{"id":65752,"date":"2024-01-28T08:46:14","date_gmt":"2024-01-28T08:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ogwal-the-iron-lady-who-sought-to-build-consensus"},"modified":"2024-01-28T09:54:46","modified_gmt":"2024-01-28T09:54:46","slug":"ogwal-the-iron-lady-who-sought-to-build-consensus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ogwal-the-iron-lady-who-sought-to-build-consensus","title":{"rendered":"Ogwal: The Iron Lady who sought to build consensus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. <\/strong><\/span>Cecilia Ogwal\u2019s instructions, in what turned out to be her last public comments that whoever calls her from her hospital bed in India does so after \u201cfirst finish [ing] your tears\u201d offers a measure of her personality.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cSharp, courageous, articulate, witty and solid, she became Uganda\u2019s Iron Lady and except for Winnie Mandela, there was no other like her on this continent,\u201d Joseph Ochieno, who is currently jostling for the presidency of the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) with Jimmy Akena and Peter Walubiri, says of the erstwhile Dokolo Woman lawmaker who passed away on January 18.<\/p>\n

Ogwal, who will be laid to rest in Kole District today, was this past week held up as a unifying force by lawmakers, who eulogised her during a special sitting.<\/p>\n

Hanifa Kawooya, the district woman representative of Sembabule, who\u2014like Ogwal\u2014was recently medevacked to India, remembered Uganda\u2019s Iron Lady praying for her after she had returned home. It did not occur to Ms Kawooya that Ogwal was stricken by cancer because the latter was an intensely private person.<\/p>\n

Abed Bwanika, a two-time presidential candidate, who now represents the constituency of Kimanya-Kabonera, called Ogwal a patriot, holding that the \u201cnationalist\u201d description does not accurately capture her essence.<\/p>\n

The descriptor reflects so much of the horror of the times, with fervour, curiosity, and raw power of exclusionist strains. It also\u2014in a sense\u2014awakens the politics of cultural sub-nationalism that birthed UPC following tireless efforts from Apollo Milton Obote and Abu Mayanja.<\/p>\n

In the late colonial period, Ganda sub-nationalists tackled big questions about independence, identity and survival but provided no answers. Or at least they were accused of not.<\/p>\n

It was in July of 1959 that leaflets from someone identifying as \u2018Son of Muzinge\u2019 started to drop in and around Kampala. The leaflets persisted in their urging that products remotely associated with the colonial administration be boycotted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I inspect shops again and find Brook[e] Bond Tea, I will sentence the offender to death,\u201d one leaflet read, adding that bottled beer was also a no-no.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to 1969, seven years into Uganda\u2019s independence, a pageant is organised to popularise Brooke Bond Tea. Ogwal takes the first runner-up accolade. A historical inaccuracy in the mainstream media would for years perpetuate the assumption that Ogwal not only won the pageant but that it was a Miss Uganda beauty contest. The fallen Dokolo Woman lawmaker was gracious enough to correct the inaccuracy.<\/p>\n

These and several other attempts to capture a correct account of events possibly owed to Ogwal\u2019s faith.<\/p>\n

While eulogising the Iron Lady on the floor of Parliament, junior Trade minister David Bahati described her as a \u201cprayer warrior.\u201d The Ndorwa West lawmaker added that Ogwal actively participated in organising multiple National Prayer Breakfast ceremonies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn London, I would host and manage her official itinerary. Church was a must, how I came to know of Elim Pentecostal Church in Camberwell,\u201d Mr Ochieno recalled, adding, \u201cMy most robust conversation with her was whether or not we should participate in the 1996 NRA election charade and on strategy, then I was citing Bangladesh where the Opposition had taken to protests following an apparent rigged elections and, after three months of impasse, fresh elections were held with key reforms and they won.\u201d<\/p>\n

This unique attribute of Ogwal\u2014to reach out across the political divide even when she robustly disagreed on principle\u2014won her acclaim both in life and death.<\/p>\n

In the House, she was known to throw her weight behind many minority reports; yet she was careful enough not to sever ties with the majority. This consensus building not only kept her politically relevant, but also turned her martial house into a home.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Uganda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. Cecilia Ogwal\u2019s instructions, in what turned out to be her last public comments that whoever calls her from her hospital bed in India does so after \u201cfirst finish [ing] your tears\u201d offers a measure of her personality. \u201cSharp, courageous, articulate, witty and solid, she became Uganda\u2019s Iron Lady and except for Winnie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":65751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-65752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\nOgwal: The Iron Lady who sought to build consensus - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Cecilia Ogwal\u2019s instructions, in what turned out to be her last public comments that whoever calls her from her hospi ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ogwal-the-iron-lady-who-sought-to-build-consensus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ogwal: The Iron Lady who sought to build consensus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cecilia Ogwal\u2019s instructions, in what turned out to be her last public comments that whoever calls her from her hospi ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ogwal-the-iron-lady-who-sought-to-build-consensus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-01-28T08:46:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-01-28T09:54:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2024\/01\/sm_1706422840.823941.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ogwal-the-iron-lady-who-sought-to-build-consensus#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ogwal-the-iron-lady-who-sought-to-build-consensus\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Ogwal: The Iron Lady who sought to build consensus\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-01-28T08:46:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-28T09:54:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ogwal-the-iron-lady-who-sought-to-build-consensus\"},\"wordCount\":637,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ogwal-the-iron-lady-who-sought-to-build-consensus#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2024\/01\/sm_1706422840.823941.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ogwal-the-iron-lady-who-sought-to-build-consensus#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ogwal-the-iron-lady-who-sought-to-build-consensus\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ogwal-the-iron-lady-who-sought-to-build-consensus\",\"name\":\"Ogwal: The Iron Lady who sought to build consensus - 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