Farewell Yosiya Mafigiri, the genius of my youth

He was generous with his humour but serious with his professional career.

Dear Tingasiga:
Whereas I give most of the credit for my education and modest achievements in life to my mother and father, there are many others whose handiwork I am.

Among them was Yosiya Mafigiri, one of the young intellectuals from Mparo, Rukiga, Kigezi, who had a profound impact on me. He was bright and smart. He was confident but accessible.

He was generous with his humour but serious with his professional career.
Among the first boys from Rukiga to pursue a career in healthcare, he made it possible for us to dream.
Yosiya, who died on Thursday at 74, was still in the late afternoon of his life when he became weary, closed his eyelids still, and left us shivering in the cold and darkness of loss.

I mourn with the entire Mafigiri family and all whom Yosiya touched in his distinguished life.

Great men and women have roads named after them, but Yosiya built his own road to success in innumerable hearts and minds of those he inspired, taught and ministered to as one of the most able healers and teachers of medicine.

Those of us who had the great fortune to walk in his footsteps, from humble Mparo to Uganda’s highest centres of learning, had an example of a man who understood that there were no shortcuts to sustainable accomplishments.

From his perch at Kasangati Health Centre near Kampala, Yosiya taught us public health and imparted clinical skills and the best in the field.
How does one describe the experience of being taught in medical school by one whom one had grown up trying to emulate? It was the passing of the proverbial baton.

The pursuit of intellectual excellence is Yosiya’s legacy and monument, the imperishable wealth that he has bequeathed to us. It was this pursuit of excellence that transported him from colonial Mparo to peaks of honour and accomplishment.

Their accomplishments are testament to the sacrifice of their visionary parents, who not only imparted genes of genius to them but also set them on a course that would transform their family from ordinary peasantry to extraordinary citizens.

Whereas most of the wealthy and powerful names of my youth are already forgotten, the Mafigiri name continues to be synonymous with genius and high achievement.

Yosiya had four brothers and four sisters. His sisters have excelled beyond what was possible for most educated women of their generation.
At the time of her semi-retirement, Ms Erina Baingana was the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Public Service. Professor Joy Kwesiga is the Vice Chancellor of Kabale University.
Dr Grace Kalimugogo has had a very long and distinguished medical career at the OAU/AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, rising to the top echelons in the Directorate of Social Affairs.

Ms Jairesi Nsheka has had a long and successful career in management, now serving her country at the Uganda National Roads Authority. Their only surviving brother, Kezekia, is one of the pioneer Ugandan African engineers.

Yosiya was pre-deceased by his brothers Guy (Ephraim), David and Christopher, my childhood friends who were among the brightest boys I grew up with.

Guy and David were too bright to thrive in the constricting traditions of Ugandan education. So they never went beyond O-Level, not because they lacked the capacity, but because they were in a totally different league. Had they been born in America, they may well have been the Bill Gates and Steve Jobs of their generation.

Where many of us struggled to get good grades, Christopher, the youngest Mafigiri, had a magnetic mind. From little known Kihanga Boys Primary School to King’s College Budo, then Makerere Medical School, Topher sailed through school like a Tilapia navigating the waters of Lake Nnalubaale (Victoria), always on top of his class.

Tragically, gentle Dr. Christopher Ainebyona Mafigiri, a genius by any measure, was murdered by armed robbers more than 20 years ago. Uganda is much poorer because of his very premature death.

This, then, is the gene pool from which Yosiya was given to us. Happily, he and his siblings have passed on this priceless DNA to very many children and grandchildren. The Mafigiri name is firmly entrenched in humanity’s treasure.

Yosiya has gone, leaving us with a sense of an empty crater in our midst. Mparo mourns. Kigezi shivers.
However, we stand at the edge of that crater with deep gratitude that it was given to our generation to be associated with him, and to learn from him. We happily bask in the radiance of his footsteps, though we may not be worthy of him.

It is human to feel a deep sense of desolation in this cold and dark valley of bereavement.

But we, who have faith in the risen and living Jesus Christ, praise Him for the gift of this temporary life and the promise of eternal life, free from the presence of sin, pain and suffering. Farewell my dear brother, Yosiya. Job well done, my teacher!

Dr Mulera is a Daily Monitor columnist based in Canada.

muniinikmulera@aol.com