John Nagenda

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John Nagenda
Nagenda in 2019
Personal information
Full name
John Mwesigwa Robin Nagenda
Born(1938-04-25)25 April 1938
Gahim, Ruanda-Urundi (now Rwanda)
Died4 March 2023(2023-03-04) (aged 84)
Kampala, Uganda
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight-arm fast-medium
International information
National side
Only ODI (cap 6)7 June 1975 v New Zealand
Career statistics
Competition ODI FC LA
Matches 1 1 1
Runs scored – 5 –
Batting average – – –
100s/50s –/– –/– –/–
Top score – 5* –
Balls bowled 54 126 54
Wickets 1 3 1
Bowling average 50.00 30.33 50.00
5 wickets in innings – – –
10 wickets in match – – –
Best bowling 1/50 2/17 1/50
Catches/stumpings –/– 1/– –/–
Source: CricInfo, 20 January 2022

John Mwesigwa Robin Nagenda (25 April 1938 – 4 March 2023) was a Ugandan writer, political figure, and sportsman. In the 1960s, he pioneered post-colonial English literature in East Africa. He lived in exile in the United Kingdom in the 1970s and 1980s before returning to Uganda in 1986. He subsequently became a senior advisor to President Yoweri Museveni and a prominent newspaper columnist. He represented East Africa at the 1975 Cricket World Cup and was later president of the Uganda Cricket Association.

Early life[edit]

Nagenda was born on 25 April 1938 in what is now Rwanda.[1] He was the oldest of six surviving children born to William Kyanjo Nagenda and Sala Maliamu Bakaluba. His parents were Christian missionaries, and the family returned to Uganda when he was a small child. His father's family belongs to the Mmamba clan of the Kingdom of Buganda; his grandfather Festo Mukasa Manyangenda was a significant landowner and served as a co-regent under Mutesa II of Buganda. He is also a first cousin of prime minister Apolo Nsibambi on his mother's side.[2]

Nagenda began his education at Kiwanda School in Namutamba, where his family's tea estate was located. He went on to attend King's College Budo before being sent to board at Kigezi High School for two years.[2]

Sporting career[edit]

Nagenda played international cricket for Uganda and East Africa as a right-arm fast-medium bowler.[3] He and batsman Sam Walusimbi were the only Ugandans selected in East Africa's squad for the inaugural 1975 Cricket World Cup in England. He opened the bowling for East Africa in its opening game against New Zealand, taking figures of 1/50, but did not play any further matches in the tournament.[4] He also appeared in one first-class cricket match for East Africa against the Sri Lankans in England in 1975.[5][6]

After the end of his playing career, Nagenda served as chairman of the Uganda Cricket Association and played a key role in the development of the Kyambogo Cricket Oval.[3]

Writing[edit]

Nagenda was among the first students in the literature program at Makerere University and edited the student journal Penpoint. He was a key member of the "Makerere School", which emerged from the university, along with David Rubadiri and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. His early poems and stories appeared primarily in Penpoint and the literary journal Transition, with his poem "Gahini Lake" and short story "And This, At Last" included in the Makerere anthology Origin East Africa published in 1965. According to Simon Gikandi, Nagenda was "one of the pioneers of writing in East Africa" and wrote "at the transitional moment in East African literature in English", when local writers raised in the colonial period sought to apply British forms of prose and poetry to the East African landscape.[7]

Nagenda lived in exile in the United Kingdom during the 1970s and 1980s following the 1971 Ugandan coup d'état. He returned to the country in 1986 when Yoweri Museveni became president.[1] In the same year, he published his first novel, The Seasons of Thomas Tebo, which involves "an idealistic man who becomes involved in politics only to be caught in the horror and violence of a corrupt polity".[7] Nagenda later became a long-running columnist for the New Vision, a daily newspaper in Kampala. His column "One Man's Week" ran for over 25 years,[8] and a compilation of his articles was published in 2019 under the title One Man's Week: Unreserved Wisdom.[9]

Politics[edit]

In the 1980s, Nagenda became a member of the external wing of the National Resistance Movement (NRM), which supported Yoweri Museveni.[10] He was on the NRM's steering committee in Kenya and played a key role in convincing King Muwenda Mutebi II of Buganda to return from exile to support the movement.[11] He accompanied Mutebi from London to Rwanda's capital Kigali, from whence they were smuggled into Uganda and met with Museveni and representatives of the National Resistance Army.[12]

Nagenda returned to Uganda in 1986 following the Battle of Kampala and Museveni's ascension to the presidency. In the same year, he was appointed to the Commission of Inquiry into Violations of Human Rights (commonly known as the Ugandan Truth Commission), with a mandate to investigate human rights violations under Museveni's predecessors Idi Amin and Milton Obote.[13] Nagenda came to public attention for his tough interrogation of Obote's vice-president Paulo Muwanga, who attacked Nagenda with ethnic jibes related to his birth in Rwanda.[12] The commission ultimately delivered its report in 1994 but was hampered by a lack of funding and government support for the process.[13]

In 1989, Nagenda was appointed by Museveni as a senior presidential advisor on media and public relations, a position he would hold until his death in 2023.[10] During the 1996 Ugandan presidential election, he engineered the government's campaign against opposition leader Paul Ssemogere, portraying him as a front for deposed president Milton Obote.[12] Nagenda had a complicated working relationship with Museveni, making public criticisms of him on several occasions. In 2010, he condemned the government's seizure of Olive Kobusingye's book The Correct Line? Uganda Under Museveni.[14] He reportedly fell out with Museveni in 2011 as a result of the United States diplomatic cables leak, when he was found to have described Museveni as "quite intemperate" and his wife Janet Museveni as "a very extreme woman".[15] However, Nagenda and Museveni later reconciled, and in 2020 he stated that Museveni had "done a fantastic job" as president.[1]

Personal life[edit]

Nagenda died at Medipal International Hospital in Kampala on 4 March 2023. He was 84.[1]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d "Senior presidential advisor John Nagenda dies at 84". Monitor. 4 March 2023. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
  2. ^ a b Muwonge, Sumaya (14 August 2020). "John Nagenda: My Story". New Vision. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
  3. ^ a b Malinga, Marion (6 December 2022). "Cricket Fraternity Honours John Nagenda". NBS Sport. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
  4. ^ "Cricket fraternity mourns John Nagenda's death". New Vision. 5 March 2023. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
  5. ^ "John Nagenda". CricketArchive. Retrieved 5 October 2012.
  6. ^ "The Home of CricketArchive". cricketarchive.com. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
  7. ^ a b Gikandi, Simon (2003). Encyclopedia of African Literature. Routledge. pp. 491–492. ISBN 9781134582235.
  8. ^ Muli, Peter (23 September 2020). "Honouring John Nagenda, the wordsmith". New Vision. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
  9. ^ Achan, Jacky (3 December 2019). "Nagenda's 'One Man's Week'". New Vision. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
  10. ^ a b "Literary icon, John Nagenda dies after lengthy illness". NTV. 4 March 2023. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
  11. ^ Basudde, Elvis (25 January 2014). "How the NRM struggle unfolded in Nairobi". New Vision. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
  12. ^ a b c "Nagenda the Legend who cemented Kabaka – Museveni ties". Uganda Update. 4 March 2023. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
  13. ^ a b Quinn, Joanna R. (2004). "Constraints: The Un-Doing of the Ugandan Truth Commission". Human Rights Quarterly. 26 (2): 401–427. doi:10.1353/hrq.2004.0024. S2CID 144493124.
  14. ^ Kigambo, Gaaki (17 October 2010). "Release 'anti-Museveni' book, urges Nagenda". The Observer. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
  15. ^ "Nagenda, Museveni secrets revealed, how Wikileaks caused fallout". Observer. 11 September 2011. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
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