Missions -- Uganda; Negrillos; Uganda -- Description and travel
Besides the more direct spiritual work and the medical work that are
being carried on in Toro, there are also industrial and educational
departments. This former branch has not been developed to any extent,
owing to the lack of workers, but, as far as he is able, King Daudi
Kasagama personally superintends it. Being most anxious that his people
should be instructed in useful trades, some years ago he sent a youth,
Iburahimu, into Mengo to be apprenticed for two years to carpentering at
the Industrial Mission of the Church Missionary Society. When the period
had transpired and the lad had served his time, Daudi wrote to England
ordering Rs.300 worth of tools, and, close to his own house, the King had
a large suitable shed erected. Iburahimu was then installed as Carpenter
to the Royal Household, and twenty youths, who had signed for a two
years’ apprenticeship, were placed under him for instruction.
[Illustration: A SCHOOL IN TORO.]
Any serving lad of the King who was employed on no particular service,
and refused to be taught, was put in the chain gang for three months; for
His Majesty was determined to put a price on loafing in his household.
The entire educational work of Uganda is being carried on in Church
Schools. Receiving no subsidy from the British Government, up to the
present there has been no question of Education bills, and consequently
there are no passive resisters among the Baganda!
The School system is, I believe, the one adopted by the Americans in
their board schools, where boys and girls learn together, and no social
distinctions are recognized, but in Uganda, besides non-differentiation
of sex and caste, there are also no age limitation—children, parents, and
grandparents all attend the reading schools.
On reaching Toro, Miss Pike immediately took over this department of
the work, and within a few months the School had outgrown two different
buildings, and an extension had to be contemplated in order to make room
for the 300 average daily attendances. As soon as this was made known, a
willing band of workers was collected together under the Katikiro, and
started throwing out the end of the mud building. I am quite sure no
Member of Parliament ever laboured more strenuously than this one did!
Whether it was levelling the soil, demolishing the old wall, erecting the
new, or roofing it in, he was always in the thick of it. But his dignity
would not permit him to throw aside any of his superfluous garments!
And the coarse, Jaeger-coloured vest, tweed coat and waistcoat, and top
layers of draperies proved very oppressive. Every now and again he sank
back in his chair quite exhausted, gorgeous coloured handkerchiefs were
applied as mops to his steaming brow, and two attendants stood round with
an umbrella and fan.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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