Man who taught Mwl Nyerere and Milton Obote to be laid to rest
What you need to know:
- Akera will be laid to rest today with his Shs1.5b war debt claims compensation not fulfilled by government. President Museveni promised to have the claims paid off when he attended Akera’s 100th birthday celebration at Bobi Sub-county in Omoro District, a few kilometres off the Gulu-Kamdini Corner highway.
Gulu. One of Acholi’s illustrious sons and celebrated old boy of Busoga College Mwiri and Makerere University embarks on his last earthly journey today.
Chief Anania Kerwegi Akera passed on at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital Friday afternoon, August 16. He is believed to have been 105 years old or there about.
Church of Uganda kicks of the tributes with mid-morning service at Christ Church in the heart of Gulu Municipality before Omoro District Council convenes a special session at Bobi Community Polytechnic to pay their last respects.
Akera’s remains will be laid to rest at his ancestral burial grounds at Along Village, Bobi Sub-county in Omoro District tomorrow.
Born the eighth child of Rwot Andrea Olal and Yokomoi Ejang of Bobi Paidwe, Puranga Chiefdom, on September 22, 1914, Akera was to gross unsurpassed wealth as a farmer and celebrated teacher and politician.
His father was one of the first Acholi to be baptized in 1906, and one of few Ugandans to be knighted Member of the British Empire (MBE).
Joining Busoga College Mwiri from Gulu High School, Akera quickly registered his leadership skills, becoming the defender of bullied students.
He soon rose to serve twice as head prefect in 1939 and again in 1940, becoming first non-Musoga to hold the office, an unmatched feat at Mwiri then. To date, his name remains etched among head prefects in the school main hall.
On leaving Mwiri, Akera joined Makerere College (1941-1943), to study Education, teaming up with young Julius Nyerere of Tanganyika, whom he tutored English.
Nyerere returned the favour by coaching Akera both German and Kiswahili. Nyerere had joined Makerere after Tanganyika was transferred from German East Africa to British East Africa, following defeat of Imperial Germany in World War I.
Akera was instrumental in convincing Nyerere to take up Education, for which Nyerere became famed as Mwalimu (teacher), and philosopher. But Akera was to stamp his own mark on Uganda’s education system too.
In 1944, Akera was tapped by the British to found a high school in Kitgum, East Acholi, and trained a new crop of students to join secondary school.
