Marxist father of Afrikanism dies

Prof. Dani Wadada Nabudere, 79, lawyer, academic, researcher, pan African, activist, community worker, husband and father of five, died of cardiac arrest at his home in his home town of Mbale, eastern Uganda, on Nov. 9.

The manner and circumstances of his death, in his local town where he spent a great deal of his time working with what he called “my people” says a lot about a man whose rare intellect was acknowledged by many around the globe.

One of Africa’s leading thinkers and author of African socialism or Socialist Africa?, Abulrahman Mohamed Babu, wrote the following about Nabudere in the ‘introduction’ to the 1982 Tanzania Publishing House book edited by Yash Tandon, University of Dar es Salaam Debate on Class, State and Imperialism:

“Marxists do not engage in debates just for the fun of it as in school debates. Their principal task is to change the world. Their debates are about the correct understanding of the world around us. Once this world is understood then the task is to outline policies, which will guide their struggle.”

A teacher for whom the world was an endless playground

David Musoke, the veteran journalist, business news editor, PR consultant, media consultant, Rotarian, husband, father of six and teacher of three generations of university journalism students has died. He collapsed dead on June 8 as he walked out of a conference hall. He was 67.

Had he been allowed another lease on life to take over as president of the Rotary Club of Mengo on June 17, it would just have been another strand to his voluntary contributions.

Over the last decades, he served as chairperson of Parent-Teachers’ Associations (PTA) in various schools including Gayaza Junior, Budo Junior, Makerere College and Busoga College Mwiri, where he finished his secondary education in the 1960s.

A stout, chatty, gentleman standing at just over five feet, Musoke had an opera singers baritone that he used powerfully in news interviews and when indulging in his favourite pastimes; trying to speak to every Ugandan in their mother tongue and making friends.

“I can’t say who dad’s best friend was,” says Musoke’s youngest son David Kezio-Musoke at their home in Kansanga, “because everyone was his friend.” Kezio-Musoke says it’s impossible to say because his dad freely mixed with people of different ages, ranging from children to over seventy year olds.