Macpherson leaves great literary legacy

She struggled to get former president Milton Obote to pronounce “star” as sta:(r), with the student from Lango persistently saying a plain, blunt “sttuh”. She thought Paul Mugambi too young for admission to junior secondary at Makerere College School in 1948. She deemed Elly Wamala to be very clever and an intuitive poet, though sometimes “a bit silly”. She touched Anne Ayeta Wangusa deeply at church. She edited down the vain praise that had been prepared for Idi Amin’s investiture with an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree.

Margaret Macpherson, who passed away on the night of August 12, 2011, in England, was a colossus of Makerere from 1945 till her death. She was the founder head teacher of Makerere College School, from 1945 to 1948, lectured at the University between 1948 and 1981, and continued to add to the campus’ literary and drama scene till her death.

Her students read like a roll of honour of literary and intellectual East Africa: Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Austin Bukenya, Erisa Kironde, David Rubadiri, Arthur Gakwandi , Timothy Wangusa, Apolo Nsibambi, Milton and Miria Obote , Abu Mayanja , Paul Mugambi, Richard Ntiru, Robinah Kyeyune, Senteza Kajubi, Okot p’Bitek, Fred Mpanga, and many more.

Many remember her photographic memory and generosity. Professor Senteza Kajubi, who was her student for four years, recalls: “When Erisa Kironde had a leg amputated after an accident (in the early 1950s), she accommodated him till he got an artificial limb.” A professor of literature, Macpherson also authored books, including the authoritative historical account ‘They Built for the Future: A Chronicle of Makerere University College 1922-1962’, a literary work ‘Let’s Make a Play’, and the play ‘Kintu’ co-authored with Kironde.

Professor Mugambi remembers her dedication to travelling theatre, while Dr Robinah Kyeyune has vivid memories of Macpherson’s passion in dramatic scenes in Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’ and the poem ‘Tarantella’, by Hilaire Belloc. Dr Susan Kiguli met Macpherson after the Englishwoman had left Makerere: “My first meeting with her was when she came to follow up a Makerere Alumni in Canada and she showed an exceptional interest in the younger colleagues of the Literature Department. Subsequently, she mentioned all people she had met by name and she never forgot them, never mind that she met them only once! There also was her interest in those seemingly minor literary details : correctness of grammar, clarity, the right expression in the right context. She was keen on talent and was so full of praises for her many talented students: Prof Rubadiri, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Arthur Gakwandi , Prof Wangusa, Apolo Nsibambi, Milton and Miria Obote, Abu Mayanja.”
At Makerere College School (where she eventually admitted Mugambi), on her staff was a young man from Tanganyika, called Julius Nyerere, who did his teaching practice there. Her first head-boy was Daniel Nkata, with whom they kept a close relationship till his death in 2004.

Professor Macpherson did not suffer fools gladly. By the time, on 19 March 1976, less than two weeks after the cold-blooded murder of law student Paul Serwanga, Amin turned up to accept an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree, Macpherson had edited down a speech that would have praised Amin. Privately, she had some strong insights about Obote, and she also kept insisting that Richard Ntiru was an exceptional poet but he needed to cut down on his adjectives for greater impact. Her insistence to young Obote on proper pronunciation when the future head of state was acting in Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar’ was borne “not out of wanting to make us Black Englishmen”, says Prof Austin Bukenya, “but out of an honest belief that we need to use English well; she made us aware of communicative speech and writing.”

But she also had a soft spot for students and colleagues alike. Bukenya recalls Cluny Castle, as the Macpherson home, on Makerere’s Pool Road, near Mitchell Hall was known, as a fun place. She projected her adopted Scottish heritage (her husband, the Dean of Students, was Scottish) with dances. Much later, in the early 1980s, little Anne Ayeta Wangusa, neighbour Timothy Wangusa’s daughter, remembers Macpherson “standing tall over me at the entrance of St. Francis Chapel after my confirmation (Holy Communion day!), her grey hair wrapped at the back of her head, she presented me a gift…it was a white little book; the shape of the Gideon pocket Bible that was like a daily guide to the Bible. It had belonged to her daughter Anne and she had passed it on to another Anne.”

Reading was a passion for Marg Mac, as she was fondly known. Another neighbour, Dora Rukare Semambo, daughter to Prof. Enock Rukare, says: “She opened her house to all the children. She had a library, encouraged us to borrow as long as we returned the books.” Her second daughter, Jacquie Reilly, reminisces: “Her life and home were always in Uganda and the university, and she told us that she had left her heart in Uganda and would have stayed if she could have. Our father died in 2002 and we (myself, older sister and younger brother) were all born in Nakasero Hospital, which became the TV station afterwards.

“We all went to Nakasero Primary School and then to Kenya and myself at the Aga Khan, down the road from Makerere. She watched the development of Makerere from a small college to the senior university. She also took great pride in watching the development of her students in their love and understanding of English Literature.”

Even after she left Uganda, Macpherson’s home in the UK, in Windermere in the picturesque Lake District, was open to old Makerereans. Robinah Kyeyune recalls a visit that the elderly professor emphasised would have to involve a walk, “so you must bring walking shoes”. This writer remembers going with Marg Mac to a church service in Windermere in 1999. The service lasted exactly 30 minutes, with a 5-minute sermon, 3-minute Holy Communion, brief worship from Hymns Ancient & Modern, and tea at the end. Macpherson blessed many.

She is survived by three children - Jacquie, Ian and Anne.

[email protected]

cap: Late Margaret Macpherson, the literary icon who inspired many by her exactness in English language expression, love for her students and photographic memory.

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MACPHERSON 2009 LETTER

Another year, another Christmas and another letter. I hope that you have all had a really good year and that the usual fuss and furore of the Christmas period is not taking its toll.

This year there has not been as much information as in former years, but I will try to give you the Makerere information first, before talking about myself and family.
I’ll start with the sad news of those, who have sadly died. I don’t know if I told you of the death of both the Trussels in the Autumn of last year. Sarah Ntiro’s son Simba died in a tragic car accident in Dar-es-Salaam in 2008. Christopher Fyffe was celebrated at a memorial in London and Dennis Payne, Dilys Jenkins, Liz Yewel and Una McMaster’s sister all died in 2008. Pamela Mboya, (nee Odede), late Tom Mboya’s wife died in South Africa aged 71. The service was in Nairobi and the funeral on an Island in Lake Victoria.

Hughes and I have spoken to Alice Walusimbi, returned from her annual visit to Uganda. Alice was out in Uganda for 12 weeks, spending most of her time with her mother, who is mostly bedridden. She has been asking questions on folklore. She met Fred Kayanja, who is still the Vice Chancellor of Mbarara University. ......