The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
BOOK REVIEW | JULIUS BUSINGE | “My life is one of tradition and transition; My traditions were ordained by my lineage and birthplace, in the beautiful fertile lands of Hoima in the Kingdom of Bunyoro,” writes Dr. Sarah Nyendwoha Ntiro in the introduction of her book titled ‘Emboldened’, unveiled on Dec.7 at Kampala Serena Hotel, forwarded by the King of Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom, HRH Solomon Gafabusa Iguru I.
Ntiro descended from a proud, rich, and industrious community of the Banyoro, and it is the values of this community that she upholds and cherishes.
The values of this community propelled her transition and like a seedling, she sprouted, grew, and traversed Uganda and the world.
The values also always beckoned her to return home, to Uganda, and now to Hoima, still a place of pristine environs, to retire and dwell permanently.
Her return to Hoima is not for the sake of tradition, but because it is where she has always desired to retire.
“When I started school, the environment was more comfortable than strange, because I found familiar faces of pupils and other people, I had known from our family’s stay in Duhaga Girls,” Ntiro says.
Book chapters
Chapter one talks about “The Wheel of Life”, the second chapter is about her journey from Hoima to Oxford, Chapter three elaborates a story about her ‘bicycle’; then she goes on to tell us about ‘breaking barriers’ in Chapter four, Chapter five reads in part “I Did Not Come to Makerere to Find a Husband”, Chapter six highlights her marriage choices, Chapter seven is about her time as an administrator, Chapter eight talks about her life in exile. The other chapters elaborate on her story about working in the Women’s movement, her retirement from formal employment, and fighting for equal rights among others.
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Bunyoro Kitara’s foreward – verbatim
The Bunyoro-Kitara Kingdom is pleased to provide a foreword to the memoir of our beloved daughter and girl child, Evangeline Sarah Mugizi Nyendwoha Ntiro Akiiki. Sarah was our flagbearer, icon, and role model for the Kingdom’s women and girls, paving the way for them to make their contribution to our Kingdom, country, and the world over.
Sarah is among the pioneer children that the Kingdom sent out into the world to study and conquer the world using the pen and the word. Sarah first left Bunyoro in 1936 at the tender age of 10 years.
Sarah was as bold as she was beautiful. She used her God-given gifts to the benefit of her society. She did not sit on the fence but spoke out, especially when people did not meet the standards and expectations the community had of them.
She did not suffer the despondency and apathy that came to parts of our community due to the oppression and near-genocide actions meted out on our communities by the colonizers and their collaborators.
As the Kingdom looks ahead, especially at the current state of education, we remember with nostalgia that our culture used to offer a strong foundation for modern education to take root. Traditional knowledge systems and practices have accelerated learning and knowledge-sharing in many developed communities around the world.
Our communities must therefore continue to find a workable balance between their traditional knowledge systems and those they have adopted from elsewhere.
Sarah left a great legacy but also a challenge for us to live up to.
The Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom is proud to have produced the first woman graduate in East and Central Africa. The Kingdom has produced and is set to produce many other firsts. Sarah loved and treasured her culture and Kingdom.
We owe it to her to continue using our culture, values, and practices as a basis for educating and modernising our communities. Akiiki Sarah, okakikura amahanga!
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Copyright: Sarah Nyendwoha Ntiro 2021. It was First Published in 2021 by FEMRITE- Uganda Women Writers Association in collaboration with African Women Development Fund (AWDF).
