.jpg) Nagenda in 2019 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | John Mwesigwa Robin Nagenda | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1938-04-25)25 April 1938 Gahim,Ruanda-Urundi (nowRwanda) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 4 March 2023(2023-03-04) (aged 84) Kampala, Uganda | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Batting | Right-handed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling | Right-armfast-medium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| International information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National side | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Only ODI (cap 6) | 7 June 1975 v New Zealand | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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 PresidentYoweri Museveni and a prominent newspaper columnist. He representedEast Africa at the1975 Cricket World Cup and was later president of theUganda Cricket Association.
Nagenda was born on 25 April 1938 in what is nowRwanda.[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 theKingdom of Buganda; his grandfather Festo Mukasa Manyangenda was a significant landowner and served as a co-regent underMutesa II of Buganda. He is also a first cousin of prime ministerApolo 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 attendKing's College Budo before being sent to board atKigezi High School for two years.[2]
Nagenda played international cricket forUganda andEast Africa as a right-arm fast-medium bowler.[3] He and batsmanSam Walusimbi were the only Ugandans selected in East Africa's squad for the inaugural1975 Cricket World Cup in England. He opened the bowling for East Africa in its opening game againstNew Zealand, taking figures of 1/50, but did not play any further matches in the tournament.[4] He also appeared in onefirst-class cricket match for East Africa against theSri Lankans in England in 1975.[5][6]
After the end of his playing career, Nagenda served as chairman of theUganda Cricket Association and played a key role in the development of theKyambogo Cricket Oval.[3]
Nagenda was among the first students in the literature program atMakerere University and edited the student journalPenpoint. He was a key member of the "Makerere School", which emerged from the university, along withDavid Rubadiri andNgũgĩ wa Thiong'o. His early poems and stories appeared primarily inPenpoint and the literary journalTransition, with his poem "Gahini Lake" and short story "And This, At Last" included in the Makerere anthologyOrigin East Africa published in 1965. According toSimon 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 the1971 Ugandan coup d'état. He returned to the country in 1986 whenYoweri 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 theNew 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 titleOne Man's Week: Unreserved Wisdom.[9]
In the 1980s, Nagenda became a member of the external wing of theNational Resistance Movement (NRM), which supportedYoweri Museveni.[10] He was on the NRM's steering committee in Kenya and played a key role in convincing KingMuwenda Mutebi II of Buganda to return from exile to support the movement.[11] He accompanied Mutebi from London to Rwanda's capitalKigali, from whence they were smuggled into Uganda and met with Museveni and representatives of theNational Resistance Army.[12]
Nagenda returned to Uganda in 1986 following theBattle 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 predecessorsIdi Amin andMilton Obote.[13] Nagenda came to public attention for his tough interrogation of Obote's vice-presidentPaulo 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 the1996 Ugandan presidential election, he engineered the government's campaign against opposition leaderPaul 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 ofOlive Kobusingye's bookThe Correct Line? Uganda Under Museveni.[14] He reportedly fell out with Museveni in 2011 as a result of theUnited States diplomatic cables leak, when he was found to have described Museveni as "quite intemperate" and his wifeJanet 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]
Nagenda died at Medipal International Hospital in Kampala on 4 March 2023. He was 84.[1]
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