Solomon Kyabayinze Mpalanyi, one of Buganda’s foremost novelists and Luganda language experts is dead. According to family sources, Omutaka Mpalanyi died from a spike in his blood pressure which could not be controlled at the run down Mulago Hospital. He was pronounced dead at 8:00 PM on February 2, 2009. Mpalanyi has been part of the generation of exceptional Baganda literary masters who are credited for creating Buganda’s popular novel industry. The most famous of his books is Basajja Mivule, followed by Ndikumma Okulya (Nenkulyoowa Omwooyo). He also wrote Ssanyu Teribeerera, Nnaku Teba Y’omu and a few others.

The family sources add that Omutaka Mpalanyi’s health has been generally alright. And that the high blood pressure attack occurred when he was in his farm at Kabuwambo, Ssingo county. He has been teaching Luganda at Nkumba University and Lubiri High School in Kabaka’s Palace. He has also been an active member and former secretary of Ekibiina Ky’Olulimi Oluganda (Luganda Language Society).

Solomon Mpalanyi was born in Ssekanyonyi, Magala, Ssingo county. He attended Nnabagereka Primary School and Mityana Junior School before going to King’s College Buddo, Nagalabi, Busiro county. After Buddo, he joined Kyambogo Teachers’ Training College where he qualified as a high school teacher and soon joined the East African Community Printing Office. In 1968 Omutaka Mpalanyi joined London University for post-graduate studies in literary and publishing studies.

Sources in Washington DC have informed us by email that the Baganda Community in the USA capital and other cities have take the news very hard. Omutaka Mpalanyi was popular with friends of his son William Mpalanyi who lived in Washington DC for several years. And he was also remembered for his presence and brief but very impressive presence at Ttabamiruka ’07. The late Omutaka Solomon Mpalanyi is survived by number of children and grandchildren.

The head of one of the largest and most powerful Baganda clans, Mmamba (lung fish), passed away on January 20, 2009 after an extended period of poor health. Gabunga Yosiya Kasozi died in Mulago Hospital. Gabunga was  86 years old (Not 90 as we reported earlier in Gabunga Yosiya Kasozi of Mmamba Clan Is Very Sick).  He has been in bad general health for over a year. In his condolence message to members of the Mmamba clan, Ssabasajja Kabaka Mutebi II expressed deep sorrow at the loss of the Mmamba patriarch.

According to sources, the deceased Mmamba patriarch included in his last will and testament a strong statement warning Kabaka’s subjects that Mmengo [under the leadership of Katikkiro JB Walusimbi] is actively contributing to the weakening of clans and their leaders which could undermine the Kingdom. His statement reminds Baganda that their clan system is the foundation of the Kingdom, pointing out that when Kabaka Mutebi took rein in 1993 Baganda were still one unity and many more than when Milton Obote exile Ssekabaka Muteesa II in 1966 because the clan system still worked.

A few years ago Kabaka Mutebi authorized members of the Nankere sub clan (ssiga) within  Mmamba to break off and become an autonomous clan, named Mmamba Enkerekere. This development put Gabunga Kasozi under a lot of stress but there appears no evidence that it contributed to his health problems.  On the contrary, according to Mmamba sources, Yosiya Kasozi has been fiercely loyal to Kabaka Mutebi and very concerned about the corruption and disrespect for Kabaka which have become common place in Mmengo.

The first Gabunga of the Mmamba clan was Mubiru who is estimated to have been alive around the year 1250. Yosiya Kasozi was the 36th Gabunga and reined for over 49 years. He ascended to the position of Gabunga in 1959, when he succeeded his late father Semyoni Galiwango Gabunga. His mother was the late Kulisitiina Noola Ndwaddewazibwa of the Nsenene clan.

One of Africa’s most talented, enduring and famous singing stars is dead. Miriam Makeba who was 76 years old, passed away overnight after performing at a concert in Italy on Sunday. According to news wire services, Makeba collapsed as she was leaving the stage at a concert in support of Roberto Saviano, an author who has received death threats after he wrote about Italian organized crime. She was taken to a private clinic near Naples where she died of apparent cardiac arrest.

In mid-October 2008 Makeba participated in Kampala’s first jazz festival where she performed alongside Baganda and Israeli bands.  Because she disembarked the plane in a wheel chair there were concerns that she might not be able to entertain her fans. However, she brought the crowd to their feet the her performance which turned out to be her very last. Makeba first performed in Uganda in the 1960s.

From 1959 to 1990, Makeba lived in exile, mostly in Guinea but also in the United States, France, Guinea and Belgium. She was a “soft” political activist against apartheid in South Africa’s. In 1976, during the Soweto uprising, her music was banned in South African after she made and anti-apartheid speech at the United Nations. Makeba had at least three marriages. Husbands included American 60’s black power activist Stokely Carmichael and South African jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela. Makeba’s only child, a daughter named Bondi died in 1985 at the age of 36.

Miriam Makeba’s most famous songs include Pata Pata (“touch, touch” in Xhosa and many other Bantu languages), Malaika (“angel” in Swahili) and Click Song. Notable musicians that Makeba performed with include Paul Simon, Harry Belafonte and Hugh Masekela.

President Museveni’s state minister for Agriculture, Dr. Israel Kibirige Ssebunya, died yesterday at 7:15 AM after a long battle with tongue and throat cancer.  Ssebunya was 62 years old. Dr. Sebunya was rushed to Mulago hospital last week on instructions from Uganda vice president, Dr. Gilbert Bukenya. Earlier, Dr. Bukenya had visited Ssebunya in Kagoma and found his condition very bad. He is survived by a wife, Theresa Namatovu, who teaches in Botswana, and six children.