Tribute to my 4 Grandparents

Within the same fortnight Barack Obama lost his white grandmother, I also lost my last grandparent, the mother of my mother. Something great should also happen in my life now that the Blackman is in the white house. I got an SMS from my third sister on Wednesday morning (22nd October 2008) that Wupa had passed away but tried not to cry because I was attending a COMESA Forum in Kasese and did not want to look all too sorrowful among the delegates. However when my father called me during the tea break, tears just flowed naturally though I did not cry. Big boys must not cry, but can shade tears. Seasoned UG journalist Joachim Buwembo was also on his phone talking about how some lady stole info from his computer after allowing her to use it. I told my dad that there was nothing I could do about the tragedy and he replied that it was okay. I could not even call to console my mum up to the time I got back to my room in the night. There was just too much intellectual work to be done and I shouldn’t have let sorrow ruin my composure. Mum also told me not to mind; I would just go to pay my respects later on in Aliba, Ayivu County where she was buried near her home. Otherwise, she had been sick for some time.

Four years before that (on 3rd December 2004), my father’s mother named ‘Ita’ (Lugbara for Esther) passed away. I was still at UCU Mukono University then but got the information only by reading my big brother’s email five days later. No one informed me because they thought I could not handle the pain but I took it well. Actually, I only shaded tears and didn’t wail while trekking towards town on Bishop Tucker Drive after reading the email at Technology Park in the night. It was the examination week and I dedicated my very last papers to her.

As for my grandfathers, they both died before I was born. The only memories I have of my maternal grandpa Onesimus (Reverand Onesemu A. Banito Inima) [1919 to 13th May 1983] are stories narrated by my relatives and also the books he left behind with his signatures. He is buried at St. John's Church Ajara.