganda. 

Tumwesigye’s intellectual giftedness was publicly manifest when he was in primary three. He mounted a table during Sunday worship at the big church at Muyebe Anglican parish and flawlessly presented the day’s reading to a mesmerized congregation. 

He breezed his way through primary and junior secondary school, earning the nickname “Magician” from his Junior One schoolmates at Kigezi High School in 1961. They recognized his exceptional mind and Tumwesigye confirmed their opinion by topping Uganda in the national Junior Secondary School Leaving Examinations in 1962. 

Hans Mwesigwa, Tumwesigye’s younger brother, shared a memory that encapsulates Magician’s genius. Mwesigwa wrote: “At just twelve years old, using our mother’s saucepan, charcoal, water, and salt, he performed electrolysis to light a torch bulb – a feat even Senior Four students could not replicate without help. I stood there, a mesmerized witness, already his eager student.” 

He continued his outstanding academic exploits at Kigezi College, Butobere, excelling in every subject and several extracurricular activities. It was during his years at Butobere that I first heard of him. A rumour circulated among Kigezi students that Magician had counted all ebikumba by’omugusha(panicles or fruits of sorghum) in his subcounty. No doubt someone had allowed themselves some literary licence, but they reflected the high esteem in which he was held by his peers and teachers. 

His genius was not restricted to the traditional academic curriculum. Magician excelled in chess, piano, athletics, squash, and lawn tennis. Mr. Neil Bonnell, one of our finest teachers at King’s College Budo, now enjoying retirement in his native Australia, shared his memory of taking Tumwesigye as a doubles partner in the Uganda Handicap Doubles tennis tournament.  “We received an impossibly generous handicap,” Neil wrote. “Our opponents had to win seven points for a game, and we only had to win two.  It wasn't surprising that we won.  I was very pleased that Tumwesigye had a trophy from a national tournament to take home to Kigezi.”

My most vivid memory of Tumwesigye at Budo is of the first time I heard him playing the piano. The music was very beautiful, completely foreign to my ears, a superb discovery that I did not realise would become a lifetime addiction. He was improvising, without the benefit of a written music score, and playing as though held in a trance by an invisible force.

He played the melody of “oyonkye nkusherekye”, a very popular lullaby in Rukiga-Runyankore-Rutooro-Runyoro, and then changed tempo to a fast groove, full of rhythm and melody, mixed with strange but beautiful sounds, ending with a reprise of the traditional lullaby.

“What’s that?”, I asked the master. “That is jazz,” Tumwesigye replied, and gave me an unforgettable tutorial on jazz music. It was the first time I heard that word. A seed was sown. The year was 1967. 

When I received the news of his death, the image of Tumwesigye on the piano at Budo came alive. I thought of the great jazz piano players that have brought me immense musical joy for nearly five decades, among them the great Thelonious Monk, whose physical resemblance of Tumwesigye was one of nature’s inexplicable phenomena. 

Tumwesigye joined Makerere in July 1969 and read mathematics Z and physics. A resident of Northcote Hall, he continued his all-round excellence and graduated with a Bachelor of Science. He embarked on a teaching career, starting at Kibuli Secondary School. He accepted UNESCO scholarships to do population studies in Ghana, then Bucharest, Romania. 

I next met him when he was teaching mathematics at Lenana School (formerly the Duke of York School) in Nairobi in 1980. He is said to have defied the school’s traditional methods of teaching mathematics and, instead, used his own approach. He vindicated himself by the very many excellent results that his students achieved.

Following his return to Uganda in the 1980s, Tumwesigye taught at several secondary schools before joining the Uganda College of Commerce (UCC). He spent most of his years with that institution at Kabaare and ended his career at the UCC in Pakwach.

There is no doubt in my mind that Tumwesigye was a classic genius. He was well ahead of his time and environment. Had he had better access to opportunities for research, he would have turned in some excellent original work, perhaps worthy of consideration for a Nobel Prize. Had he spent time with the great jazz musicians in New York, Toronto, Montreal or Chicago, he would have shared space in the pantheon of the all-time greats of Jazz. 

He received his prize through the many students he taught in Kenya and Uganda. His brother Mwesigwa, a distinguished civil engineer and author in Uganda, wrote: “His greatest gift was his relentless drive to elevate those around him. He tutored me in mathematics, chess, and music, shaping me into the person I became. Because of him, I excelled in every school I attended.”  

Tumwesigye’s body was buried at his home in Nyabikoni, Kabaare on Sunday June 8. His magical genius lives on in the memories of thousands of people that partook of his extraordinary gifts. His DNA survives through his sons, Miracle and Star, that he had with his wife Roy.