Kageye, Hana

[TORO]

Hana Kageye was a sister of the man who had been katikiro during the reign of Mukama Nysika, Kasagama’s predecessor. When Toro was invaded by Bunyoro in 1876 she took refuge in Ankole with Kasagama’s mother, and there came to know the customs of the Bahima women. She returned to Toro when Kasagama was reinstated.[1] She held an influential position in the mukama’s enclosure. She was by this time a widow. She was baptized in 1896, but did not find it easy to give up the practices of a lifetime.[2] In 1898 she was admitted to communion by the Church Council.[3] In 1901 she was one of those who volunteered to be trained as a teacher and she received her letter in 1902.[4] She was then sent to Ankole, travelling with a large chiefly retinue, and she had to be persuaded to send some of her retainers home as feeding them all would have been and embarrassment to the Banyankole.[5] Here she taught the high-born Bahima women of the court who were veiled and secluded, and only a woman of equal standing could gain access to them, but she was at an advantage because of her rank and her previous knowledge of Ankole.[6] She remained for a year, and returned in 1904-1905 for a further year.[7] She then worked at Kabarole teaching the classes for women, taking charge of the welfare of the girls in the boarding school, and teaching sewing, knitting and traditional handicrafts. She died early in the 1930s and is buried near Butiti.

Louise Pirouet

Notes(short form; see List of Sources for complete citations):

1. The Batebe, 1965.

2. Fisher, 1905, p. 74.

3. Kabarole Church Council Minutes, December 31, 1898.

4. Fisher, 1905, p. 74; Toro Women Teachers Record.

5. Willis Journal, April 8, 1902.

6. Balya, 1965; Binyomo, 1965.

7. Toro Women Teachers Record.

8. Tibanagwa, 1967.

9. The Batebe, 1966.

This biography, written by Louise Pirouet, was included in “Appendix A: Biographical Notes,” on pages 395-6 of “The Expansion of the Church of Uganda (N.A.C.) from Buganda into Northern and Western Uganda between 1891 and 1914, with Special Reference to the work of African Teachers and Evangelists” (PhD Thesis: University of East Africa, 1968). Pirouet published this thesis as Black Evangelists (London: Rex Collings, 1978). However, Black Evangelists does not reproduce the detailed biographies, complete with references to sources, found in Appendix A of the thesis. Print copies are available at Africana Section, Makerere University Library (U 02 P57); The Centre for Christianity Worldwide, Cambridge; and a microfilm copy at the School of Oriental Studies, London. [information from Angus Crichton]