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{UAH} Lt.(RTD) Dr Shaka Ssali PHD

He was a very famous athlete and most people who grew up in Kabale in the 1960s knew him as one of those athletically gifted boys on the soccer and track fields. So it would not be hard to verify the truth about Shaka. All one needs to do is to call anybody from Kabale aged 45 to 80 yrs and they will verify the truth

 Here are the facts: His ethnicity: Shaka Ssali is a Mukiga from Kigezi.The reason why he did not know the Kiganda clan or Muziro to which his name was assigned is very simple. He did not need to.

Shaka Ssali is the son of the late John MuSHAKAmba, of Mwanjari, Kabale, Kigezi. His father was a well-known and respected businessman who, among other things, had a bar ], a stone/sand quarry and a big lorry. Shaka Ssali was born in Kabale, at a time when the Archdeacon of the Native Anglican Church (later Church of Uganda) was a wonderful Muganda gentleman called Rev. Ezekiel Balaba. The very much loved Balaba had a son called Ezera Ssali, and it was after him that Mushakamba, a Mukiga, named his son. It was fashionable to give children names that were considered exotic, or belonged to important people. Just like people named their children Charles after the British monarch's son, Mushakamba, named his son after his hero's son, Ssali. So the Kabale Kid has been called Ssali since he was less than one week of age, after Balaba's son.

 It is impossible to put in words what Ezekiel Balaba meant to the Bakiga, especially Abakristaayo. From his childhood until the late 1980s, he was called Mike Ssali. The records at Kinkungiri Primary School, Kigezi High School (Primary), Kigezi High School (Junior), Kigezi College, Butobere and Kololo Secondary School will show that there was a boy called Michael Ssali.
 The Kabale Kid is a MUKIGA, who was once called Mike Ssali, but who, like very many of us, chose to discard his "European name"
Shaka DOES NOT have an O-level certificate, something that amuses him to no end. He has talked about it many times.
The only Ugandan certificates that "Mike Ssali" has are the Primary Leaving Certificate and the Junior Leaving Certificate. You see, he was expelled from Kigezi College when he was in Senior Two. He then went to Kololo Secondary School where he DROPPED out in Senior THREE to join the Uganda Army in 1968, during Obote I. He trained as an Officer Cadet, became a Lieutenant and served in the army until 1974. He was attending a course in Greece when his biological uncle, Mr. James Karambuzi, was publicly executed by firing squad. Karambuzi was one of then guerrilla leader Yoweri Museveni's collaborators in Kabale and a true hero of the struggle. James Karambuzi's execution greatly affected many of us, and it depressed Lt. Ssali. He would soon join those who plotted a coup to overthrow Idi Amin in 1974. The coup failed. Like many officers involved in that coup, he was not caught, though he was soon discharged from the army together with many other officers. Shaka spent the next two years trying his hand at business, mostly in the Kigezi area. He did not do well in this effort. So in 1976, Mike Ssali, a school drop-out, ex-soldier, unsuccessful businessman, left for Germany to find work, new opportunities and personal safety. He eventually arrived in New York City in July 1976, without any academic certificates of any kind, without much money, but with a determination to succeed. We must save that story for another time, except to tell you that it really is a classic poor immigrant's struggle in a foreign land. I mean how did this high school drop-out end up with an honours bachelor's degree and two masters degrees (SUNY, Albany) and a PhD (UCLA) - all in a mere 10 years


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*A positive mind is a courageous mind, without doubts and fears, using the experience and wisdom to give the best of him/herself.
 
 We must dare invent the future!
The only way of limiting the usurpation of power by
 individuals, the military or otherwise, is to put the people in charge  - Capt. Thomas. Sankara {RIP} '1949-1987

 
*"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent
revolution inevitable"**…  *J.F Kennedy


 


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