Three years ago I wrote an article on Busoga College, Mwiri titled Why Busoga College, Mwiri, was always a unique school. This time round I want to write about How Busoga College, Mwiri, inculcated the values of discipline, time management and sociality.

Founded in 1911, Busoga College Mwiri is 11 years older than Uganda’s oldest university, Makerere University that was founded in 1922. While Busoga College, Mwiri, was founded to cater for the education of the children of chiefs, Makerere University was founded to endow those who were lucky enough to be admitted to it with technical skills.

Therefore, while the two institutions were likely to value time and discipline they were bound to value sociality differently. Makerere University valued technical education while Busoga College Mwiri valued social development of individuals more.

Makerere University thus started off as a techno-mechanistic institution producing techno-mechanistic graduates. Indeed, with the passage of time, Makerere University has preserved its techno-mechanistic nature while hyping academicism and scholasticism at the expense of social and intellectual development of individual students and the academic staff. If you wanted to come face to face with an institution in Uganda, which has devalued social development and sociality in Uganda, Makerere University is there for you to critically assess.

As I stated in my introduction above, the focus of this article is on how Busoga College, Mwiri inculcated the values of discipline, time management and sociality in its students. I spent six years at Busoga College, Mwiri (1966-1971) pursuing my O-Level and A-level education, having completed my primary education at Ikumbya Primary School in present-day Luuka District (1957-1963) and junior secondary education at Mwiri Primary School (1964-1965).

It was not all academic orientation at Busoga College, Mwiri. Academics was important, but there was a lot of emphasis on producing all-round graduates of the college that valued discipline, time management and growing up as socially-developed individuals with high levels of sociality. This could explain why the products of Busoga, College Mwiri since colonial times tended to dominate leadership all aspects of human endeavour wherever they ended up.

They served humanity well in the past as much as they still do today. It was this exposure, for example, that enabled me to rise and become the first Ugandan to serve as chair of a regional civic organisation for 11 countries in the Nile Basin (i.e. Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda) – the Nile Basin Discourse (NBD).

Discipline

Discipline is critical because without it we cannot set and achieve goals, develop good habits, overcome challenges, improve time management, and enhance family and community growth and development. In a sentence, we cannot be successful.

Time management

The value of effective time management cannot be overemphasized. Time is the most important resource available to humanity but also the most abused resource. If we know how to manage time we are able to prioritise activities and tasks, accomplish more in less time, reduce stress, improve the balance of life and work and enhance the achievement of goals. Indeed if we cannot manage time we cannot manage anything else.

Sociality

Humans are essentially social beings. Therefore, sociality is critical to humans. Sociality is the ability to interact and connect with others. It creates opportunity for emotional support, emotional support, networking, broadening interactions among people from different backgrounds and cultures, improving mental health and preserving a sense of identity and belonging. Indeed we can see this among the former students of Busoga College, Mwiri, far more in these days of internet and social media than was the case in the past.

Beyond our Mwiri Old Boys Association (MOBA) there are many cyber-based platforms that enhance interactions of Old boys beyond the physicality of Busoga College, Mwiri. They are supporting each other emotionally in times of crises across periods they were at the College.

My role in inculcating discipline, time management and sociality

I was lucky to play a critical role in inculcating discipline, time management and sociality within the college community during my time at Busoga College, Mwiri, as a school perfect, captain of Hannibgton House, prefect in a charge of the cafeteria, President of Cultural and Social Society, President of Dramatic Society and President of Debating Society. In all these roles I was a critical socialising agent. Indeed I continued to be a socialising agent beyond Busoga College Mwiri, even through my talents of leading, debating, teaching and writing, all of which were shaped in the college.

How discipline was inculcated

Inculcating discipline in Busoga College, Mwiri, was multifaceted. The college had a governance system that laid emphasis on leadership development at the level of houses, whereof each house had a head of house, with assistant prefects and leaders called sub-lumpers who constituted the first line of leadership in the houses. Besides, each house had a house master and an assistant house master.

During my time at Busoga College, Mwiri, the houses were Coates, Hanninston, Nabikamba, Nadiope, Wako, Willis and Wilson. The leaderships in the houses had to shape harmonious interactions, and develop the students into people who loved work – both academic and non-academic. The students were to be disciplined enough to do physical work such as cleaning the houses, washing their bedsheets and clothes, and to slash their house compounds without being coerced to do so by the leaders. They had also to be disciplined enough to go to the cafeteria early and attend classes early without staying behind in their Houses. They had to participate in college quizzes, games and sports and represent their houses in debates and other extracurricular activities.

Every morning all members from different houses had to attend an assembly at which the head perfect and headmaster specifically would address students on different issues and matters. All academic staff had to attend the assembly and those with particular responsibilities addressed the school assembly. School uniform was mandatory at the assembly and during all the time in the college and outside the college. Capital punishment was not part of the discipline system. Those who committed serious offenses would be suspended. Expulsion was extremely rare.

I do not remember if there were visiting days for the parents. All I remember is that parents would have to wait for end of time to pick their children. Most times the big ones would take themselves home. In 1966 a college lorry carried students to Jinja at the end of term from where they would get buses or taxis to their parents’ homes. Later the college acquired a bus that could take the students out. 

How time management was inculcated

While what I have so far written about inculcation of discipline involved inculcating time management, what particularly was used to Inculcated time management was the school calendar and the different time tables of the different classes to signify when particular lessons started and ended. Both teachers and students would strictly follow the time tables. What was integral to time table was a bugle – a small trumpet like instrument that produced a high pitched noise every end of lesson. Those days each lesson took 40 minutes. I think there was also a drum. When Dr John Birwa, Dr. Charles Kawagga, Prof Fred Tusubira and I, among others, joined Busoga College Mwiri in 1966, the person who would sound the drum and bugle to announce the end of lessons and begining of others was called Odong. He was a Senior Two student. He went on to finish Senior Six at Busoga College, Mwiri in 1970, and a year before we did.

How Sociality was inculcated

In a way the governance structure of Busoga College, Mwiri was designed to maximize academic excellence in the school but also the sociality of students. When I and others joined Busoga College, Mwiri in 1966 the absolute majority of staff were white. However, there was really no apartheid in the college. There was a lot of interaction between the academic staff and student even extracurriculally. Each academic staff was responsible for a particular extracurricular activity. If a particular group of students went for an activity outside the college, the responsible member of staff would accompany them. Sports, games, quizzes, music and social and cultural activities were avenues for socialising.

The college allowed students to pursue their religious faith without hindrance and develop their sociality thereof. It also allowed students to invite students from other schools to visit and socialise. There was a privately owned band, which became integral to the sociality of the school. It was owned and ran by two brothers, Martin Muyimbo and James Egulwa and many students of different educational levels were part of the band. Some have passed on while some are still alive and scattered all over the country and the world.

Punishment in Busoga College Mwiri was unique and intended to produce and shape students that valued time, belonging and sociality. On the whole, punishment involved withdrawing the culprits from the rest of the college student community and confining him to the main hall for a prescribed amount of time depending on the severity of their offences. The offenders would be required to sit for one, two, three or more hours doing nothing, including movement. A perfect would sit in front of them, reading but keenly looking at the culprits to ensure they were sitting doing nothing. Usually the culprits became good social beings. Many would never want to be punished that way again. This way sociality was built and put on a firm foundation in the college.

For God and my country.

• A Tell report / By Oweyegha-Afunaduula / Environmental Historian and Conservationist Centre for Critical Thinking and Alternative Analysis (CCTAA), Seeta, Mukono, Uganda.

About the Centre for Critical Thinking and Alternative Analysis (CCTAA)

The CCTAA was innovated by Hyuha Mukwanason, Oweyegha-Afunaduula and Mahir Balunywa in 2019 to the rising decline in the capacity of graduates in Uganda and beyond to engage in critical thinking and reason coherently besides excellence in academics and academic production. The three scholars were convinced that after academic achievement the world outside the ivory tower needed graduates that can think critically and reason coherently towards making society and the environment better for human gratification. They reasoned between themselves and reached the conclusion that disciplinary education did not only narrow the thinking and reasoning of those exposed to it but restricted the opportunity to excel in critical thinking and reasoning, which are the ultimate aim of education. They were dismayed by the truism that the products of disciplinary education find it difficult to tick outside the boundaries of their disciplines; that when they provide solutions to problems that do not recognise the artificial boundaries between knowledges, their solutions become the new problems. They decided that the answer was a new and different medium of learning and innovating, which they characterised as The Centre for Critical Thinking and Alternative Analysis (CCTAA).