Zabunamakwata, Sedulaka and Yayeri

[TORO and [illegible], Muganda]

Sedulaka Zabunamakwata was a teacher who first went to Toro in 1895, and the following year went to Mboga. On this first occasion he was not able to stay long as the Mukama put difficulties in the way of the teachers and refused them food. But later in the year he volunteered to return with Apolo Kivebulaya when things had taken a turn for the better. Both teachers again suffered considerable opposition on their return, and then the area was raided by the Manyuama. In 1897 he returned to Toro to ask advice of the missionaries. In 1898 after much further trouble, and after Kivebulaya had been wrongfully imprisoned, matters were settled at a court case in Toro and the Mukama paid compensation for losses suffered by Kivebulaya and the CMS. Once more, Sedulaka and Apolo returned to Mboga. Later in the year Mboga was visited by Bishop Tucker, who was escorted there by Sedulaka, Kivebulaya having gone on ahead. In 1899 they again returned to Toro after political trouble.[1] Now the two were sent to Kitagwenda, but again Sedulaka had a difficult time, and in 1900 he was therefore sent to [illegible].[2] In August he was moved again, and at the end of the year returned to Mboga.[3] In April 1902 he was back at Kabarole and was unanimously elected to a seat on the church council “in recognition of his long and faithful services as a senior teacher in Toro.”[4] In 1903 his wife Yayeri qualified as a teacher. In February of 1905 they went back to Mboga, but by July Yayeri was back in Kabarole, possibly alone.[5] When Sedulaka eventually returned to Buganda, Yayeri did not go with him, and in 1922 she was still working as a church teacher in Toro.[6]

Louise Pirouet

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

1. Luck, 1963, pp. 62-85.

2. Luck, 1963, p. 83; Kabarole Church Council Minutes, November, 1899, December, 16, 1899, February 17, 1900.

3. Kabarole Church Council Minutes, August 17, Christmas 1900.

4. Kabarole Church Council Minutes, April 12, 1902.

5. Toro Women Teachers Record.

6. Kisoro, 1965; Toro Women Teachers Record.

This biography, written by Louise Pirouet, was included in “Appendix A: Biographical Notes,” on pages 426-7 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]