I grew up hearing about 2 grandfathers, whereas for the
average person one will probably be your mother's dad and dad's father, my
2 grand fathers were both my father's fathers.
Of course I did ask him several times who his father was
and he always gave me the standard answer both of them were his fathers.
When I was 10 an opportunity came where I thought no doubt
he would finally name which of these 2 brothers was his father. A new
girl joined our school that year and as fate would have it she had both my
given names; Josephine Nakimuli. To solve this big mess the teachers asked us
to both add our father’s names as last names. I went home explained the
situation to my dad and obviously to him there was nothing to discuss.
However my elementary school being an all-round school had gone further than
teach us the basic history of our Kiganda origin but dug deeper into names,
clans and so on. So with that kind of rich education, there was a problem there
for me, you see my dad's name, Muwanga i had been taught didn't belong to
any clan but was a name for one of the small gods. Even then I knew I
didn't want to be named after a small god and then of course there was
also the issue that whenever I was asked who my dad was, more questions popped
about whether he was a relation of Paul Muwanga, Uganda's one time president .
In my so opinionated mind, this was another no no, I mean this Muwanga with all
his great attributes as freedom fighter had only been president for less
than 25 days in May 1980, he was no relation of mine and it didn’t sit right
with me that he had not been president for longer.
So ,this was the perfect opportunity for me to
get the answer I had always wanted to know who of the 2 grandfathers was
my actual grandfather. I presented my proposal to my dad explaining the reasons
why I was not in favor of using his given name and asked if instead I could use
his dad's name. Ever the very open
minded guy , he didn’t refute my suggestion but instead laughed some and
asked me to choose which one of the two brothers names I wanted to use , my persistence
for him to just give me the name
of who his dad was yielded nothing.
After much thought I went with the name that in my
young mind had a better ring, convincing myself that if it was the wrong one he
would make a suggestion for the other name. Surprise, surprise the guy didn’t
butt an eye lid and instead signed the school documents that gave me the new
acquired identity of Josephine Nakimuli Kigozi.
My thinking then was I had squared away the great
mystery and guessed who his dad was, not that it mattered to him as he went
through his life profusely always saying my fathers or our fathers
depending on the context.
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| The 2 brothers, Serwano Bulungu Kigozi and Asanasiyo Sempala Lubwama with their mom |
Fast forward as an adult living in the diaspora, I met a
friend's dad who coming from the same clan as me was very interested in
knowing about my heritage. At the mention of my 2 grandfathers names (see they
are always mentioned indistinguishable as one part of the other), he beamed
with pride, also calling them his fathers and sharing so many stories of love
that made it seem like they had been joined at the hip. The image he painted
made me wish I had seen them in action; see I have no living memory of these 2
great men. What I lack in memory has been substituted with stories and pictures
over the years. It has always been a joy
listening and reminiscing on what
their life was and am so inspired by their love for each other and keep looking
out amongst my big family for their legacy of love above self. #StillSearching😉😆
Ps
In 2015 through a cousin who was working on our family tree,
I actually found out, that of the 2 brother's, my dad's father was actually Lubwama, not that it made any
difference to me as even after that revelation I still am a Kigozi, especially
as the 2 were one and the same person that no wonder my father never had reason
to clearly call out who of these 2 brothers was his biological father.
