Uganda marked another year of Independence on Thursday, October 9th. Staff and students worked together to prepare a full day of celebrations. We assembled early in the morning for a reading of Ugandan History which students actually seemed to enjoy! Then several students performed ceremonies involving a color change – it was amateur but still quite well done. A very spirited debate followed, sponsored by the CSB debate club and titled: ” Has Uganda gained independence through the front door only to lose it through the backdoor?” This debate was one of the most encouraging moments I have seen in our time at Christ School. Students forumed the debate but staff got involved in a peer manner, sharing their viewpoints with obvious energy and passion. The crowd roared time and time again as various speakers made their points. Many of the points circled on what I see as peripheral issues of symbolic independence (western clothing and hairstyles) but many also reached further to ask why our own Ugandan leaders are failing to act in an positively independent manner. Education is an obvious example: Uganda still struggles with an imported, outdated and illogical system. But the Ministry of Education is now Ugandan-run. Why don’t we see change? Perhaps these questions are more complicated than they appear. And perhaps our students will someday be the ones to make these positive changes.
Remembering our last Independence Day here, where we were the recipients of stones, I felt some trepidation as I attended the debate. The most positively received speaker statements centered on anti-white sentiment. I think that I have to receive that criticism, willingly, as penance for the sins of the white ones before us who treated humans as animals and used and abused for their own welfare.
Students watched a special movie brought by Scotticus last year: Endurance is the story of an Ethiopian runner who came from abject poverty to win the Olympics. Students made more noise than I have ever heard while watching this inspiring video about African success. Then they acted out their own success in subsequent table tennis, football, volleyball and running competitions. Fun was had by all.

The evening ended with the Candidates Party; a sort of homecoming as we discovered. Candidates are students who will sit for their national exams this year. For many it will be their last year with us. Candidates Party is a time to celebrate these kids, to encourage them, and to give them one last night of fun before the hard work of sitting exams starts. Girls dressed in party clothes, boys were smart too. There was meat and soda, the requisite speeches, and a little bit of dancing. And now, starting Monday, we face UNEB together.