AUTHOR: PAULINE MANIRAGUHA BANGIRANA
PP 162 COST: 60,000
Available at all major bookshops
Superintendent of Police Pauline Bangirana’s memoirs of have
life are a useful addition to the historical record of Uganda.
She was among the first cohort of ten female police officers
recruited to the Uganda Police at the tail end of colonial rule. She was at the
forefront of improving conditions for women in the force. Women in the force
should be grateful to her for sticking to her guns and refusing to resign when
she got pregnant with her first son. The police standing orders to did not
allow, for women officers getting pregnant, staying on the force when pregnant
or maternity leave.
It is clear throughout the book that while being a woman
made her stand out, it also worked against her in a force, which was regularly
in a state of flux but also still hangover from an institionalised sexism, carried
over from the initial Uganda Armed Constabulary, down to the initial design of
the women’s uniform.
"It is a familiar script for the trailblazing women of her generation. She got into school through the foresight of an older relative, distinguished herself despite the barriers thrown up against her at every corner and pushed her luck as far as meagre resources and the goodwill of relatives and strangers could carry her....
She is unique though, because as an officer of the peace, especially
as a detective in the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), she had a
privileged vantage point to observe the goings on of all independent Uganda
governments. While most readable, personal accounts in recent years have been
of National Resistance Movement (NRM) types in the evening of their lives,
Bangirana’s story is a breath of fresh air, told by a public servant – an
insider, whose perspective has straddled the breadth and width of independent
Uganda.
The start-stop-start again nature of her career – she was
retired in the 1970s and again in the 1990s, is an analogy for Uganda’s up and
downs over the almost 35 years she served in the force. Her life also maps the
breakdown in societal values and the eventual pull back from the abyss of
despair that came in 1986. Through it all she reveals how people acting
selfishly or selflessly cause the many small ripples that change society for
better.
"For students of history her recollection of events surrounding, the death of Kabaka Mutesa II, the attempted assassinations of Milton Obote, the coups of 1971 and 1985, the deaths of Archbishop Janan Luwum and more recently Dr Andrew Kayiira and many other anecdotes make for scintillating reading...
Useful too is her crash course in criminal law, necessary in
her narration of how she helped update the training manuals of the police in
1969. It is telling that many of the laws on our books for which we are
criicised by human rights activists are carryovers from the colonial time.
Her career during which she was a regular police officer, a
detective, barracks commandant and OC Central police station compressed in 162
pages is written in a choppy, frantic style as if she has a story to tell and
cannot wait to get it out. It is not a tell all account, given the
sensitiveness of many of the subjects she tackles, but it is still a gripping
account of a time fast fading from our collective memory. The book – part
thriller, part testimonial, is worth its weight in gold for the surprising
revelations of many key turns in history.
Bangirana’s loyalty to the force is evident at every turn,
despite the number of setbacks she suffered. Her discipline and faith in God
carried her through some real soul searching moments. The book comes to a startling
end that while unfortunate does, not diminish from the stature of the woman who
has now retired to a less dramatic life in Ibanda, western Uganda.
A must read for every one and anyone trying to work out why
Uganda is the way it is today. Or for anyone looking for a fun read.
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