Portrait of Jovia: Who’s the queen?

The perimeter wall made of concrete bricks comes into full view the minute one takes the off-ramp. At the gate, a non-uniformed guard demands to know the intention of our visit.

“We have an appointment to interview Mr Stanley Bayole,” this reporter told the guard on sentry duty.

A call later, the gate was opened. It would be disingenuous to say we were surprised. A boda-boda rider had told us in no uncertain terms thus: “Tiba kikumi.” This loosely translates to mean that the Bagoles are not a family to be looked down upon.

Inside the gated quadrangular compound are five white bungalows, one of them storeyed. In between and in front of each of the houses are well manicured lawns, short well-trimmed hedges, paved walkways and solar powered security lights.

One would be forgiven for mistaking this to be one of the organised living spaces being developed by Akright or Kensington. One of the structures belongs to the matriarch of the Mwanja family, the 88-year-old Edith Nabirye Ekinawa Mwanja, the grandmother of the Inhebantu, Lady Jovia Mutesi.

The other houses are owned by four brothers, namely: Mr Stanley Bayole, the father of Lady Jovia Mutesi; and her uncles, Prof Wilson Waiswa Mwanja, Mr Richard Kudeeba, and Mr Godfrey Mwanja.

This is where Lady Jovia Mutesi was born and raised. It is where the Isebantu’s team recently came to ask for Lady Mutesi’s hand in marriage.

Pedigree of wealth
The home is locally known as Lubiri-Lugo. Those are two different Lusoga words. Lubiri means palace, while Lugo refers to a humongous herd of cattle.

“My father had 3,000 heads of cattle here. We would take them to graze in shifts. Others go to school as others take the animals to graze. That is why the people here named this place Lubiri-Lugo,” Mr Bayole says.

This also points to the fact that the family has been affluent for quite a long time. Its patriarch, Samwiri Mwanja Kabbale, owned large tracts of land in Mayuge and ran a string of businesses in Iganga. He was the agent for the British American Tobacco (BAT) in eastern Uganda until the early 1970s when he ran afoul of the Amin government.

“People were told to renovate and clean up their structures ahead of Amin’s visit to Iganga, but when he came, instead of appreciating what the old man had done, he pointed at his house and gave him 48 hours to vacate the premises,” Bayole recalls.

Why Amin acted the way he did remains a mystery to the family. The old man was forced to retreat to Mayuge where he concentrated on farming and other enterprises, including spearheading the development of Mayuge.

The family remains active in business, farming, education and politics. Mr Bayole runs a cocoa farm in Mayuge. He is on the verge of opening up a dairy farm in Mayuge Town Council and has a piggery which feeds into the Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) programme. He also runs an electronics shop in the middle of Mayuge Town.

Impact on Inhebantu
Coming from a background of such a high level of organisation and engagements in the world of business and hard work in the area of agriculture, could Lady Mutesi have picked valuable lessons? Many observers seem to think so. 

In fact, it may not be farfetched to speculate that Lady Mutesi will bring financial discipline and a high level of organisation and energy to drive agricultural production into the home of Kyabazinga Gabula IV and the institution of Obwa Isebantu Bwa Busoga. The apple, after all, does not usually fall very far from the tree.

The Inhebantu’s father is the LC1 chairman of St Mulumba Village. This is where the family home is located. Mr Bayole was also once elected the LC3 chairperson of Mayuge Town Council; even when he contested as a candidate of the opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC).

However, on January 26, 2014 during the NRM’s 28th anniversary celebrations in Mayuge, he crossed over to the NRM and has since been appointed to serve as the President’s representative in the districts of Butaleja, Kabelebyong and his current station Bulambuli.

Mr Richard Kudeeba, the Inebantu’s uncle, once served as FDC district chairman of Mayuge and was one of the party’s electoral commissioners under Mr Dan Mugarura. Her aunt, Sarah Namumbya, represented Mayuge District in the House on at least two occasions albeit on the ticket of the ruling NRM.

It is not clear how these political activities have shaped her personal views on matters politics. We may never know now that she has become part of an integral part of an institution that by its very nature is required to steer clear of politics.

Ancestry
The Busoga Kingdom and the family of Lady Mutesi have been very guarded about divulging details about her background and personality.

On September 7, when she was unveiled to the people of Busoga, the Katukiro (Prime Minister), Dr Joseph Muvawala declined to give any information about the Inebantu. 

He insisted that details about her would “remain classified until an appropriate time.” The appropriate time might be today. Her father was terse with details when we recently checked into the Lubiri-Lugo.

The information vacuum has opened the door ajar for speculation, especially about the Inhebantu’s tribe and lineage. The biggest talking point was the name Mutesi, which is usually given to female offsprings of the Baise Menya clan. It is also common among some tribes from western Uganda.

“She is my first born. She is my biological daughter. We are not Baise Menya. We only named her so after our grandmother who was from the Baise Menya. Our grandfather married from among them. So it was just to appreciate the Baise Menya,” Mr Bayole explained during the interview with Saturday Monitor, adding that naming a child after a grandparent or great grandparent is quite common in Busoga.

Queen’s clan, education status

Mr Bayole says that the Mwanjas belong to the Bagosa clan whose totem is the white bird known in Busoga and Buganda as Enyange.

It is a clan that prides itself on the ability to always come up with sauce for whatever food available to mankind even in the midst of adversities and crises like famine. One can be inclined to conclude that the Kyabazinga’s subjects now have the herculean task of ensuring that the palace is well stocked with animals and birds for the queen’s consumption.

Whereas Mr Bayole declined to give dates and some of the key details about when the Inhebantu went to school, he disclosed that Lady Mutesi started out her education at a nursery school in Mayuge before she was shifted to “other local schools in Kampala.” 

He added: “She went through good schools. She studied here. Her nursery throughout. She went through Shimoni, Kampala Parents, Namagunga, Makerere, you will see all that.”

Though Mr Bayole is economical with information, a person closely associated with the family told Saturday Monitor that Lady Jovia Mutesi has a Master’s Degree in Business Administration and Finance and is also a Certified Public Accountant.

Sporty Inhebantu
It was not possible to obtain details from Mt St Mary’s Namagunga where she had her secondary school education, but sources close to the Mwanja family intimated that she was an active sportsperson. She particularly had a keen interest in hockey.

“She once was lined up for a place in the national women’s hockey team,” the source revealed.

According to Mr Bayole, Lady Mutesi is a humble, God-fearing person. 

“Our family is Christian. We subscribe to the Church of Uganda. We are wedded in church and she grew up seeing us loving the church and God, but she chose to fellowship with Bethel Healing Centre here in Mayuge where she became Born Again about 10 years ago,” Mr Bayole disclosed. 

Even during her teenage days, he says, she was never the type to go out to “happening places” or “hang out” with others. She preferred to keep to herself and outside the social spotlight, a factor which he thinks contributed to the making of her relationship with Kyabazinga Gabula IV.

Passionate, affectionate
The Inebantu is also known to be a very highly passionate and affectionate person. She is described as one who will put others first, often reaching out to find out how they are and offering a helping hand where possible. 

“She is a person who respects people of all ages and she is concerned about everyone. It gets more intense when it comes to members of her family. She will call and ask, ‘daddy are you alright?’ even before she is told that you are not well. Oftentimes it turns out to be true that you are not well. She then will tell you that, ‘I know you are not well. I thought of you’,” Mr Bayole said, adding that his daughter is also known to have very close ties to her grandmother, Mrs Edith Nabirye Ekinawa Mwanja. 

The Inhebantu and her grandmother refer to each other as sisters. We understand that they often hold prayer sessions together and always find time to chat about anything and everything under the sun.

Pacifist
Mr Bayole says that his daughter grew up a humble girl, which could have heavily contributed to her emergence as a pacifist and unifier.

“She would not like to see two people exchanging. She will come in and say, ‘That is not good. Why? Why should you quarrel?’” he says.

He adds that she is a hospitable and motherly person who cares about visitors and family members alike.

“If it is time for eating she would prefer to eat last. She will first make sure everybody is eating. If a visitor shows up in the middle of a meal, she will get off the dining table and ensure that the visitor gets some food,” he says.

No regrets
Over a period of time, many a community have come to view the provision of basic needs for children as an investment in “human capital”.

Many a people in Busoga are either selling off their lands or other assets to invest in their children’s education with a view of setting them up for improved career opportunities and a lifetime of earning potential.

A parent with such a mind-set would in the circumstances prefer to see their daughter put building a career ahead of marriage. The idea is to have a return on the investment, but Mr Bayole is quick to say that he has no qualms about that.

“I did not take my daughter to school to give me a good life. I took her to make her good life. You have found me with a fully furnished home. Am I going to tell her to build me a house? I have a car. What would I really want from my queen? When I was educating my daughter and taking her to school I wanted her to get a good life of her own,” he says.

The investment into her education, he says, will now benefit Busoga.

“When dispensing her work as Inhebantu of Busoga, she will use what she acquired in school and what she went through when we were training her. My queen knows how to cook. My queen knows how to treat people. She is God- fearing, she is peace-loving. That is what Busoga needs right now,” he says.

That points to some of Busoga’s needs today and the challenges that await Lady Mutesi.