by Sr. Margaret Anne Meyer MMM                                 USA                        30.04.2025

Sr. Louisa Ritchie came in 1967 to relieve Sr. Evangelist.  She was wonderful in the theater and an exceptionally good sister in charge.  It was not an easy time.  There were always attacks on the Baganda and one day Sr. Patricia Bransfield and Agnes Manifold who had recently joined us went to Masaka Hospital to get blood. The Mayor of Masaka was dumped out of the trunk of a Volkswagen riddled with bullets. The next day a picture of him was in the paper saying he died of natural causes and was brought to Maska Hospital for treatment.  Sr. Mairead Gorman and I had been at the Counsels Cloisters a fancy name for the Government building in Maska where we enjoyed a sundowner at which he was enthroned as Mayor.  I was terribly upset to see a man of his dignity treated so badly.  How could one believe the newspapers?  He felt like a personal friend.

This incident happened around 1972-73.  I t was the time of General Iddi Amin Dadda who had taken over the country on Jan 25th, 1971 while President Obote was out of the country.  At first Amin was considered a hero by the Buganda people because he brought the Kabaka’s body back from England for a State Burial. nKabaka was the old King who had been deposed. nIt was about 11 months later when we suspected things were not as they appeared. nA priest was shot for writing something adverse about Amin in the newspaper “Muno”.  His car was burned to cover up the murder, but people knew and spread the word about what really happened.  I had known this priest and grieved a lot for him and for our country, Uganda.

As I said before it was not an easy time to live in the country and every time an attempt on Amin’s life was made, he would go on a rampage and kill the Ancholi tribe. b During one of these times, a woman had a caesarean section and the next day she asked to go home because her husband was a police officer of the Ancholi tribe, and she feared he would be killed. bAs much as I did not want her to go too early, I did not want her husband to be in danger. bI was delighted to see her back six months later with her little son, Caesar, who had measles. At At that time, the complications of measles were the cause of death for many children.  Some had to have tracheotomies in order breathe. The use of steroids reduced this.  Thank God little Caesar did well, and the family were all reunited.