Mothers’ Day is being celebrated the world over today. In Uganda, there are some women who have come to be known as ‘mother figures’ and they are called by the title ‘mama’.
Mama, mama, mama, mama Mbire. No wonder you are so beautiful mama…" goes the popular local song Mama Mbire. It is a song that rings a bell in most Ugandans' ears and one that has become a praise-theme song for mothers all over the country.
Sung by Bobi Wine and Juliana Kanyomozi, the song was commissioned by Charles Mbire, Chairman of MTN Uganda, in praise of his mother at her 70th birthday. And in a way, it supplied a solution for the rest of us who cannot afford to commission artistes to sing our mothers' eulogies.
If each one of us were asked to talk about our mothers, we (most of us) could take all day talking about how special they are. As we celebrate International Mothers' Day however, we take a look at women in this country who have gained acclaim as mamas. Somehow, these women are called 'mama' by the whole public including those who have never met or even talked to them.
Mama Mbire Before the song came on the scene, those who had ever met this woman knew her as just any other Kampala businesswoman. But the song created an air about her that many young business and career women have come to look up to.
Besides being a renowned interior designer, who also owns a string of other business, she is one of the shrewdest businesswomen Uganda has known. At 73, Mama Mbire is also the Chairperson of Uganda Women Entrepreneurs Association. What more would an aspiring businesswoman look for in a mother figure? She lost her husband more than 20 years ago, but she managed to raise her children.
Mama Janet This one has been Uganda's First Lady for the last 21 years. We could say it would be fitting to describe her as the country's mama. But the reason she is referred to as Mama Janet is far from that. Her claim to the 'mama' endearment is the fact that she founded the Uganda Women's Effort to Save Orphans (UWESO). So it is no mistake at all to refer to her as the mother of the motherless.
In addition, Janet's youth conferences (what happened to them?), where she stressed the ABC strategy against Aids brought her more popularity as a caring mother for the country's youth. And then again, she talks with a motherly, counselling tone.
Mama Miria After more than 20 years in exile, she came home to bury her husband, former president Apollo Milton Obote (RIP), and bring her family home. But what awaited her was more than that. The Uganda People's Congress' father had passed on, and before she knew it Miria was being elected its mother. Despite the fact that all through her husband's two regimes Miria was hardly seen or heard from concerning politics, she is now a party president and already mentoring her son (Jimmy Akena, MP Lira Municipality) to carry on the Obote legacy.
And there is something about 71-year old Mama Miria that makes her break ground in several areas. She took care of the only man who has ruled Uganda two times, became the first woman party president and the first woman presidential contestant ever in Uganda. Mama Miria might not have planned a late-life political career, but she found herself already in too deep.
And her appealing, motherly voice has scored the UPC a few points. It is actually said that most people who voted her in the 2006 presidential elections did so, not because of the political leader but the mother figure they saw in her.
Mama Oyo It must be such a task to raise a king and a princess single-handedly. And the Queen Mother Best Kemigisa herself confirmed it in a Sunday Monitor article of April 1st. "I am not ordinarily a queen. I have also been a father to my children. It has been a great challenge raising them."
Death robbed the queen mother of her husband, but she has stood strong to raise a king and make sure he fulfills his duties to his people. For that matter, she has to tug along the young king to whichever ceremony and sit with him through press interviews see to it that he, being young, is streamlined in the values of the Batoro and that he keeps his image as a king.
She has also not just portrayed a picture of the mother of Toro. Rather, more often than not, she has passed on advice to young women, especially single mothers, on how cope. In the same article she says, "They should look after their children… they should pick themselves up and move on."
Mama Halima Often referred to as mama w'abadongo (mother of musicians), Halima is one woman who has gone the distance to take Ugandan music to the outside world, while encouraging young up and coming artistes to do the same. She also co owns a studio that has produced most of the music that has hit our airwaves for a long time now. So, as a mother, she provided a home for most of the artistes' voices.
Besides that, she has mentored her children to do music (Hemdee and Rachel K). She has been on the stage with Rachel, but she is also seen in almost every place Rachel goes to perform. Besides most of Halima's music has been remaking nursery Rymes. Remember Ekimbeewo? Someone must have told her that to be seen as a mother, she must sing for little ones.
Mama Gloria The subscribers to the theory of shaping something while it still grows must be applauding this woman. Thus, those who might not recognise her off-head must have seen, (or heard of) a female gospel artiste who composes and sings songs with her five-year old daughter. Nakibuuka is really a believer is the 'earlier the better', because at her age her daughter (baby Gloria), who has sung songs like Yesu Ayagala Abaana Abato and the most popular Mummy Mummy, is almost putting together an album.
So, if in her later life Gloria tells people that she sung even in her mother's womb, at least it wont be taken for cliché. But Betty has come out to show mothers that it does not take school for them to help their children discover themselves.
Mama Tendo Her ladder to fame was her Mum's Heart column in the New Vision, where she talked about every growth stage Tendo (her little son) went through and the challenges they posed for her. And with that background, she founded the Mama Tendo Foundation. Her parenting seminars have drawn a lot of young mothers to learn from each other the dynamics of taking care of their lovely little ones. The foundation has recently expanded to give free cervical cancer preventive treatment (pap smears) to young women.
Mama Angelina She might not be one woman who is always in the limelight, but Mama Angelina Waphakhabulo is among Uganda's few women who have taken it upon themselves to do something for a good cause. She lost her husband (James Wapakhabulo, who was Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time of his death) and from her distress, she derived energy not depression. Angelina, founded Development Initiatives International, to address issues relating to HIV/Aids awareness, prevention, care and support in market places in Uganda. She is also a co- chairperson of United Way Uganda, an NGO spearheading making malaria history in Uganda by 2010. Mama Angelina is making sure to save as many lives as she can from Uganda's two leading tragedies.
Mama Blick Molly Johnson does not carry the Blick name, and thus it might not be easy for people to recognise by her real name. But she is the woman who has mothered Uganda's most prominent sports family. Molly is a mother to Arthur Blick Mugerwa snr, East Africa's 1971 motorbike champion, whose son, Arthur Blick Jnr, is a shinning star in Uganda's motor sport today. Her other son, Paddy Blick gave birth to now veteran rugger and hockey player also Vice Chairman Uganda Rugby Union (URU), William Blick. Molly's family sports thread is still being carried on by her other nephews and nieces like Norman Blick (basketball player) and Leila Mayanja, a hockey player.
But it didn't stop at just sports. Dr. Maggie Kigozi, a medical doctor and the Chairperson of Uganda Investment Authority, who is one of the most powerful women in Uganda, is also Molly's daughter. What a mother!
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