Cecilia Ogwal lived for breaking barriers

When I walked into her office of Parliamentary Commissioner, Ogwal was reading a newspaper. She welcomed me with a smile. A parliamentary staff ushered me in. I had no appointment. In fact, I had gone to seek one. It was her first day in office, from the office of Opposition Chief Whip, where she had been for two and half years. She was about to leave. Instead of giving me an appointment, she agreed to an interview, if I could cut it to 15 minutes. I agreed, only to leave her office over two hours later, after a candid conversation, which she termed, ‘given with a calm heart and openness’. 

Gifted with sharp intellect and a knack for challenging Orthodox narratives, Ogwal is a woman to be admired, envied even. She tells me she’s had a life of fighting for one thing or another, since her childhood. ‘It’s like throughout my life, I had that quiet spirit in me that was fighting’.

Her story is one of challenging traditions, breaking walls wherever they existed, and having a single focus of mind. No one was beyond questioning or assurance in no uncertain terms. She questioned everything that put a roadblock on her way, and got away with incredibly much. That also meant she pioneered many things. She said: “I was the first girl to participate in the mathematics contest for the Verona Fathers in the post primary school. If you passed and are awarded that scholarship, then you studied without school fees.”  It was very important to her, not because she needed money since her father could afford, but to challenge the idea that girls were scared of mathematics, and not allowed to participate. She got the scholarship. 

In a move to provide career guidance at her school, a team talked to her class about their choices, which revolved around arts courses because girls were not considered for serious professional courses. She got angry and asked the team: “Is it mandatory that all girls must prepare to go and be teachers”? 

Shocked, the team later invited her to speak about her choices, what was open for women and what was not. Her only desire was to do a course that would make her a manager, someone who will run a big enterprise supervising both men and women. She did not want to do a course that would lamp her up with women, but make her a boss. 

In what seemed like the universe had conspired just for her, Ogwal studied for free up to university when an essay contest had seen her challenge the dominance of Gayaza High School in winning the Brook bond scholarship. From thereon, she seemed to break one tradition after another. She was invited to Gayaza High School. When her father protested the invitation, because he feared she would get spoilt and distrusted the Anglicans, she insisted it was what she wanted, and assured her father she would not be derailed. 

To be accepted in Gayaza High School at the time was considered a sure way to secure one’s path to success, and Ogwal understood that. She joined Gayaza High School as a Catholic, and demanded to be allowed to go out of school to attend Mass, which was granted. Gayaza was a great experience, she admits. It is while attending their social event that Mr Lameck Ogwal, now her husband, saw her for the first time at the Makerere Hall.  

At Nairobi University, where she enrolled in 1966, she further challenged tradition by breaking the barrier that restricted women from pursuing a Bachelor of Commerce. “We were taken on experiment. And we were only four ladies from Uganda,” she said laughing. They were told they would be on trial for one term. For the first time in the history of the university there were scores for upper second. ‘This village girl who didn’t even have an examination centre, ’ she laughed. Ogwal was rated the best overall student for B. Com and received the Indira Ghandi award. 

The many stories that formed her cannot be told within these pages and this article cannot do justice to her life of excellence and achievements, many of which she shared with me. I will treat her life in politics and women’s empowerment next week, as she recounted it. 

Emilly Maractho (PhD) is the director of Africa Policy Centre and senior lecturer at Uganda Christian University. 

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