Feature: Yiga’s resilience, persistence sailed him through Uganda’s 1980s bush war

Having lived an impoverished life as a child, he now looks back at his life then comparing it to what he has become today.

His journey has been a mixture of resilience, persistence and consistence.

To earn a living, he says he had to do a cocktail of jobs, first as a casual labourer in the market, part-time teacher and later a journalist, singer and actor.

Yiga says he faced his most defining moment as a child growing up in the 1980s. He had to endure the difficult times of war.

Hearing gunshots during the night and day, seeing women, fellow children (including him) being kidnapped and some killed were some of the experiences he had to go through.

Different rebel groups, including the National Resistance Army (NRA), were tussling it out in the bush to dislodge the Obote Government.

As early as 13 years, Yiga was already facing the world on his own.

Growing up, he says he didn’t spend a lot of time with his parents partly because of the war and abandonment.

 “The civil war took place when I was barely 10 years old. I didn’t spend a lot of time with my biological parents because my mother (Mary Nassiwa) who I got to learn was a sex worker gave birth to me and abandoned me at a house in Kirinya house when I was just two months,” he says.

Yiga found solace in Maria Nayiga who took care of him from the time he was two months old. He later started living with his father who traced him upon learning he was dumped at a house in Kirinya.

In the 1980s as the civil war raged on, Yiga’s father enrolled him at Makindye Nursery School. He says he was later taken to his grandmother’s place in the village where he joined Nakaziba Primary School in Bugere where he studied up to primary three and joined Batvalley Primary School. He later joined Bugema Adventist Primary school where he finished his primary school studies in 1986.

During primary studies, Yiga narrates that different rebel groups would attack Bugema Adventist Primary school, where he went to school. One of the rebel outfits, he narrates, was Federal Democratic Movement Uganda (FEDEMU), an anti-Obote insurgency that used to camp just outside the school.

“Some of the other groups that made rounds in the area included the NRA and another group led by the late Kasirye Ggwanga whose name I don’t remember. FEDEMU was headed by the late Captain Nkwanga and Uganda National Rescue Front headed by Gen Moses Ali,” he recalls.

He narrates how FEDEMU one time carried out a raid in their school and kidnapped pupils, both boys, girls. Teachers were taken hostage. 

“Because FEDEMU was just outside our school, they would storm the school and kidnap some students to go and help them in different operations. I was one of those they kidnapped,” he says.

He adds: “We were trained how to use guns. Those who tried to escape from the camp or questioned the rebel’s group’s deeds faced their wrath.”

Yiga says he was set free seven months later adding that he was surprised to find his father in a terrible condition.

Most of Yiga’s siblings were adopted by his father’s friends. He says he turned down the offer of him being adopted by any of his father’s friends because he wanted to be on his own.

Pushing on

At the age of 13 years, Yiga decided to look for a job so as to survive. The first job he got, he says, was transporting matooke from Kalerwe market to people’s homes.

“I decided to look for a job at a young age because I needed to survive. I got a bicycle and started transport people’s matooke to their places from the market,” he says.

“It was time to join secondary school but my father didn’t have any money to pay school fees. Luckily enough, the administration of Bugema Adventist called me for a bursary, but I refused because I didn’t want to encounter rebels again since I thought they would come back at the school and kidnap me again.”

One of the people who owned the biggest market in Kalerwe were he used to work during his primary vacation (he only remembers him as Musisi) was Yiga’s good friend and at the same time the head teacher of Kampala Tutorial College, current St Francis Tutorial College in Mengo Kabaka’s lake. He says Musisi allowed him to study for free.

 “When I was in senior three, the administration of Kampala Tutorial College asked me to be a student teacher, but without pay since I didn’t pay school fees which I did,” Yiga narrates.

Yiga taught Cristian Religious Education (C.R.E) and Luganda, he also taught Music Dance and Drama. After school, he would go to Nita theatre now called Theatre Labonita where he would perform on stage and also write music for performers. He says he developed the music talent at Bugema Adventist Primary school.

Forging life after the war

Yiga joined Nita Theatre after his secondary education were he was officially incorporated into the music dance and drama crew. Besides being at the theatre, he says he also practiced journalism at Munakatemba, a newspaper whose content centered around the arts.

“As I did MDD at Nita theatre, I was also a news reporter working with Sam Dick Kasolo’s newspaper that was called Munakatemba newspaper,” he recalls, adding that, “Kasolo saw me in secondary school where I was an information prefect and when I finished school, he got me a scholarship in journalism which I did before he offered me a job.”

In 1992, Yiga says he joined the Daily Monitor where he was working under Linda Nabusayi who was the news editor then.

He later got a music Scottish manager he only remembers as Peter.

“Peter was a manager at National Water and Sewerage Corporation by that time. I started earning in my music in 1994. I remember being paid between sh500,000 and sh1m for writing music and my performances. Every week, I would do three shows daily and it is during this time when I met people like Mesach Ssemakula and Geofrey Lutaaya,” he narrates.

Yiga says he had for long wanted to travel to the US for greener pastures.

 “As a journalist and singer, I had access to the American embassy library when it was still in Nakasero. I would go there to find out any information of possible,” he narrates.

He says he first travelled to the US in 1995 when fellow journalist Basoga Nsadhu, helped him make it possible.

“Nsadhu called me and told me he is taking me and a group of 42 other people to America and for a cultural performance and a cultural exchange program,” he recalls.

Nsadhu helped him and his other colleagues get a three-year visa.

While in the US, Nsadhu advised us to be friendly with the people we met at conferences, symposium and other events we attended.

Yiga says he did several odd jobs in different companies in the first three years in the U.S. before he could think of trying to venture into business.

“I did different odd jobs in several companies. I managed to save the little money I earned. My former boss too was friendly to me. He showed me how to acquire a loan in America and how to go about the real estate business, a business venture I had picked interest in,” he says.

“When I expressed interest in joining the real estate business, my former boss also equipped me with more than enough knowledge of how the business goes. I registered and started a company known as Iris Homes, a real estate company,” he adds.

When Yiga came back to Uganda in 2009, he had saved enough money from his Iris Homes company in the US. He used this money to buy a building in Ntinda where he started a University in 2012 which he called LIJIF International American University. The University was teaching girls from humble backgrounds nursing.

“I got a licence to operate the University from National Council for Higher Education. My university also had be given approval by the Nurses council and Ministry of Health,” he says.

He says the University operated for five years before it collapsed in 2016 because of land wrangles.

Yiga says he was also running a free weekly newspaper called Ganyana. He says he knew nothing about newspaper so he ended up closing.

Currently, he is into real estate business, owns a security firm and is also runs a charity organisation called life in Jesus ministries.

Tracing his roots

Yiga says he knew nothing about his heritage something he says could have been so because he spent little time with his biological parents. He says he picked interest in his heritage when he relocated to the United States in 1995. In the US, he narrates, he met Nanteza Kakembo, the then president for African Cultural Exchange Program in the United States.

 “I remember meting a lady called Nanteza Kakembo in the US. She told me about my lineage which I came to learn was linked to Buganda Kingdom’s royal clan,” he narrates.

“I got to learn that my lineage starts from Kasaka, a son of King Tebucwereke coming down to Ngujuuba who is resting at Ngalonkalu Zirobwe. Zirobwe fathered three sons and a daughter who included; Majuubi, Nakabululu, Matovu and Wamala,” he says.

“According to my continued research, I found out that Wamala was my grandfather who gave birth to my biological father Livingstone Musisi Lubega. My mother Mary Nassiwa of Engo Clan is buried at Kyamulibwa, Masaka in a village called Bwasandeku."