Rise of first female MP Lubega was women’s watershed moment

Florence Alice Lubega, Uganda’s first female Member of Parliament (MP) rested on October 28 at the age of 103. She joined Parliament in 1962 and served in the Legislative Council (Legco) between 1958 and 1961. In 1962, she was elected as Ssingo North West MP (present-day Mityana and Mubende districts).  

In a country with average life expectancy of 63, to live up to the fairly advanced age that our elder did, by a bonus of almost 40 years, is a blessing. We, who follow in the footsteps of giants like Lubega and several others before and after her, come to celebrate, reflect on and thank God for a life of impact and virtue. We salute, in poet Maya Angelou’s words, a phenomenal woman who made her mark for the duration of her sojourn in this, our world of mortals. 

To appreciate Lubega’s contribution to nation-building in general and the advancement of the women’s cause in particular, one has got to reflect on the cultural barriers that she overcame to make it to Parliament. 

At the time that she did, before Uganda attained independence from Britain in 1962, two layers of obstacles existed for the Ugandan and indeed African woman. The Legislative Council was first of all, racially prejudiced as its membership was purely European. It had seven members led by the governor, Sir Robert Coryndon, at the time. However, in 1926 the first Asian member was sworn in and a second Asian member joined Legco in 1933.

On December 4, 1945, the first three African representatives were sworn in to the Legco, representing Buganda, Western and Eastern Provinces. They were Michael Ernest Kawalya Kaggwa, the katikkiro (prime minister) of Buganda; Petero Nyangabyaki, the katikkiro of Bunyoro; and Yekonia Zirabamuzaale, the secretary general of Busoga.

Quite obviously, as the reader notices, women were, at the highest legislative level of government of the day, considered unfit to be in Legco. Therefore, man or woman, one still had to skip the race hurdle to be part of the discourse and decision-making matrix of the time.

Secondly, even when Africans managed to put up a fight and secure space in Legco, it was an all-male affair. This meant that women had to overcome the cultural barriers within African societies that did not envision a woman on the ‘chair’. 

It is for this reason that Lubega’s rise to the pinnacle of politics of our country was a watershed moment for the women’s movement. She basically sowed the seeds of women’s participation in the electoral and governance arena. 

In there lies her greatest contribution. Like Barrack Obama who, after centuries of oppression of the Black race in America, demonstrated that indeed, Blacks too can give a shot at the presidency and scoop it, Mama Alice Lubega lit a candle out of which is born several other candles that continue to inspire generations of women leaders today.

Her equivalent in the region would be Grace Monica Akech Onyango born in 1924, the first female Member of Parliament in post-independence Kenya after she was elected to represent Kisumu Town Constituency in 1969. 

In Parliament, Akech was the first woman to sit on the speaker’s chair as temporary deputy speaker, and served as deputy speaker from 1979 to 1984. Therefore, like Akech in Kenya, Lubega set the bar high especially in terms of the context in which they operated. 

Let it be remembered, for instance, that they rose to these positions not on the basis of affirmative action, a recent positive development in our Constitution of 1995. 

Of course, it is quite telling that in the current Parliament, only 10 women were voted on direct district tickets. In effect, the majority of the women who go to Parliament do so on the affirmative action ticket. Assuming this window was closed, as some sceptics have proposed, it means that in 2021 Uganda, we would only have 10 MPs in a Parliament of more than 500.

I share this to demonstrate just how much more work we still have to do to continue with the pace set by Lubega in Uganda or Akech in Kenya. At Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE), we aspire for an equal and just society where women and men can equally participate in and benefit from all processes of decision making. 

We have, for instance, fashioned our programmes to specifically support, empower and sensitise communities right from the grassroots to appreciate the need for women’s representation in leadership, their potential and the available opportunities for them to lead. 

Through these programmes, we have built capacities of more than 20,000 women leaders in our 26 years of existence, and nurtured 900 young aspiring women in transformative leadership. 

We further build on Lubega’s concern for gender responsive leadership by advocating gender-responsive budgeting and we continue to support the adoption and sustenance of women in leadership positions.

This is how FOWODE and other women’s rights organisations carry that candle first lit by Lubega in 1962, and spread its light. Resultantly, more candles continue to light up in growing numbers of women in top political leadership, and even more in economic and social leadership. 

If these women can in turn uphold fellow women by mentoring and supporting them into leadership, Lubega and Akech’s legacy will not be in vain.

It is not yet uhuru (independence) but we still celebrate Lubega and her generation for setting the ball rolling and inspiring generations after them. Now let us each join in and do our part.

May the soul of our elder, Mama Alice Florence Lubega rest in peace and may her contribution remind us all of what is possible in our efforts to address the historical injustices and cultural barriers that women have had to contend with for centuries.

Aluta continua!