Shy guy who worked hard, played hard

A year ago last October, people of different nationalities from all walks of life converged at a quiet homestead at Kiwenda village in Wakiso District to bid farewell to a man whose picture you have probably never seen in the media. They included cabinet ministers, diplomats, farmers, clergymen, a four-star general and Kampala business moguls. These diverse mourners had one thing in common, they had all come for Palle Moeller’s burial strictly in their personal capacities. For they had personally related with this ‘muzungu’ whom the wider public hardly knew.
Many who related closely with Palle like to tell the story of his arrival in Uganda in 1959, barely out of his teens and driving a Volkswagen from Denmark with a friend on the way to South Africa to look for opportunities. The car broke down. The broke lads could not afford to fix the broken car and so looked for jobs around to raise some money. Palle became a road construction worker around Masaka. Exactly 60 years since he first arrived in Uganda, Palle breathed his last and was laid to rest at Kiwenda, the incomplete trip to South Africa long abandoned.
But his wife and partner of 37 years, Dorothy Namagga Moeller, discloses that this is one of the stories Palle was no longer keen on telling, for it evoked memories of his friends who were later brutally killed in the ensuing years of insecurity. Already a Ugandan to all intents and purposes, the Danish native arranged for their decent interment in Uganda, where he too now rests forever. Moeller thus shared the pains, joys and opportunities of being Ugandan.
Shy and hardworking
“Shy and full of humour,” is the paradoxical description that comes from his wife, of the man she knows better than anybody, and quickly adds: “but very hardworking and humble.”
Both descriptions have a degree of contradiction but not surprisingly. The humility and hard work started in the dock yards of a Danish port where the young Moeller quickly decided that he had learnt enough about international trade and headed to Africa to make his fortune. In Uganda where he ended up by accident and broke, he bought the broke company that first employed him as a road worker within four years, and proceeded to expand his business investments, the best known probably being Victoria Motors.
Philanthropic
Besides supplying brand new vehicles that give the taxpayer more value for money than used ones that dominate Uganda’s roads, Palle engaged heavily in philanthropic work to give young talented Ugandans a chance to achieve their dreams through scholarships. He has been sponsoring diverse community economic interventions which range from improved fishing practices to perfecting the manufacturing of sanitisers. The latter he is sponsoring posthumously through his foundation – for the covid-19 pandemic that popularised sanitisers came a couple of months after Palle had gone. 
Loved to bits
But just like typical Ugandans do, Palle enjoyed the proceeds of his work to the full. Namagga looks back to their 37 years together. A long party with some interruptions such as illness and a few of the usual inconveniences. She cannot even enumerate the great nice places they partied in, as it seems Palle took her to every place lovers would love to see together; Miami, Cayman Islands, the Grand Canyon, The Pyramids, to Paris by the Orient Express. And yes, so many times they did the London – New York by Concorde, flying faster than sound across the Atlantic. The Dane spoilt his Muganda wife with whatever a girl would want.
The ‘Muganda’
And not just material things; he loved her people and community. And here, the funny bit about language; though Palle did not speak Luganda, in a way he knew the language better than most Baganda. They could hold perfect conversations while some members of the household spoke in Luganda and him in English. On occasions, Namagga gave instructions to workers in Luganda and he would later correct her about some inaccuracy in detail that she had (mis) communicated in her mother tongue.
Foodie
Palle loved his food, Namagga says, and no wonder they were always patronising different restaurants. But it is hard to pin a specific dish as his favourite, though Indian in general seemed to have been ahead of the others on his list. So for a man who lived in Uganda for six decades, what was his best local dish? It seems every food Ugandan was okay with Palle as long as it had some beans accompanying it. Possibly one of the reasons he loved his mother-in-law so much, for Namagga’s mother had numerous ways of preparing beans. And Palle visited her in Kiwenda every week, even though the road was very bad most of the years. In fact, when he was seriously ill, he spent two weeks recuperating in the guest house of the Kiwenda home of his in-laws.
Witty 
A food connoisseur, Palle’s incurable sense of humour mostly came out over meals. Namagga learnt quite early in their relationship that her shy lover and husband could not resist a joke, verbal or practical. And being a serious character herself, his jokes at first irked her until she learnt that that was him and she grew to enjoy them. 
Godfather
To Palle Moeller, there was no contradiction in being humble and enjoying your money at the same time. After all, he helped (and continues to help) many people enjoy his money – in his generosity which he institutionalised through the Palle Moeller Foundation. Hundreds of students continue to benefit from the Foundation’s sponsorship, which also does a lot of developmental work in different fields, with the overall objective of helping fight poverty especially in rural areas.
For Palle Moeller believed and often said, that it is easier to earn a decent income engaging in agriculture in Uganda’s countryside than selling the land and migrating to the urban centres.