For Gunilla, the sky is the limit

By DENNIS D. MUHUMUZA

"I'm going to talk to Sir Alex Ferguson and say, 'get us some strikers, we need to start feeling the game,'" chuckles Gunilla Ouko. She clearly loves Manchester United though she also admits that Arsenal is playing great football.

We are seated on green comfortable sofas of her home in Ntinda. It happens to be her birthday though she won't say how old she is. Says you do not ask a woman her age.

Ouko stands at a towering 6ft.

Her rich humour soon propels us out of anxiety and we chat freely with a lady who loves warriors and brand names and hopes to become president.

Gunilla Atieno Ouko is a social scientist, a researcher, a single mom and currently the head of Marketing at Nile Bank Limited. The name Gunilla is Swedish and it was given her by her mother.

"It means a warrior or something with inner strength; one who works hard and is not put down by life's twists and turns," she explains.

Her late mother, Joyce Ouko, was a teacher while her father, John Ouko, is a retired accountant. They are three children in the family.

A normal day for Gunilla starts at 6 a.m., when she prepares her two kids for school at Kabojja Junior.

By 7:45 a.m., she sits behind her office desk, reads the day's devotions on her online Bible and prays. Then she lists things to do, moves around to make sure everything is well.

By 6 p.m., she's already home with her kids: Joyce is eight and Anthony is six. Joyce is very sensitive while Tony is happy-go-lucky.

"I call them my hand luggage because everywhere I go they go," she says of the kids she got while in college.

Born and raised in Kisumu, Gunilla went to Aga Khan in Kisumu, spent eight years on her primary education before joining Ahero Girls Boarding School for secondary.

"By the way, I'm the first lot of the 8-4-4 system of education in Kenya," she adds.

After form four, she was admitted to the University of Nairobi in 1991 and graduated in 1995 with a bachelors of arts degree in Anthropology, a course she says helped her to understand people better.

"It's a holistic study of man and his environment. I was able to understand people's values, how they live…it opened my way to better policy making and marketing because I was able to understand people holistically," she says.

As the best student, Ouko scooped a scholarship, started her Masters in 1996 and couldn'’t work "because I wanted to be a professor early and was really driven to do everything that would take me there as quickly as possible. I wanted to be called Dr. Ouko!"

But because I do not see a trace of marketing, I ask her how she started in that line.

"My first job changed the current of my career tremendously," she says. "I landed a job in Research International in 1998. It was great in terms of understanding consumers and brands. It gave me the foundation of my current marketing excellence."

At Research International, she managed research for East African Breweries and particularly the Pilsner Brand.

"I fell in love with this brand right from the time I was handling it as a market researcher. When the position for brand manager fell vacant, I applied for it. It was quite competitive; actually it was between myself and one lady who is currently a marketing manager in the banking industry as well. However, I landed the job and became Pilsner Brand Manager in 2001. Then Pilsner made me and I made it. I had so much passion for what I did which earned me a prestigious award from Diageo. I was voted Brand Hero East Africa in 2003," she says.

By the time she left Uganda Breweries, she was marketing manager Pilsner, Guinness and Citizen. But Gunilla's overwhelming ambition tickled her to apply for a job at Nile Bank following an advert in the papers.

"I liked it because I was going to head the marketing team," she says.

She applied by e-mail, missed interviews twice, [she was very busy] but Nile Bank still followed her. When she finally did the interviews, she was given the job.

Is it very challenging?

"No body will say life is straight. It's very tough but the success of managing people is to be able to understand their emotions, nurture them and drive the team to deliver. Once people realize you have new ideas, they will follow you," she says solemnly adding, "I want to be an MD when I’m still young."

One of the people she looks to is her good friend Peter Sematimba. She says, "I like Sematimba because of the amount of energy, the passion, drive and the mind he puts in his work."

Bill Clinton is another person who inspires her because "He's still admired and despite the marriage trials he was still able to come through unscathed."

She idolizes Nelson Mandela because "He had led a full life. His name is a respected brand, when he dies his plaque should read, 'Quality Life; He's a Warrior.'"

"When you move up the ladder, few people understand you. But that's the beauty of life," sums the lady who also cherishes the advice given to her by her Managing Director, Mr. Richard Byarugaba.

Speaking from personal experience, the born-again marketer advises people to take their first degrees seriously regardless of whether it was the one they wanted or not.

"It's an entry level into one's career; don't enter university and whine. I remember I wanted to be a lawyer, anthropology was my last choice and look at the great heights of career I have gone through with anthropology," she says.

She has a word of advice to employees too. She says they should love their jobs: "Work puts food on the table, why not do it well?"

Gunilla is also a health freak who looks critically at what she eats and tries to ensure it's balanced, is less oily and drinks lots of water and juice however she cannot get over groundnut sauce. She also goes to the gym too "to keep trim."

Ouko loves playing with her kids and taking toys and other goodies to SOS Children's Village in Entebbe: "I love kids, understand their language and watch cartoons with them," she says.

She also enjoys classical music, loves gospel and enjoys a lot of R n B: "I love music because it's about emotions that speak to the heart."

Interestingly, Gunilla easily cries: "It's very easy for me to cry when I'm hurt or frustrated and after my tears have dried, I forget and move on."

And does she intend to stay here for the rest of her life?

"Uganda is a great country, but like they say, home is the best."

She's been involved in many charity organizations at home and hopes to marry the right person, retire and head to Kenya to see about becoming president.

"I want to be a president or a Kofi Annan and be in a position to make wise decisions and influence many people's lives positively. I would love people to live full lives," she optimizes.

--Daily Monitor, Thursday September 9, 2004, Page 19

Why affairs of the heart do not interest V.S. Naipaul

V.S. Naipaul, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize for Literature, is in Uganda to do research for a book on traditional African religion. On March 20, Makerere University's Department of Literature hosted Sir Vidia, as he is better known, and his wife Lady Naipaul, to a public dialogue. The dialogue was chaired by Dr Abbas Kiyimba while Prof. Arthur Gakwandi and Dr Ernest Okello-Ogwang, and later a few members from the audience, posed the questions. Dennis D. Muhumuza brings you excerpts: -

Sir Vidia, begin by telling us why in 1966 you chose to take up a writing fellowship at Makerere and what kind of experience you had when you got here.
The African American Foundation asked me to come. This was in 1965 and I was having trouble with the book I was trying to write. I had been having trouble with it for about a year and I thought this was a good opportunity to get away from that depression and have a look at Uganda where they asked me to come. So I came and I was given a little bungalow on the grounds of the university here and I spent a lot of time dealing with the book, dealing with my writing.
I didn't look out as much as I should have done. And it's only a few days ago that I went to Jinja and saw the Nile. I had not done that before – 40 years ago. And I am quite astonished that I didn't. I think it indicates what I said in the beginning: being very worried about what I was trying to do and the obsession with my work that has continued with me.

The British have knighted you for your contribution to British literature. Given that you have written on a wide range of subjects, do you still carry your Caribbean identity [having been born in Trinidad and Tobago] or have you acquired a new cosmopolitan identity that recognises no boundaries?
You must understand that these honours are not very personal. There is a government in office and it has to give a certain number of honours and the basket looks a little empty and so you turn it over a few times and then there is a little figure at the bottom and they say, yes, we give it to him this time. I think it was like that. Some people think it was actually given by the Queen. But the accolade which one gets at the Buckingham Palace is done by the Queen but the reward is done from Downing Street. So it's political and it doesn't indicate any seducing me from my other loyalties. It's up to you to reject these honours when they come. In fact, in 1977 when I was travelling in Venezuela a letter came to me offering what is known as a CBE. There are three degrees of that order – the Order of the British Empire: there is an MBE, OBE and CBE and I said I didn't want it and I thought that was the end of the matter because the story was that if you rejected these lesser honours they never offered you a knighthood. And I thought this was what was going to happen to me because I actually think a writer's quality and honour is in his work.

Seeing your knowledge of Africa, does this mean it's going to feature a little more in your wide spectrum of subjects?
I've written quite a lot about Africa since 1966. I went to the Congo, spent some time there and gradually came with an important book. I later went to Senegal. I wrote nothing about that because I just couldn't find anything to say about it that was of interest to me. And then I went to Ivory Coast. So I've heard an experience of love of Africa because East Africa, Congo, Ivory Coast, Senegal – it's quite a lot to get started with and I've written about these places, sometimes only in articles leaving out Senegal. And now when I come to see it myself, when I know that I am near the end of things, I thought I would write my last book about an aspect of Africa which as result of my earlier visit I became interested in – the Africa of its ancestral beliefs, its ancestral religion. It has always fascinated me; this thing about ancestral beliefs and ancestral religion because whenever one is close to them – you look at the sculpture of Africa, the masks – they seem to come from way back. They seem to have an immemorial ancestry, they seem to come from the earth and that makes them fascinating to me.

Having been writing all these years, do you think you have said everything you wanted to say, or do you still feel there is something you haven't achieved or maybe there are some areas where you've been misunderstood by your audience and you wish to make corrections. How do you assess your own impact and the response the world has given you?
I am glad they have given criticism. What would have been awful would have been silence. The writer writes and the outer world has its say as well. I don’t mind criticism for the strange reason I seldom read it. Writing is about the world. I don't write about affairs of the heart. I've always been – since I became an adult – interested in the larger movements in the world. And I find it very hard, I know this is unfair, to practice this kind of writing. I found it very hard to deal with social writing, a sort of comedy of manners. They don't interest me. I don't mean this in any unkind way, remember.

In this part of the world we are not familiar with people who make writing their career. People take jobs and maybe try to find a little time to do a book. Could you tell us about a writing career, doesn’t it expose one to loneliness or risk of economic strains?
I suppose it does and although I had no money when I began, people aren't always aware of this, I had about five or six pounds when I left the university in 1954 and if I hadn't had a cousin living in London, I went to stay with him, I really wonder what would have happened to me. And then there is a risk of going on, on, on. To be a writer, you don't just write one book. You write that and then you write another and another and another. And where are these books coming from? It's a problem for a writer. I always thought –how on earth am I going to do another book? So that is the great risk for me, the problem of creative drying up, of not knowing where the next book is coming from, where the next matter will come from. The other thing about the economics of it, I think, if you are writing profoundly that in a way solves itself. If you are writing without political prejudice, the problem of commercial movement for your work solves itself. What do I mean by political prejudice? I mean people to feel that in their writing they should celebrate some kind of movement in their country. All that becomes very, very narrow to the outside audience. And I think it should be discouraged. The writer has to consider his material very, very carefully and the most difficult thing in a writing career is getting to know what you wish to write about. What is bad and should be discouraged is reading somebody else’s book and thinking: well, I could do one of those too. Many books are like that and that doesn't get anywhere.

In psychoanalysis we believe that writers shed their tears on paper and write about their experiences partly, and society as a whole. Do you think you are represented in any of your works?
But one doesn't only write about one’s experiences, one writes about one's frustrations, one's intuitions. One writes about one's emotions, and emotions are not always based on emotions. There are emotions based on situations.

To some of us you are a hero. Do you consider yourself a hero?
If I did, I would be extraordinarily foolish.

I have read Miguel Street and I am bothered by the fact that you used peculiar ways to choose characters. There are characters who are too cold and then there is this exciting character that tells the public that they are going to be crucified. And then the narrator of the story seems to be one of the characters. Which technique do you use to come up with this?
It's a very old book and it actually was written by me in about six weeks in 1965 but you know I was quite young. To get started an idea of memories of that street came to me from many years before -30, 39, 40 and at that stage in my life, because I had been so worried and life had been so rough with me, I made jokes very, very easily. So the humour was very natural. I could make a joke, two jokes, to a page without worry. I was young. Later the humour became darker, required a lot more sense, but essentially I've retained that sense of humour.

Your writing career has spanned five decades. What has been your greatest inspiration?
I think the inspiration really has been the wish to go on as a writer.

--Sunday Monitor, March 30, 2008

Keith Ministries stage colourful show

By DENNIS D. MUHUMUZA

The catchphrase was 'come in your dancing shoes!' This was on the evening of October 3 when Keith Ministries staged a gripping dance show at Makerere University's Main Hall.

It was an exclusive gospel performance that Uncle Ben, the chaplain St Francis Chapel, also patron of the ministry, called "a beautiful day to celebrate Jesus." Prior to this, he had provoked the students into "a shout for Jesus."

The auditorium was filled to capacity with campusers who used the occasion to relax before serious lectures resume Monday.

At every move, the frenzied audience would get on their feet; wave their arms in the air as they sang along.

Indeed it was a groove-on night as the youthful members comprising the Keith Ministry danced like butterflies, with strokes ranging from the famous Michael Jackson slide to the common traditional Kiganda, Kikiga and Kinyarwanda motifs.

Some of the songs performed included the popular Inkane by a Ugandan Nairobi-based gospel crooner, Ambassador. Others were Stand Still by Deitric Hurdon and Let's Dance done by the group itself and many more. But it was the Blue Sky Dance that got the crowd giving an eardrum-bursting applause.

Mugi, the Power Fm presenter did his emceeing role distinctively; every time he came on stage the ladies would cheer. His calm jokes were no doubt hilarious.

What scored most were the costumes. From silk lesus and orange overalls, to suits, every dance had its matching costume that reinforced a kind of glitter while on stage. This, plus the good sound system, dependable lighting and how performers looked steered real glitz.

Though it was okay for the beautiful girls to spoil themselves with make-up, it appeared rather odd for their male counterparts to have their lips shine with too much makeup too. Besides that, the different hairstyles were 'too hot' [as one Ken observed], for born-again dancers. Hair that would dance on the heads in Rastafarian style was part of the package.

It was however a really good show. By the time the two-hour performance that started at 7 p.m. ended, the audience was still chorusing without any signs of tiredness to the "arise hallelujahs" in honour of their lord.

According to Keith Kibirango, leader of the group, Keith Ministries is "about reaching the youth through music and dance." He added the ministry is preparing a school tour around Kampala and Jinja.

Coca cola, Power FM and New Christian Bookshop sponsored the show.

--Daily Monitor, Saturday, October 9, 2004, page 19

Book Review

Title: Pale Souls Abroad and other tales
Author: Ulysses Chuka Kibuuka
Publisher: Fountain Publishers Ltd.
Reviewer: Dennis D. Muhumuza

It is a collection of seven stories in 218 pages that will crack you up and hold your interest to the last word. Kibuuka writes a tale-twister that leaves you laughing at yourself for having no clue some of the stories will end the way they do.

Stupor for example is a story of a respected banker who takes a stranded woman to a lodge and they revel and have sex only for him to wake up and find her dead. Panic sets in as he tries to hide the body. What makes it unforgettable is that the reader, like the protagonist, thinks Nyugunyu is truly dead only to discover at the end she had just fainted badly, as she is met going to church with other women while joking about the "buffoon" of a man that thought her dead.

In High Protocol, a lustful man is given his corrupt master's "jet-black Mercedes 500SEL" to go pick Maria who has just flown in first-class from California. The driver can't wait to meet the boss's beautiful daughter. Much to his disappointment, he finds out that Maria is a cat!

Kibuuka's descriptive power is admirable. In The Naked Womb, one cannot forget the three-year old homeless girl "trudging like an aged woman on the village path, the skin and hair yellowed like bronze from kwashiorkor, a distended abdomen and a thick host of flies, mostly bluebottles –blanketing her eyes in two dark silvery-blue circles and other hordes of the ugly insects burrowing in and out of her ears and nostrils like bees on a hive."

Or the Russian woman who is "very pretty with a compact body, packed like coiled dynamo wires."

The stories are filled with fleeting incidents: a man making love to a ghost without knowing it, an old man that "kneads his own shit into the cassava flour to make bait" while on a fishing spree and the woman that had "the nasty habit of losing control of her bowels during orgasm," to mention a few.

It's absurd comedy and upon deep reflection you realise the author hides behind that to bemoan a rotten society teeming with moral corruption, men raping their house girls, medical students abetting abortion, leaders running down the economy, drug-dealing and evil humour like in that anecdote of Banamba's car with seatbelts interwoven with hypodermic needles "that suck the passenger's blood, which Banamba then sells off in gallonfuls to European markets" and all the ill deeds that continue to befoul contemporary society.

The writer is especially critical of western influence and highly patronising, pretentious, selfish and dangerously ambitious individuals.

His knowledge of the country's diverse ethnicities and cultures is intact as presented in the conflict between modernity and tradition.

Kibuuka is arguably Uganda's only existential writer and is the author of other works like For the Fairest and Of Saints and Scarecrows.

--Sunday Monitor, March 30, 2008

Jet 1 launching album this Easter

By DENNIS D. MUHUMUZA

Ever heard of a Samia contemporary music group? It does exist and it is made up of seven Samia young men. Jet 1 Crew is their group name and they sing gospel music in nearly all genres from Pop to Afro-jazz to Rap, which makes it appealing to people of all age groups.

But this group was not born singing in the church. They lived in the same neighbourhood, with a friendship so strong they took themselves far more than brothers. And they drank themselves silly with the money they made, smuggling goods from Kenya into their hometown, Busia.

"I don't know what would have happened to us if God hadn't arrived in time to rescue us," group member Joseph Masiga says.

It was the beginning of a life-changing journey that, like a floodlight, continues to shine on the lives of many others.
The ex-lost boys joined Busia Miracle Centre, buffed their dancing shoes, then danced and sang for the Lord. The response was instantaneous and profound, they decided they could use their potential to "smuggle" God's life-giving message to wider audiences. So they formed the JET 1 crew.

"JET 1 is an acronym for Jesus Team One, which signifies the oneness of the group in that we belong to the same church, and with a single mission to represent Jesus Christ all the way," Masiga said.

They are members of Tororo Busia Group [TBG], a Makerere University mission team that holds crusades in countryside schools to take the gospel of Jesus to the young generation.
The seven-member group has through music and dance also ministered in Mukono, Malaba, Tororo and performed in Nairobi.

But it is a chance hearing of their song, by a big-hearted lady that turned their fortunes around.
The song, Yiwuma Ali Koti Ewe which in Samia means "There's None Like You," touched and inspired Ms Catherine Piwang to start supporting the group. She introduced them to Principal Judge James Ogoola, who then invited them to his home to sing for him.

"He was so impressed by our music and he went around boasting that he had met the first Samia contemporary gospel artistes," Masiga says.

Ogoola organised a fundraising to help the group raise money to record their first album. Produced at Fenon Studios by popular local producer Steve Jean, this seven-track album will be launched on Easter Monday, March 24, at 3p.m., at University Community Fellowship, off Sir Apollo Kaggwa road, next to Garden Courts Hostel and entrance is free.

"All these are God-inspired songs," Masiga says.

--Daily Monitor, March 21, 2008

Deox flying high in The Apprentice Africa

By DENNIS D. MUHUMUZA

Action ensues at The Apprentice Africa. The contestants were for the first time saved the intimidating presence of Mr Shobanjo. The C.E.O sent them a video message instead.

It was actually a 'lecture' on branding that reminded them that popular brands like Pepsi are distinct because of remarkable branding. They were then told to "create an original brand identity" for groundnuts. That was the week's task.

Project managers: Bekeme for Matrix Corporation and Nnamdi for the Zulus were hereafter asked to choose two members each from the 'enemy' camp to join their respective teams. That's how Eddie and Oscar joined the girls, and Kathleen and smart Eunice became Zulus.

Both teams were soon engrossed in designing, labelling, packaging and marketing their brands. The Zulus researched about the price of "bottled ground nuts", designed a catchy mascot and hit the studios to record a jingle for their brand, Zizi. You should have seen Deox Tibeingana using his magical tenor to add vocal décor to Nnamdi's bass and Eunice's alluring soprano!

Meanwhile, Nancy was upset a team mate delayed the promotional materials and promptly sought divine intervention by leading her team into prayer, asking God to help them in the matter.

At the end, the teams exhibited their brands which were analysed and assessed by the judges. Zulu Corporation won with 183 points to Matrix's 173. The jubilant Zulus were sent off to enjoy themselves at Terra Kulture –an art exhibition, and would later watch a stage play by Ahmed Yerima, ending the treat with an evening of free shopping at a gift centre.

Our Oscar may have been "very happy" to join the beauties but when they lost he became a bundle of nerves. Shobanjo rebuked the small, almost invisible fonts and the poor colour use of yellow and green on their product.

Saying customers were attracted by brands, he trashed their brand name, 'Nutty Nuts' calling it "terrible…Imagine a detergent like OMO had decided to call itself 'Washy Wash'…"

Asked who she thought ought to be fired, Bekeme named Nancy. But our girl fought like a tiger saying she had offered her best to the team in terms of ideas.

Shobanjo suddenly criticised Bekeme for failing to reject Nancy's advice if she thought it fickle.
"As a leader the final call must be yours… how would the president of a nation justify a bad decision made because he got bad advice from his cabinet?"

The 26-year old Nigerian is pretty, classy, sharp and described herself as "tenacious, irredeemably ambitious and calculative" but all that could not save her from being fired.

Clearly, the last man/woman standing will be a visionary leader that gets things done quickly and effectively. Going by their stellar performance this far, that person could be Nigeria's Eunice or Uganda’s Deox.

--Daily Monitor, April 19, 2008

Apprentices conspire as pressure mounts

By DENNIS D. MUHUMUZA

The assertiveness associated with Kenyans must be fake after the eviction of Joyce Mbaya from The Apprentice Africa. She became the second Kenyan in three weeks to be fired for refusing to fight when they would have won.

And on Sunday Joyce pinned none for the loss of Matrix Corporation. When Shobanjo asked, "Who do you recommend I should fire?" she replied, "Sir, as the project manager, I take responsibility for neglecting the things I did during this task…"

It was the first time the astonished C.E.O was seeing a leader blame herself. In all fairness, either Nigeria's Eunice or Ghanaian Regina deserved the boot, but Joyce forced Shobanjo to wag his trademark finger and pronounce her fired.

It was a living example of self-sacrifice and was justified by the parting hugs the dashing Kenyan received from the two girls she had "saved from the guillotine" before she boarded the home-bound taxi.

The week's task was to "create a four-page newspaper insert for Bank PHB" and the team that came up with the most compelling newspaper insert design won.

Mr. Shobanjo reminded all this was his field and they had to walk the beat to be able to please him. Homeboy Oscar Kamukama, project manager for Zulu Corporation, was midway accused of weak leadership, and knew he would be roasted in the boardroom.

Luckily, the ancient view that you can tell a lot about a person by looking at their shoes inspired Zulus to photograph pictures of shoes of different people: a security guard, a primary school pupil and some team members. The original design grippingly captured the bank's desire to serve and meet the needs of people of all walks of life.

Meanwhile, the Matrix Corporation, buoyed on by that advert that that one day cars will run on water, "At Bank PHB we are already thinking like that," decided on man one day settling on the moon with booming economic activities, ending with, "Bank PHB will be the first bank in space!" It simply sounded fantasy-tic!

But "no consumer has the time to waste trying to pick information," admonished Shobanjo, "your design lacks what I call the 'wow factor' but Zulu Corp.'s design makes you curious to want to know more about the content."

That’s how Zulu Corporation won. Gone are six contestants, as conspiracy and pressure continues to mount.

--Daily Monitor, April 12, 2008