BY OUMAH OTIENOH

“It might not make a lot of sense for you to know which fork is laid where on the dinner table but it does matter to the girls at Gayaza.” This was one of the glaring phrases that greeted us as we drove to Gayaza High School one warm Wednesday afternoon in November 2019 for a literary conversation with the students.

The oldest girls-only school perched a stone-throw away from Gayaza Town within the outskirts of Kampala City was founded in 1905 by missionaries largely for daughters of the Baganda Kingdom.

I asked my chaperone, a tutor of literature at the school why the girls clad in different colours. She giggled a bit and retorted, “The girls wear round-neck and short-sleeved dresses with embroidered badge of different shades since the school opened its doors as girls are flowers.”

She further said, “When one looks at a full class in diverse colours, the girls look like flowers.”

After sharing a few pleasantries at the school’s administration block, we relocated to the school’s Mehta Library for a sit-down with the girls.

  My literary acquaintance – Opiyo Odongo aka William Shakespeare and I, later relocated to the book’s parlor as the girls spruced up the main auditorium. I walked through the library’s expansive aisles to the literature bookrack where I met familiar Kenyan titles like Francis Imbuga’s Betrayal in the City and Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s The River Between.

The River Between is one of the titles studied by Senior Two as Senior Three opted for Betrayal in the City and The Alien Woman by Laury Ocen while Footprints of the Outsider by Julius Ocwinyo is studied by Senior Five.

We’d earlier settled to discuss with the girls The River Between and Betrayal in the City as the two set-texts were widely read in all the classes.

As we got ushered to the auditorium, the hall was literally set ablaze with deafening cheers from the lasses. My acquaintance jokingly echoed, “Maybe the girls think that we’re the sons of Ngugi wa Thiong’o or Francis Imbuga.”

 My candid conversation with the students sanctions what my guide had told me about the learners during the invitation. “At Gayaza, we pick the best brains.” She added, “We pride ourselves in noticeable alumni such as Okot p’Bitek’s daughter, Jane p’Bitek, the ICC based judge, Julia Sebutinde and Nana Kagga – a top actress.”

Upon telling them that I studied John Ruganda’s play The Burdens in high school, I gazed at schoolgirls who had an allure for refined playwrights. The girls also stunned me for their love-affair with Makerere University. Most of them placed the varsity as their first option.

In their midst, there was a towering movie pop star – Nikita Waligwa. She could barely be noticed due to her down-to-earth demeanor. It was almost implausible that the Senior Two girl was one of the co-stars in the Disney’s popular biographical drama film Queen of Katwe which depicted a true life of Phiona Matesi, a Ugandan girl living in squalor in Katwe slums.

During my stay, we discussed very little about the making of a film star until one Sunday morning in 2020 when I received a distress call from Gayaza High School that Nikita had breathed her last agonizing breathes. Our lead texted me, “Nikita passed on last night. She had not yet reported for this term due to her health condition.”

I felt awestruck about her demise as I had now become an “old girl” of Gayaza and losing such a 15-year-old promising angel was excruciating.

A few questions lingered in my mind. How could a young soul lose the ultimate battle at such a tender age to brain tumor? Did the medics do their best to save her life? If they did, why did she have to exit the stage so soon?

Queen of Katwe which was released in 2016 was a crowd-puller as the movie which displayed a rich Ugandan culture took pride in two big Hollywood superstars: 12 Years of a Slave by Lupita Nyong’o and Selma’s David Oyelowo and a major studio, Disney to crown it.

Lupita Nyong’o posted on her Instagram page, “Nikita played ‘Gloria’ with such vibrancy.” She further asserted, “She was sweet, warm and talented.” David Oyelowo who starred in the film added: “Nikita was ‘a ball of light’ in the film and in life”.

New York Times in a book review described Queen of Katwe as astonishing. The Observer remarked, “Disney’s rags-to-riches tale of a Ugandan chess champion will leave you with a lump in your throat”.

Nikita who lived up to her school motto, “Never Give Up” even when the brain tumor took a great toll on her was eulogized by her school as a strong-willed girl and a darling to her classmates. I besiege the prestigious Gayaza High School through the old girls’ association to build a hostel or a new library in her honour.

Her sports teacher also added his voice, “She loved fencing a new game in Gayaza with passion and even when she recovered a bit, she would turn up for training.”

As we make arrangements with the Gayaza school community to praise Nikita Pearl Waligwa, I plead with all movie enthusiasts to join us in this noble course of erecting a monument at Gayaza High School in memory of the “queen” of Katwe!    

The writer is a Kenya weekly contributor on regular contributor on art and literature. He is also a travel enthusiast oumahotienoh2009@yahoo.com