Prime
Gureme at 85 years and still counting
Mzee Gureme (center) with his daughter Joy (left) and son-in-law Yehangane (right)
What you need to know:
FDR Gureme is one of those men who is remembered for the articles he wrote in various newspapers from way back. Although he no longer writes for any paper and is visibly aging, he still reads and hopes to publish a manuscript he has been working on.
Oddly, you might forget the information you came across or shared in the recent past but remember what happened way back. This is what happens when you get amnesia, which is the partial or total loss of memory.
It often comes with age and lest you forget, you are not going to be young forever because one of the distinguishing characteristics of living organisms is that they grow old.
Then, “Your ears will be deaf to the noise of the street. You will barely be able to hear the mill as it grinds or music as it plays, but even the song of a bird will wake you from your sleep,” Ecclesiastes 12:4 says.
Mzee Francis Drake Rammer (F.D.R.) Gureme has reached this phase of life.
“I might have forgotten certain things you would want to know because I have acute amnesia. You will also have to speak louder,” he says as he touches his right earlobe.
It shows. The eyelids are puffed. Speech is accompanied with deep breaths. And once he starts speaking, he has many stories to tell – drawn from experience and reading.
He does not walk as much. The pace is slower. The midriff has expanded partly due to less exercising. Once seated, he will get up with effort, and sees doctors more often than he did when he was younger and more energetic.
Yesterday, Mr Gureme commemorated his 85th birthday. Nowadays, writing, reading and private business have since filled up the time.
Mr Gureme is the bespectacled gentleman who would walk briskly in Kampala donning shorts, stockings, and, of course shoes, and a neatly pressed, tucked in shirt with an umbrella in hand.
At 80, (in 2006) he participated in the 10-kilometre MTN Marathon and won himself Sh1.4m!
The closest he gets to that these days is walking in his lawn and patio in Kitintale, a Kampala surburb. He has also stopped wearing shorts because while in England in 2004, he failed to buy stockings.
“Two days before I left South England where I had gone on a visit, I went to buy stockings but a shopkeeper told me to wait until winter! I told him that I wanted the stockings for tropical shorts,” says Mr Gureme.
The spring chicken that did not see him then but have a knack of reading the newspapers of yore must have come across his name in either The New Vision or Daily Monitor and Sunday Monitor. He has also authored pieces in the Daily Nation as well as The East African.
These days, the octogenarian no longer writes as often as he used to. The Old Man About Town, which used to run in The New Vision, is no more. Neither does he pen pieces for the Daily Monitor, The Observer and The East African. But he has a manuscript he hopes to publish soon and, he still reads. As we go about the interview, a lady breezes into the living room carrying the three local dailies.
“My better half, Jovia,” says Mr Gureme, and winks.
He was married before, in 1960, to Christine Nakalema and they had 10 children. Nakalema died 20 years back. Three of their sons have since passed on too. The rest are gainfully employed.
For the next seven years after Nakalema’s death, Mr Gureme concentrated on seeing his children through university, after which he met and had a crush on Jovia.
“He likes reading a lot and would stay up until 1am. But doctors advised him to start retiring to bed by 10pm,” says Jovia.
“He gets up at 5am. But out of respect, he does not turn on the radio to listen to British Broadcasting Corporation until 6am when I am fully up,” adds Jovia.
Mr Gureme’s days include walking in the compound before settling to a breakfast of Weetabix, a breakfast cereal, an apple and milk sweetened with honey.
“My vocabulary has not expanded,” says Mr Gureme.
If you asked me, I would tell you, his vocabulary is richer than mine. He taught me new words and even spelt them for me. He, however, has issues with the QWERTY keys. Gureme will have to relearn where each key is if he wants to type more articles for the newspapers.
“By the grace of God, I should start writing as soon as I regain knowledge of the QWERTY keys. I should spare time in the evenings to practice.”
He is grateful to God for having kept him alive this long. Of course, one cannot rule out the fact that at least he sees medical doctors often. But remember, life expectancy in Uganda for males is 50 years.
The Very Reverend Stephen W. Tirwomwe, the Provost of All Saints Cathedral, says Gureme is a religious and dependable person.
“He always comes for the 7.30am Sunday service and will readily volunteer to participate in church activities,” says the Very Rev Tirwomwe.
Twice weekly, he goes to hospital for routine medical checkups.
“And Jovia makes sure that I remember to take my medication. She doubles as my nurse,” says Gureme.Inversely, Mr Gureme remembered my name when I paid him a visit on Sunday. We had been acquainted for hardly three hours. I was impressed.
What would Mr Gureme love for a belated birthday present?
“An art piece, a book, a pen or even a pen,” he says.
GUREME’S RESUME
F.D.R. Gureme was born in Kagango Sub County, in the then Sheema County, on 19 September, 1926
He studied at Mbarara High School for his primary and Junior Secondary
He later joined King’s College Budo (1944-1948)
1949 – General Clerk Ankole District
1950 – joined Civil Service as a Cooperative Assistant
1953 – East African School of Cooperative, Lower Kabete
1956 – Appointed Training Grade Cooperative Officer
1960 – Trained as District Officer (Cadet)
1962 – Assistant District Commissioner Acholi
1963 – District Commissioner Kigezi
1964 – Promoted to Principal Assistant Secretary, Ministry of Natural Resources
1968 – Promoted to Under Secretary to be in-charge of Finance
1970 – Crop Manager Produce Marketing Board
1971 to 1972 – Resigned to join the Institute of Public Administration (now UMI) where he studied and obtained an Upper Second Class Honour postgraduate Diploma in Public Administration
1972 – Civil Secretary in the Police Department
1972 – Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife
1973 – Sworn in by then President Idi Amin as the Acting Minister of Tourism
1975 – Retired from government service with a full pension
1973 to 1987 – Run a successful grocery, the Prudential Stores
1988 to 1990 – Served as the Director of the Uganda International Conference Centre, managing a fleet of 38 Mercedes Benz limousines
