Achilles Ahimbisibwe had penchant for sports, academics

On February 3, 2023, the Ruhindi Kakuranga family, relatives, friends and alumni of Uganda Martyrs University Alumni Association (UMUAA) came together for the Requiem Mass at St James Catholic Parish of Bbiina, Kampala, for the soul of Achilles Ahimbisibwe. Fondly known by many as Achie, he succumbed to a blood clot on February 1, 2023 after a short hospitalisation. One year since he transitioned to glory, the family organised a memorial mass in Achie’s memory yesterday, February 10 at the same parish.   

At the main campus of Uganda Martyrs University (UMU) in Nkozi, it was difficult to figure out whether Achie was a student or a member of staff because of how he freely interacted and got along with students. Yet, an academic leader he was, Achie  was acting as dean of the Faculty of the Built Environment (FoBE). For close to a decade since his second graduation (when he earned a cum laude Master of Architecture, professional) from that faculty, he academically mentored cohorts of proficient built environment designers and architectural researchers to the great satisfaction of Uganda, East Africa and much of the globe (Commonwealth). 

Loved sport
The 42-year-old also had a penchant for sports—and not just sports for the sake of physical exercise, but sports too for psychosocial bonding—particularly basketball and rugby, both of which he played with unmatched sophistication. 

Thus, Achie coached students across faculties for the university basketball and rugby teams while serving as associate dean at FoBE. Students and staff alike would long to see Achie. His weekend absence from campus would be conspicuously felt. 

Aimed for the best
Friendly and generous are two adjectives that characterised Achie’s social nature. Erudite and meticulous are the other two that characterised his academic being. “Are you better?” he often asked. For Achie deeply believed that if better is possible, then good is not enough. As a teacher, research supervisor, coach, sportsman, president of the Rotaract Club of UMU, patron of UMU Quiz Night, salsa and break dancer, Scrabble and Crossword Master among other extracurricular activities, Achie always emphasised to his peers and mentees saying; “Do what Martyrs” (a wordplay for his unparalleled love for UMU). He echoed, “We should not be those who simply settle for the second-best option.”

Edgar Mukasa, a friend who also served as secretary for Rotaract Club UMU, says Achie liked to make an impact on the people around him. he contributed a lot to the community around Nkozi through Rotaract initiatives.

“Achie loved to travel to new places, tried out new cultures and food.”

Short and sweet life
 The sudden and tragic loss of Achie was indeed devastating to us. Yet, in what Achie set out to do and achieved in such a relatively short span of life, we can see bright light at the end of our tunnel.

As the parish priest at Bbina reiterated in the homily of Achie’s requiem mass: “Life should be about doing memorable things and preparing our souls for the heavenly kingdom. Some light burns bright but burns out faster and others dim but longer.” Achie died young, however, it is not the number of years he lived but the quality and quantity of actions packed in those fewer years that strike us as truly memorable. 

Months before his deteriorating health and hospitalisation, Achie had secured for UMU a productive collaboration with the University of Antwerp in Belgium for a sandwich Master’s programme in Urban Planning. Along this, he also secured considerable Belgian funding or Greening Fort Portal City starting with 8,000 ecologically resonating trees. Achie’s bigger aim pointed at heritage and eco-friendly architecture in pursuing such collaborations. He did this when FoBE was at its lowest of faculty staffing and the limited available staff thinly stretched.

In his last substantive email correspondence to the UMU community in the wake of the Covid-19 lockdown, Achie assuredly wrote: “At an institution like ours, nostalgia might cajole some to look back at a glory of former times. However, good reason invites us to take a more critical look ahead at the potential for a future unencumbered by redundancy.

“Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they are not altered for the better designedly” (Francis Bacon)… In looking to embrace Francis Bacon’s philosophy, which sought to look beyond scholastic disputations and towards enlightenment and the increase of human good, we should prepare to meet our various challenges.  Those confined by dogma might accuse some of exotic modes of thought. At a faculty level… we have been met with suspicion by the establishment, viewed as being too radical an approach to architectural education that led to prolonged efforts -- the better part of the past decade -- seeking to scuttle any progress and achievements. Fortunately, we are now seeing a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel. In worship of the unknown instead of overcoming it, some forget that as knowledge grows, fear decreases.  In the space of 2019. alone the number of funded projects, publications, press coverage, awards, accolades, graduands, and progress in teaching and response to national growth, through our entire campus/es, is commendable.  In Virtue and Wisdom, we lead …”

Achie was buried in Marumba,  Rukungiri. His achievements within such a relatively short time at UMU are commendable.  What about us who are still here in the earthly kingdom? Let us accordingly use our bodies and minds to prepare our souls for a good solace. 

In the same spirit we pray, Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord. And let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace.  Amen. 

The writers are alumni of UMU and comrades of Achilles.