{UAH} Pojim/WBK: As I was saying:: Odaka, the architect of Uganda’s foreign policy

Odaka, the architect of Uganda's foreign policy

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By Jenkins Kiwanuka

Posted  Friday, August 7  2015 at  12:07

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In chapter 15 of 'Son of a Rat Catcher', my memoirs which were published in August 2014, I wrote about the first crop of foreign service officers who, at Uganda's attainment of independence in 1962, manned what was then known as the Department of External Affairs in the Prime Minister's Office.
I listed some of those cadres and pointed out that they were led by Sam Odaka, 'an affable talent-spotter'. He was Uganda's first Minister of State for Foreign Affairs before becoming full Minister two years later. Sadly, many of those officers have since passed on, the latest being Sam Ngudde Odaka himself. He succumbed to kidney failure on August 4, at the age of 83, at Kampala International Hospital.
Like many of his colleagues at the time, Odaka was in his 30s when he assumed his first ministerial post in Obote's first regime. He remained foreign minister until the regime was overthrown by Idi Amin in 1971, and considering the events that included the arrest and imprisonment of several of his colleagues, retaining his post for that long was in itself a remarkable achievement.
Since the formulation of foreign policy is a responsibility of the Cabinet, Odaka and Prime Minister Obote, who first acted as Foreign Minister, were the chief architects of Uganda's foreign policy. Odaka, as head of the Foreign Ministry, had the added responsibility of overseeing the implementation and conduct of that policy, and he initially did a good job under what later became a hostile environment.
One of his colleagues who asked whether I could write a tribute to him described Odaka as 'a jolly good fellow who used to enjoy his pint of beer at the City Bar'. That is true, but there were other colleagues who mistook Odaka for a play-boy simply because they misunderstood the objective of his working methods. A darling to those who worked with him and got to know him well, Sam, as he was popularly known to his senior as well as some of his junior colleagues, believed that 'entertainment', ' social life' or even 'high life' as Sir Douglas Busk put it, were inevitable in training and creating confidence in young diplomatic officers.
He would, therefore, socialise with us freely and, whenever the opportunity arose, introduce us to people we were destined to work with in other parts of the world in the future. He once introduced me to one of the great grandsons of Germany's Otto Bismarck, who was visiting Uganda to look into ways of assisting Uganda Breweries in improving their products.
When some officers expressed interest in learning French, Odaka brought in a teacher from the Embassy of France and participated in the lessons. We would thereafter visit the City Bar and other drinking joints in Kampala in the evening and practice the few sentences we had learnt.
"Je suis la chauffeur du taxi", Odaka would jokingly introduce himself to a stranger in the bar, meaning (in English), that he was a taxi-driver.
"No,no,", we would protest. "That one is a Minister of Foreign Affairs disguising himself as a taxi-driver". It was real fun I assure you, thanks to Sam Odaka.
He kept the officers busy and productive, and although he often joked about creating what he described as 'the Republic of Lumino' in Samialand, he harboured no love for nepotism and other retrogressive tendencies. He recruited officers on merit and ensured that all appointments were approved by the Public Service Commission.
Outside the Ministry, Odaka, Erisa Kironde, Fun Ntende, Rogers Mukasa and a few others whose names I have forgotten, introduced 'The Thing'. This was an annual treat for mainly the middle class in Kampala and Jinja, but young men and women from other areas who could make it were also welcome. It involved drinking, eating roast chicken, beef and other delicious dishes prepared.
Odaka was not always laughing though. He lost his first wife, a muganda and sister of legendary actor, Dan Zirimenya 'Kyeswa', in the early 60s and also one of his sons. He is survived by his second wife, Margaret, daughter of Bulasio Kavuma, one time Minister of Finance in the Kabaka's government, and children.
He could also get angry. Like he did when Obote, then Prime Minister, chided him for arriving late for a briefing. The big man was waiting with me in the Uganda Office at London's Marlborough House for members of the Uganda delegation to the Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference when Odaka arrived, the first to do so, and took a seat.
Obote abandoned the papers he was reading, turned around in his chair and asked Odaka why he had come late. I wished they had asked me to get out of the office, but since none of them did, I stayed around. Odaka did not reply. Instead, he opened a small book he was carrying with him and started reading. The title was 'The World of Susie Wong', and the story was about prostitution in Saigon, capital of South Vietnam, during the Vietnam War against the United States. Obote went cold and did not say any more. Partly because space is restricted and partly because there is a little more to read about Sam Odaka in my memoirs, I will stop here.
May God rest his soul in eternal peace.
Mr Kiwanuka is a journalist, retired Foreign Service Officer and author

Moses Ocen Nekyon

Democracy is two Wolves and a Lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed Lamb disputing the results.

Benjamin Franklin

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