No higher honour for Prof Dominic Dipio

After recently launching their edited book, Discourse and Identity: Writing and Contemporary Eastern African Peripheral Subjectives with Dr Kahyna and Dr Nabutanyi, Sr Dominic Dipio is counting her blessings. She has been appointed a member of the Vatican-based Pontifical Council for Culture.
Sr Dipio is a professor of Literature and head of the Department of Literature at Makerere University. Also, she is a member of the Missionary Sisters of Mary Mother of the Church, based in Lira.
Prof Dipio truly deserves the appointment by Pope Francis. There is no higher honour for this humble and brilliant sister.

I got to know Prof Dipio while teaching at Makerere University. We had never engaged in anything more than a light conversation until I selected her as one of my respondents for my research on women in public life, whose experience in higher education and expertise in film I believed would inform the narratives from the media.
She agreed to give me an interview in her office at Makerere University. We were supposed to have a one-hour interview, but got talking and laughing as hours went by.
Her interview was one of the best I had with women. She spoke calmly but candidly about being a woman in higher education, film and a reverent sister, giving me her life history in a manner that I could have listened the whole day. I was truly inspired by her story, which was fascinating.

Like Michelle Obama says, ‘we were put into this world to be good citizens and good individuals’. Prof Dipio is exactly that. Many women, I am sure, would be inspired by her.
Prof Dipio wanted to study Law at Makerere University but she felt conflicted about being a nun and lawyer. How she would practice law as a nun was her main concern. She had great grades that could give her entry into law school. When she consulted someone about her wish to study Law, she was asked: ‘Are you that ambitious?’
The seemingly innocent question had confirmed her fears about being a lawyer and nun. In her context as a very young woman and nun, the word ‘ambitious’ was like a ‘sin’, loaded with negative baggage. She quickly responded that she was not ambitious. She, therefore, settled for Bachelor of Arts in Education.

Despite her vehement denial that she was not ambitious, her life has been exemplary of people with quiet ambition, not the kind that walks about announcing their ambition, but that which with humility and honesty presents achievements after achievements as proof of that ambition. She represents the positive power of ambition tempered by reason, soul and heart.
What a pride she must be for the people of Adjumani, where she attended her primary school and her old schools! What a pride she is for us women and academics in particular!

She reminds me of the saying that ‘all things work together for good…’. It was not in her wildest dream, that one day she would be appointed by the Pope to hold such an honorable position. She is a resource person of such calibre that the church is lucky to have her.
I learnt and unlearnt many lessons of gender through various interviews that I had not picked up in my gender classes.
Prof Dipio told me about how ‘the Biblical text emphasises a certain level of equality in Christ where we are all the same’.
Her advice to me and media women relating to her own work in film was simple, ‘we need to really affirm ourselves, we need to rate ourselves and pick on what we have said but also not just for the sake of it’. She told me that it was important for us to acknowledge each other, and project our work, knowing fellow women will be there to support us.

It is always a blessing meeting people like that. She is one of the pioneers of the women’s studies department at Makerere University to have studied a certificate in gender studies. Her regret is that because we think we have been given various platforms, we assume many of us are now there, which is not exactly true.
In concluding my interview, she gave me many words of wisdom, and encouragement to complete my PhD. She appreciated the questions I was asking and offered her support.

She told me: ‘I believe we can succeed and succeed very well in our positions as women’. It may be difficult to understand, but those words meant a lot then. And she may have planted the spirit of telling other women’s stories of achievement, that I do sometimes.
It is my turn to say those words to Prof Dipio, that I believe she will succeed and succeed very well in her position as a member of that committee. In the same way, I really wish her great success in this. I am confident she will bring a wealth of experience and knowledge on gender, film and culture, where it is really needed.

Dr Maractho is the head and senior lecturer, Department of Journalism and Media studies at UCU. [email protected]