Book Review: Ntiro - Pioneer of inclusive society 

Sarah Nyendwoha Ntiro was a Ugandan educator, feminist, activist, academic and trailblaser. 

“In 1954, I graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in History. I have since been recognised as the first woman university graduate from East and Central Africa. I am profoundly humbled to be the bearer of that legacy,” she wrote in her memoirs, aptly entitled “Emboldened.” 

In this inspirational telling of a life lived abundantly, Ntiro shares how she grew up in Hoima District as a daughter of a princess of Bunyoro Kingdom and prominent son of that soil to study in King’s College Budo and St Anne’s College in Oxford university.  

This autobiographical portraiture captures not only the story of Ntiro as a boundary-breaking feminist crusader in Uganda; it also shows her as a pioneer of inclusive society and doyenne of human rights. 

Her courage is unmatched, her humanity matchless. 

This was clear when she rejected a salary that was less than what her male counterparts were getting when she taught at Gayaza High School and offered to work a year without pay before departing, so as to ensure parity in pay. This attracted the attention of Uganda’s most powerful lady at the time. “My name is Lady Helen Cohen, the wife of His Excellency, the Governor of Uganda, Sir Andrew Cohen,” said this powerful lady. 

“All this business that you are not going to accept salary at Gayaza is unacceptable,” she added. 

Instead of Ntiro retreating with her tail between her legs, she stood tall. And like a lioness protecting her cubs, she carried the courage of her convictions to assure Lady Cohen that is was her decision and she would fall on its sword, if need be. 

This resoluteness, tinged with a gentility reserved for true ladies, impressed Lady Cohen and she was instantly won over by the author. 

“Tonight, I am going to telephone St. Anne’s College and tell them that they have done their job. They have contributed by training you to be articulate and to stand up for your principles. I congratulate you,” Lady Cohen said. 

It was a test of will that transmuted into a triumph of will.  This taught the author that you can stand on your principles as long as those principles are firm. She thus demonstrated, to herself and the world, that taking a stand will reap rewards. 

Her salary was duly adjusted to reflect the parity in pay she sought. On the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of Gayaza High School, she took her chutzpah, as the Jews call it, even further or, to be exact, farther afield. 

Donning her Oxford University graduate cap and a Basuuti to show that her gender and education would not stop her, she drove the school tractor pulling a trailer of 30 exuberant schoolgirls. Onlookers gawped at her, an admixture of admiration and awe characterizing their every look and gesture. 

Governor Cohen was so blown away by the spectacle that he included a photograph of her driving the tractor, along with 30 screaming schoolgirls, in his book on Uganda. 

• Author: Sarah Nyendwoha Ntiro 
• Title: Emboldened
• Price: 80,000 UGX
• Availability: Aristoc Bookshop
• Pages: 256
• Published: 2021