Man who taught Obote, Nyerere to be laid to rest

One of Acholi’s illustrious sons and celebrated old boy of Busoga College Mwiri and Makerere University embarks on his last earthly journey today.
Chief Anania Kerwegi Akera passed on at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital Friday afternoon, August 16. He was 105 years old.

Church of Uganda kicks of the tributes with mid-morning service at Christ Church in the heart of Gulu Municipality before Omoro District Council convenes a special session at Bobi Community Polytechnic to pay their last respects.
Akera’s remains will be laid to rest at his ancestral burial grounds at Along Village, Bobi Sub-county in Omoro District tomorrow.

Born the eighth child of Rwot Andrea Olal and Yokomoi Ejang of Bobi Paidwe, Puranga Chiefdom, on September 22, 1914, Akera was to gross unsurpassed wealth as a farmer and celebrated teacher and politician.
His father was one of the first Acholi to be baptized in 1906, and one of few Ugandans to be knighted Member of the British Empire (MBE).

Joining Busoga College Mwiri from Gulu High School, Akera quickly registered his leadership skills, becoming the defender of bullied students.
He soon rose to serve twice as head prefect in 1939 and again in 1940, becoming first non-Musoga to hold the office, an unmatched feat at Mwiri then. To date, his name remains etched among head prefects in the school main hall.

On leaving Mwiri, Akera joined Makerere College (1941-1943), to study Education, teaming up with young Julius Nyerere of Tanganyika, whom he tutored English.
Nyerere returned the favour by coaching Akera both German and Kiswahili. Nyerere had joined Makerere after Tanganyika was transferred from German East Africa to British East Africa, following defeat of Imperial Germany in World War I.

Akera was instrumental in convincing Nyerere to take up Education, for which Nyerere became famed as mwalimu (teacher), and philosopher. But Akera was to stamp his own mark on Uganda’s education system too.
In 1944, Akera was tapped by the British to found a high school in Kitgum, East Acholi, and trained a new crop of students to join secondary school.

Akera later moved to Gulu High School, where he also taught later-to-be preeminent Ugandans, among them twice Ugandan President Dr AM Obote, martyred Anglican Archbishop Janani Luwum, former Uganda Development Corporation chairman Semei Nyanzi, and former minister Wilson Lutara.

For his love to boost primary education, Akera moved onto Buwalasi Teachers Training College in Mbale, to train more teachers.
He drafted a curriculum to promote primary education and was adopted and used in Uganda and other schools in East Africa.
Akera also helped facilitate the first consultation at Mukono for the first syllabus for Teachers Training Colleges TTCs).

Despite his love for education, Akera felt sorely the poor pay for teacher and fat pay for medical doctors, vets and agric officers.
While the doctors, vets and agric officers were paid Shs270 monthly, a teacher received only Shs90, three times less.
In 1945, Akera quit teaching and found another love and fortune – farming. By 1949, Akera had readily bought tractors and had more than 700 hands on his Lakwatomer farm.

The workers were drawn from DR Congo and South Sudan.
So profitable was his farming ventures that Akera made more money than any single private individual, stashing his pockets with huge sums of money; more than Shs1,000 monthly! Akera now earned three time more cash than vets, doctors, and agriculture officers, and 10 times more than his salary as a teacher!
But Akera’s fat bank account, second only to the Roman Catholic Church, soon attracted suspicion.
The Protectorate Government police instituted an investigation into his source of monies! But his enterprise spoke for himself.

But the final blow to his farming career came in late 1980s when the National Resistance Army, the forerunner of Uganda People’s Defence Forces, looted dry his farm, stripping it of cows, agricultural stock, and machinery.

In Saturday Monitor tomorrow, read about Rwot Anania Kerwegi Akera, who lived for 105 years and is regarded as one the greatest teachers, farmer, and richest Ugandan before Independence.

Misses out

Akera will be laid to rest today with his Shs1.5b war debt claims compensation not fulfilled by government. President Museveni promised to have the claims paid off when he attended Akera’s 100th birthday celebration at Bobi Sub-county in Omoro District, a few kilometres off the Gulu-Kamdini Corner highway.

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