We sing our lungs out whenever given chance to sing the national anthem, some fly the national flag in their cars or it proudly sits on their desks. These symbols are not only a pride of the nation but they mean much more than that.
Fifty two years ago The National Anthem, the Coat of Arms and the Flag were unveiled at Kololo for the first time.
The yellow, red and black striped flag was raised for the first time as the Union Jack was permanently replaced. Much as these are symbols of national pride and sovereignty it took a team of both Uganda’s and non-Ugandans to have them assembled.
As the steam for self-rule gained momentum in Uganda, the semi-autonomous government of the late Benedicto Kiwanuka started preparing Uganda for full self-rule. One of the signs of a fully independent country was to have national symbols with which the country is identified.
In late 1961 Kiwanuka’s government set up a team of eminent people it called the National Symbols Committee under the chairmanship of the late Prof Ssenteza Kajjubi. Other members were Rev Polycap Kakooza, George Kakoma, Mbabi Katana, William Nadiope, Prof Todd a South African teaching at the school of Art at the then Makerere College, and John Moon then a music conductor with the police band.
Unfortunately all these have passed on with Prof Kajjubi the last to pass on. However in an interview with the writer in 2011, the chairman of the committee Ssenteza Kajubi explained how these symbols came into being.
Through adverts in the papers of the time like Uganda Empya, Uganda Eyogera, The Uganda Herald, and on the only radio station at the time Uganda Broadcasting Corporation UBC.
The general public was asked to participate by making their submission of what they thing the National Flag, Anthem and a Coat of Arms should look like.
According to Kajubi the adverts asked Ugandan artists, both performing and visual, to submit their compositions to be considered for national symbols. ‘The adverts did not mention rewards to the winners, what was known was that they were to be recognised on the independence day celebrations. The committee’s mandate was to receive and select the best entry; the cabinet was to decide on the reward to the winners.’
The anthem
One of the huddles the committee faced was time; it was never on their side, they had to resort to committee members for help, a thing which led people like Mbabi Katana to resign from the committee. ‘When we realized we were running short of time some members suggested we adopt the Nkosi Silikelele Africa as our national tune, it was being used by the South African group African National Congress, Zambia and Tanzania were that idea was dropped mainly because the tune was already being used by Zambia and Tanzania as their national anthem tunes.
Committee member Mbabi Katana wanted something distinctly Ugandan, but his idea was thrown out on the grounds that such a composition would not be easily played by the brass band. With his proposal rejected Katana decided to resign from the committee.
Kajubi narrated that due to time constraints one night he drove to Kakoma’s residence in Namirembe and pleaded with him to save the situation. ‘That night I asked Kakoma to forego his sleep and since he was a musician, to come up with a tune we can work with. The next morning he had a tune with no lyrics, at the same time Rev Poylcap Kakooza also came up with a tune. I liked Kakoma’s tune. It was short and easy, he was asked to teach it to students of Gayaza High School and Kings College Buddo.
Kakooza’s tune was long and almost similar to the Buganda anthem. ‘As chairman of the committee I submitted the two tunes the one of Kakooza and that of Kakoma to the cabinet select committee, I was delighted when they picked Kakoma’s tune, and they asked for the lyrics to be written.
Kajubbi further explained that in his submission to the cabinet he suggested that all the three stanzas shall not be sang at the same time. ‘I suggested that in the presence of the president only two stanzas should be sung while in the absence of the president only one stanza should be sung on rare special occasions will all the three be sung.’
The composition of the lyrics to the national anthem was a joint effort of George Kakoma and Peter Wingurd a lecturer at the school of education at Makerere College. After their work was presented, the Church complained, saying Uganda was a god fearing country and predominantly Christian, but there was no mention of God anywhere in the anthem. That led to the changing of the first line of the first stanza from Oh Uganda may your children uphold thee to Oh Uganda my your God uphold thee, with this new change Kajubi says the anthem became more of a prayer than a song.
The flag
Almost everything was done on a crush program with the National Anthem, court of Arms and the motto in the bag there was no flag to present. The first flag the committee had submitted to the cabinet of Green, Blue and yellow stripes was rejected saying that color green fades. However other historian’s urged that it was rejected because color green was a DP color and the committee elected in 1961 by DP was reporting to a UPC government.
Following that rejection Grace Ibingira a cabinet member with an interest in art saved the day. ‘Ibiginra got the flag of West Germany from Uganda Club, now Kampala club and took it to Prof Todd at Makerere school of Fine Art and he played around with the colours to come up with the independence flag, though it recently had some changes. The gold in the Germany flag was changed to yellow and the order of colours was also changed around. The flag was the only symbol that was selected at the cabinet level, not by the committee. Kajubi however said once the cabinet approved all the symbols, they registered them with a British company which registers all national symbols worldwide, called The United Kingdom’s National Flag Charity.
coat of arms
The Coat of Arms was the work of a South African, Prof Todd who was teaching at the school of fine art at Makerere College. For the national Motto nothing more suitable had been submitted so they made use of Busoga College Mwiri’s motto, Ku lwakotonda ne Gwanga lyange (for God and my tribe) it was given a slight change from tribe to country becoming For God and my Country.