The University Council sitting on June 8, 2022 had resolved to rename the two newest structures at the main campus after the first black leaders of Makerere. Subsequently, Central Teaching Facility 1 was renamed after Frank Kalimuzo, the first vice chancellor of Makerere as a national university; and Central Teaching Facility 2 was renamed after Yusuf Lule, the first Ugandan principal of Makerere University College.
Frank Kalimuzo Central Teaching Facility, on University road, was officially unveiled on June 23, 2022. While Yusuf Lule Central Teaching Facility was so labeled in June, the official unveiling was done on November 4, 2022. Located on Pool road, the storied building contains an auditorium (the largest at Makerere), offices and lecture rooms.
The vice chancellor, Prof Barnabas Nawangwe said the two structures were built by Uganda government using funds from the African Development Bank. The function was presided over by University Council chairperson Lorna Magara, with Ambassador Prof Semakula Kiwanuka as keynote speaker. Norah Lule, Lule’s youngest child, spoke on behalf of the family which attended in big numbers, both physically and online.
Charles Stuart, grandson of Edgar Stuart who was the bishop of Uganda from 1932 to 1952, was present as a special guest of the family and the university. Makerere’s Mary Stuart hall was named after the bishop’s wife, and Bishop Stuart University, Mbarara is named after Edgar Stuart.
MAGARA JUSTIFIES THE RENAMING
Following the Council resolution on June 8, 2022, the university management issued a press release on June 20 about the change of the names. Magara said the (re)naming of buildings and roads in the campus was part of the conceptual framework for the Makerere@100 year-long celebrations.
“The decision to rename these facilities was premised on what we felt was our obligation as the leadership to honor the contribution of our forefathers who built the firm foundation upon which the university continues to offer excellent service to humanity. These contributions often came at a great price, which was his very life in the case of the late Frank Kalimuzo,” Magara explained.
“These are sentimental ceremonies for these families and their friends, and we carry out such functions to inspire future generations. These ceremonies are an opportunity for reflection and to do all we can to immortalize the contributions of these icons for the benefit of present and future generations so that they may be strengthened with might to continue bearing their crosses in service valiantly,” she added.
“The passing on of loved ones is usually associated with cessation. Cessation of dreams, beautiful plans, wonderful times shared, and their companionship. Renaming ceremonies, therefore, provide a form of reprieve; to recall, to reflect, to once again bring near and to uphold in perpetuity the contributions of those whose lives we celebrate.”
MAN OF DIVERSIFIED EXPERIENCES
Kiwanuka described Lule as having been a man of broad and diversified experiences as a school teacher, lecturer, university administrator, international civil servant and politician who served as the fourth president of Uganda and as chairman of the National Resistance Movement.
He said Lule was one of the few Ugandans that were appointed ministers during the colonial period. He credited Lule with having enabled the first black Africans to run shops in Kampala; the first such shops (amaduuka g’abadugavu) were constructed at the taxi park in the early 1950s. By then, he was minister of Education and Social Development.
The Democratic Party nominated him for katikkiroship of Buganda kingdom, but he lost the election just because of his Muslim background. Kiwanuka piled several accolades on Lule, including the medical school at Mulago and the Institute of Economics and Social Development making major breakthroughs and excellent discoveries under his management.
“Lule demonstrated that Africans can provide outstanding leadership and management. Lule made Makerere attractive to scholars and researchers… He was one of those who built for the future which we are witnessing today… The reputation Makerere enjoys today is not accidental; Lule was one of those who built the foundation for it,” he said.
After Uganda’s independence in 1962, Lule became chairman of the Public Service Commission. He worked as assistant secretary-general of the Commonwealth Secretariat. He was assistant secretary-general of the Association of African Universities, in Accra, Ghana, from 1973 to 1978. He fled into exile during Idi Amin’s regime.
Though he died in London in 1985, the NRM government later brought his body and reburied it at Kololo ceremonial grounds.
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