[UAH] He is Sarafino Egwea – the unsung Lango hero

he is Sarafino Egwea – the unsung Lango hero.I pray that he gets a proper place in the history of Uganda for his dedication to the country. The present govt. would get tremendous applause by its citizens if it acknowledged his contribution.
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Sarafino Egwea – the unsung Lango hero

By Robert Olet Egwea

 

There are people who made enormous contributions towards the development of Lango and Uganda as a whole but their memories have been swept under the carpet mainly because of political reasons. My father, Sarafino Egwea-Anok was one of such unsung heroes. I am now able to piece together the history of my father because of the privilege I recently had to meet one of the greatest sons of Lango here in London - Major Bernard Olila (RIP) - who unfortunately passed away when he returned to Uganda a few days after our meeting.  

 

Major Olila, the distinguished Lango elder that I met following the conclusion of Lango Diaspora Conference which he had come to attend, opened my eyes about my late father's role in developing Lango.  I knew that my father was no ordinary person, but I did not know a lot about his political and entrepreneurial role in shaping our history.  I am still gathering more information but the following is a summary of what I have put together from my own experience and from Major Olila and other sources.

 

Sarafino Egwea-Anok was one of the most progressive Lango entrepreneurs in Lango in the 1960/early 70s. A teacher by profession, he built one of the first private secondary schools in Lango District. The school started in 1965 as a Junior school called Ayer Public School and transformed into a mixed boarding secondary school - Ayer College - in 1968. The College became a national institution attracting students from all over the country and especially Teso, West Nile, Bugishu and Bunyoro.

 

My father was educated in Nyapea College in West Nile and Kyambogo TTC in Buganda. He also taught widely in Lango and Teso: in Aduku, Aloi and many places in Lango, and became headmaster of Ngora High School in Teso before building and becoming Director of his own school. He also owned a number of businesses in various parts of Lango. 

 

Sarafino Egwea was also an independent-minded and dynamic politician. As a member of DP in a predominantly UPC Lango district, he had an uphill task in his campaign to become a member of parliament. In 1969 he crossed to UPC during a colourful ceremony and became a UPC parliamentary candidate for the general elections that were due to take place in 1971. However, in January 1971, Dictator Idi Amin staged a military coup against Milton Obote's first government and immediately went on a killing spree against the Langi and Acholi elite.

                                                    Below:The remaining structures of former Ayer College

On 21 April 1971 men in dark glasses drove to Ayer College in a white Peugot 404 estate, arrested my father, forced him into the car and drove off to unknown destination. That was the last time we saw our father.  He is reported to have been detained at Lira military barracks and later transferred to Gulu Army barracks and then to some remote place where he was tortured to death.

 

The same thugs also arrested my mum a few days after taking away my father, and detained her in Lira police station. The night she was supposed to be killed, a policeman who had been a student in my father's school helped her to escape. She fled abroad and lived in exile for several years. I was just 11 years old when all this happened. Some years later, in 1977, the same thugs went looking for Egwea's son in Kabalega Secondary school where I was studying, but luckily enough I had assumed a completely new identity and thus survived by God's grace. Anyway, this is a separate story altogether.

 

Sarafino Egwea, my father, is said to have helped in the early struggle against Idi Amin by recruiting people from Lango and transporting them to Uganda-Kenya boarder at night in his Toyota Corolla on several occasions. The car was actually later taken at gun point by State Research Bureau agents a couple of weeks before the same thugs came to Ayer College and arrested my father. Some of the people my father helped to cross to Kenya are believed to have joined the gallant sons and daughters of Uganda in Tanzania who fought and drove Idi Amin out of power in 1979.

 

After liberation, several people who had been killed during Idi Amin's regime and especially those who made some contributions to the liberation war were publicly remembered in colourful ceremonies throughout Uganda. Their surviving families were compensated and properly looked after. However, Serafino Egwea's name was never mentioned and no one in the government of the day bothered about the family he had left behind despite several appeals from my mum for assistance. Part of the school that my father built has remained standing to this day, but my father's name has remained buried under the carpet, most probably because he dared belong to a different political party in his earlier political career.

 

Although he died serving his country as a member of UPC, a majority of people I have spoken to about my father categorise him more as DP. Surprisingly, many people also tend to think that since my father was DP then I should also automatically be DP and yet this is not the case. I can still recall some of my father's conversations about his associates. As a little boy I used to hear a lot about people like Ben Kiwanuka, Ben Olwit, Okai, CP Ocen, Hilario Achanga Martin Munu and others many of whom happened to be Catholics or DP members. However, I also remember my father talking very positively about Dr Milton Obote, Naphtali Kali, Martin Aroma and many others who happened to be Protestants or UPC.  My father had friends throughout Lango and raised several people who were not even related to us.

 

Sarafino Egwea was also a nationalist whose aspirations went beyond partisan politics. His role particularly in uplifting the standard of education in Lango deserves a place in the history of Uganda. Ideally, both the DP and UPC should remember his contributions to Ugandan politics and to the development of Uganda accordingly. More so, we the Langi, a community that have faced discrimination,  persecution and marginalisation for decades, regardless of political affiliations, should recognise all our fallen heroes without political bias. In the same way, in order for us to successfully rebuild our homeland, we should work together regardless of political inclinations so that our future generations can live in harmony without defining their relationships with one another in  terms of political, religious or other differences.

http://www.langoweb.net/ourpast.htm
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H.OGWAPITI
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