Uganda: My Mission

by Damian Grimes, Andrew Lamb (Editor)

Father Damian Grimes MHM is a Roman Catholic Mill Hill Missionary priest who worked in Uganda from 1959 to 2000, and from 1967 was the Headmaster of the famous Namasagali College, about 100 miles east of the capital, Kampala. He witnessed many political upheavals throughout this period, from Uganda being a British Protectorate to an independent, but unstable, country with numerous coups d'état. Father Grimes also witnessed the brutal dictatorship of Idi Amin from 1971 to 1979. In this book.

Father Grimes reveals the struggles and successes of managing a secondary school in difficult and complex circumstances, but which gave a first class education to many children, some of whom have risen to senior positions in government, trade and industry.

Father Grimes is now Priest-in-Charge at a parish church in North Wales.

173 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2016

Reviews

[Chris Chivers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steadfast faith and service

Inspiring narrative of educational endeavour in the midst and beyond Amin and Obote in Uganda. An important story with much to teach.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written book - partly inspirational - part biography covering a particularly colorful period of Uganda's history. I happened to have lived in the country during this time and can relate to some of the narrative as fact. Fr Grimes names some personalities who shaped Uganda's history at the time including General Idi Amin and some of his lackeys. He paints a vivid picture of the inner workings of one of Africa's most despotic regimes and how he survived in it and beyond as a man of God building up a secondary school in a remote part of the country that became to be loved by the elites of the country.

We also learn that Milton Obote became the first Prime Minister of the country because the British would not allow a catholic party led by Ben Kiwanuka to take the levers of power. The British then organised a second election that ensured that with the Kabaka's backing, a protestant coalition Mr Obote and the Kaaba would take over power against the natural equilibrium of political order that favored the catholic Democratic party. This set the stage for Uganda's political instability to this day!