By Edward Rugumayo in Daily Monitor
Prince Atwooki Silvano Katama died in 2006 and his biography was written two years later by a friend who shares his first name. This was no easy task considering that the biographer is an Italian, writing about a Tooro Prince at the beginning of the 21st century when most kingdoms and their corresponding royal powers and tittles have been swept away by modernity.
The biography is fast paced, interspersed with recollections from Katama and friends. It is an enduring gift to the Batooro and Ugandans in general. Those who would like to understand Tooro culture and history should read this book.
The author ably brings out Katama’s early life and situation in the historical context of Tooro Kingdom under British rule. He shows how young Katama is brought up in palace culture. Katama’s friends knew him as a dedicated royalist, steeped in palace culture, and its unusual linguistic expressions. He was also an accomplished raconteur and conservationist at dinners and parties, with a vast repertoire of royal history, embellished with humour and a tendency to spice up. He was a talented linguist, endowed with a prodigious memory and fluent in Latin and Swahili.
One of the enduring aspects of Katama’s life was his devotion of Opus Dei prelature, founded by Jose Maria Escriva in 1928. Katama’s two sons died in a car accident on their way to meet him as he returned from a golf touring in Kilembe in 1977. The family received more support, material and spiritual from a Catholic than Protestant priest, especially when the Catholic priest informed them that their prayers can make a difference to the ultimate destination of the souls of Fred and Wilbert. This ray of hope was a turning point in Ms Katama’s life (Edith, a daughter of a church of Uganda reverend, had been a protestant to this point), who as a result became a Catholic. It also made Silvano return to religion. During their exile in Kenya, they had lost almost all their possessions. Katama, like Biblical Job, turned more to God, through Opus Dei, a way of sanctification in the ordinary duties of a Christian which upholds the serving of both God and fellow men with joy and simplicity. Its core teaching is that one need not to be a priest or nun to have a close relationship with God, or to be holy. You can be a saint if you fulfill your obligation in your vocation fully, be it a carpenter, cook, doctor, or president.
Later, most of Katama’s activities were guided by this concept of sanctification, which the author elaborates. Such was their devotion that Silvano and Edith attended early morning mass regularly. In 20 years, they travelled some 60,000km, one and a half times the earth’s circumference! Not highlighted in the book was Katama’s receptive ear to friendly advice. Two incidents will illustrate this attribute. After graduating from Italian Chianti (a red wine), Silvano moved up the drinking ladder to brandy; from tot to glass and to bottle. His brother Joseph Kairumba told him that he should stop drinking for the sake of their mother.
Accordingly, he stopped drinking in 1975. But he was not done with smoking. During exile in the 1980’s, my daughter Mbabazi (eight-years-old at the time) was so fond of him that whenever he visited, she plaited what was left of his hair. But before doing so, she admonished Silvano for his smoking habits; then snatched the cigarette, stamped on it and warned him not to smoke again. Following these recurrent scenes, Silvano stopped smoking and later acknowledged that it was Mbabazi who made him finally quit in 1985. Receptiveness to constructive criticism improved Katama’s physical and spiritual wellbeing.
The book describes Katama’s early education and later as an engineer, the place he worked in as a civil servant, with distinction and clean record, especially as secretary at the National Housing Corporation which built Crested Towers, Bukoto and Bugolobi flats. His political role in the pre-independence Lancaster House negotiations is highlighted, with other Tooro luminaries like Dr Apuuli Byaruhanga, Dr Akiiki Nyabongo, Atwooki Edward Winyi and Stephen Mugarra among others. Katama’s encounters with President Obote and his active role in NRM politics are discussed extensively.
This book is a deserving tribute to Katama, who did so much for his country and brought happiness to many lives. He well deserves a peaceful rest.
Silvano Borruso started his teaching career in 1957. He has been living and teaching in Kenya since 1960. He retiredfrom teaching in January 2006. His degree in Agricultural Science at the University of Catania, Italy, has enabled him to pursue Science teaching together with an abiding interest in the Humanities.
With the Paulines Publications Africa he has published A History of Philisophy (2007), The Art of Total Living (1996, 2nd ed.2003), The Art of Thinking (1998, reprinted 2004), and a new translation of The Confessions of St Augustine (2008).
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