Ocom, Eriya and Ludiya

[TESO]

Eriya Ocom was one of the early pupils of Ngora High School, and its first head boy.[1] He was baptized on March 26, 1911 by the Rev. H. B. Ladbury.[2] After completing his schooling he became a D.C.’s interpreter, and was then made an [illegible] chief, working first at Mukongoro and later at Kumi. In 1920 he was one of the first group of Iteso to be made ebuku chiefs and was put in charge of Usuku county.[3] Whilst at Katakwi he was visited by Bishop Gresford Jones to whom he showed the roads he had made and the church he had built.[4] He later was transferred to Kumi, but he died in 1927 before he had worked there long. He remained a church-goer although he later took more than one wife. His “ring” wife (wife married in church), Ludiya, who outlived him, remained a strong Christian throughout her life.[5]

Louise Pirouet

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

1. Jones, 1926, p. 126.

2. Ngora Baptism Register.

3.  Odiit, 1968.

4. [illegible], 1967, p. 178.

5. Jones, 1926, p. 126.

6. Oditt, 1968.

This biography, written by Louise Pirouet, was included in “Appendix A: Biographical Notes,” on page 419 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]