Tibamwenda stood high as widow
Rest in Peace. Tibamwenda Mwangangi. PHOTOs/ PEREZ RUMANZI
What you need to know:
AT A GLANCE
Her children are Aloysius Niwagaba (RIP), Veronica Mugabirwe Kaihura, Jacinta Kyarimpa, Charles Lwanga Zaribwije, Ubarido Zeijagye, Justice Dr Flavian Zeija, Dr Euzobia Mugisha Baine, Augustine Twinatsiko (RIP), Gregory Tukesiga (Medicine PhD), Margaret Nyakaheesi Tumushabe and Catherine Owomugisha. She also fostered several other children and had more than 50 grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.
When Mwangagi married Tibamwenda, she was a pupil whom he taught in Primary Six. Current village elders (then young people) say it was a wedding to remember, being the first couple to be driven in a vehicle (a Leyland truck) which might have been the only one in Kigezi at the time. God blessed them with 11 children, nine of whom are still living.
Minutes before she passed on, Maria Mwangangi Tibamwenda asked her daughter, Dr Jacinta Kyarimpa, to put her head on her lap. Tibamwenda asked that they add medicine into her eyes, as she made a wish; “If God could enable me to see at least for two hours, I would die a happier woman.”
“I am so glad that my mother died in my arms. After such a long fight and fatigue,” Kyarimpa says. I offered her hope for the body part she cherished most but could not retrieve even at her death, the eyes,” recalls Dr Kyarimpa, who has been looking after her sickly mother since 2012.
For more than 15 years, Tibamwenda had suffered multiple illnesses including diabetes, hypertension, kidney and eye infections that took away her sight. These ailments also left Tibamwenda unable to walk.
“We had just bought several medicines in plenty because we were uncertain of what would become of the lockdown. Nonetheless, I bless the Lord that our mother had surpassed the age and timeline that doctors had set for her because of her diabetic condition,” says Kyarimpa.
Resilient
Tibamwenda became a widow on August 20, 1982 when her husband John Baptist Mwangangi passed on due to what would later be known as throat cancer. They had been married since 1955. She spent more than half of her marriage life fending for 11 children. Educating them, feeding them, and clothing them saw her become one of the renowned elite old women in her village. Of the surviving nine children is Justice Dr Flavian Zeija, Uganda’s principal judge, Dr Euzobia Mugisha Baine, the acting director of the Gender Mainstreaming Directorate, Makerere University and Dr Kyarimpa of Taso. The others have also grown into professors, engineers, accountants, medics, and lawyers serving the country.
Her sixth born, Justice Zeija, reminisces the valiant woman.
“My mother said I was an exceptional child and, I think this is why I am the smallest among these giants. One day on her way from the garden, our mother wanted to prepare a meal. When she knelt by the fireside, she went into labour and it was not long before she gave birth to me,” he says. “That alone would describe how brave my mother was. This, I believe is the reason she lived to see us through school after losing her husband.”
Virtuous
Ubarido Zaribweije, Tibamwenda’s second born, says it is because of their mother that they all got an education and learnt life skills which have propelled them through life.
“Our father died in 1982, and our mother has since nurtured us. She taught us how to grind millet on a grinding stone and how to cook. She valued education and took us to school,” Zaribwije says.
A woman of great intellect, with love for her community and education for all is how the locals will remember her.
Son. Justice Flavian Zeija, the principal judge eulogises his mother.
“I have never seen a woman who loves education like Tibamwenda. She will be remembered as a woman with an open heart of great integrity and a person who loved her community. She sent many to school even when they were not her own, and everyone here can recall how she used to harass children who never went to school. She was an educationist despite not attaining a great education herself,” says Fidel Begumisa, the Nyarushanje Sub-county LC V councillor.”
Exemplary
Jesus tells us that you get good fruits from a good tree. “Having 11 children and nurturing them, educating them as a single parent and all becoming successful is not a mean feat. We thank her for the strong faith,” Rev Fr John Nsengiyunva, the parish Priest Nyarushanje said while preaching at her funeral.
Kerezanta Twebaze, a resident, remembers Tibamwenda contributing school fees for her children when they were on the brink of dropping out of school. Twebaze says Tibamwenda never missed church, fasted and engaged in every activity that her community started.
Jolly and sociable
Aloysius Turihihi, a neighbour, recalls the deceased as a jolly woman who would identify every voice of her guests.
“I think she knew everyone by voice, even at the point she became blind, those who visited her in hospital and at home would leave surprised that Tibamwenda recognised them,” Turihihi notes.
Despite the scientific burial, several high profile judicial officers such as justices Richard Butera, Murangira, Ketra Katunguka, Tadeo Asiimwe, Vincent Mugabo, and Joyce Kavuma attended the burial. Not to mention, officials from Uganda Revenue Authority, Soroti Flying School, Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Uganda and medics did not miss.
Several residents lined up by the roadside to view the proceedings in the compound that accommodated more than 300 people in a Covid-19 standard arrangement.
“We shall not mourn our mother that she has died, I think she has lived in much pain and she is now resting. There shall be no more pain for her,” Dr Baine Sabastian, the son-in-law said.
Her body was laid to rest in a scientific burial in Karama Village in Nyarushanje Sub-county Rukungiri District on June 8, 2020.
