At 11 years of age, Alifunsi Tugwezire Adyeeri was taken in as one of the keepers of the residence of then, ordinary Hoima Catholic, Dr. Albert Edward Baharagate Akiiki. Little did he know that he was to spend nearly his entire life looking after the man in a robe.
Currently living with the retired Bishop at St. Jude Parish in Masindi district, Tugwezire counts 41 solid years serving and taking care of the prelate. He knows what he will eat and wear. As the Bishop gets older, he watches his sleeping hours, bathes, and clothes him.
Giving a chuckle, Tugwezire took our reporter down memory lane explaining a sad and jolly story of how he came to meet Bishop Baharagate, who is currently the longest living bishop in Uganda. He is also the only surviving founding father of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM).
“Before the day I met him, I had never seen a Bishop in my life,” said Tugwezire appearing frozen in time with his eyes turning red as if he was to shade a tear. Born to Mauricia Nyakahwa and Deusdedit Biribonwa in Pachwa parish currently in Kagadi district, Tugwezire never lived to share the love of his biological parents given the fact that they died when he was still a toddler.
He says that after the passing of his parent, he was taken to St. Monica Kinalugonjo. When he became of age, nuns at St. Monica enrolled him into catechetical instruction, and in 1981, he graduated at the top of his class. The soft-spoken Tugwezire narrates that his performance attracted the eyes of Dr. Baharagate who had visited the orphanage and eventually chose him to join the housekeepers at the bishop’s house.
Tugwezire says that upon his arrival at the bishops’ residence among other responsibilities, he was given the task of taking care of Vicar General, Emmanuel Wandera, who had suffered a stroke that kept him bedridden for ten years until he breathed his last in 1990.
Shortly before Mgrs. Wandera passed on, and Bishop Baharagate was diagnosed with hypertension, diabetes, and other related ailments. The ill health almost incapacitated him prompting his resignation from the helm of the diocese in 1991 when he had just made 22 years as a Bishop.
The Bishop did not abandon his ‘good boy when he left for retirement; instead, he brought him to Our Lady of Fatima, Nakulabye parish in the Kampala Archdiocese, where they would spend the next 29 years. Of all the days he has spent with the bishop, Tugwezire cannot forget two awful nights when the bishop almost died in his arms.
One of the nights happened when the bishop was still the ordinary of Hoima. “We were attacked by armed thugs; I think they had come to rob. We had them breaking into the residence and we rushed out. Bullets were fired but fortunately, no one was injured and later police came to our rescue. That was Obote II regime,” he recalled.
Although the aforementioned night was bad, Tugwezire says that it doesn’t match the day when the prelate collapsed in his arms and for minutes he thought he had passed away. This was days after he had been discharged from Nsambya hospital where he had been admitted for a month following an accident in a bathroom.
When the Bishop regained his consciousness, all he had to say was demand his ‘son’ to be formally wedded in church. In the previous years, the Bishop’s good boy had had a woman with whom they bore three children but he had not yet received Holy Matrimony.
“The Bishop asked me to get married when he woke up. He wished for me to get out of sinning. He said to me, through tears, that he might be damned to hell if he let me continue to cohabit with someone’s daughter, despite the fact that he had spent almost his entire time as a priest and bishop preaching against such vices,” he narrated.
The next day, the Bishop reportedly refused to eat or drink insisting that he would only do so if Tugwezire had wedded. But the ‘boy’ was hesitant saying, he had no money, an excuse the Bishop dismissed telling him that he only needed the permission of the woman’s parents.
“Several priests were sent to my wife’s family to seek permission so that I marry their daughter. The mother agreed without resistance, but certain members of the family insisted that I offer them some important items, such as photos of the Omukama and others. All of these were later taken care of, and the bishop married us here at St. Jude Parish in August of last year (2021),”
To Tugwezire, for the years he has spent with the Bishop, he has learned a lot of things and met several people. All of which he is grateful and he is certain that even if there was a chance to have another life on earth, he could choose to spend it with Bishop Baharagate. The only bother Tugwezire reports is the wrong perception from some people who, despite the simple life of near poverty that they live, think he is loaded.
“There he is; he is the one in charge of the bishop’s wealth. Many say. other even those who are close to the bishop have an assumption that I steal his money. That breaks my heart because at times I fell to cater for my little family given the demands of taking care of the bishop,” he noted with a saddened voice.
For people, who have witnessed Tugwezire’s care for the Bishop, he has been a man of perseverance and dedication. Rev. Fr. Morris Kida, says that only a select few people are capable of achieving what Tugwezire does.
“Since he was a teenager, all he has done is look after the bishop. Although he occasionally seems overburdened, to him this is the easiest of tasks. He has done good and he teaches a full lesson to some of us,” Rev. Fr. Kida noted.
Justine Tugwezire, his wife, also questions his husband’s talent. She says that at the beginning of their relationship, she envied him for devoting so much time to taking care of the elderly guy, but as time has gone on, she has come to appreciate what he does.
“To him, the bishop is a fatherly figure and his responsibility. Our family now lives in Kagadi and rarely shows up but we have learned to live with it. Before, they didn’t pay him, but lately, the diocese has started providing him some cash and things to enable him to support his family. it’s not a lot but we highly appreciate it,” the wife noted.
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