
The Bishop of Ankole Diocese, Rt. Rev. Dr./Prof (PhD) Fred Sheldon Mwesigwa has rooted for joint efforts towards promotion and preservation of culture and heritage in western Uganda, Uganda and Africa as a whole.
While addressing a group of Journalists at the East African Revival Museum Ruharo on July 11, 2023, the aficionado Bishop disclosed that Ankole diocese is planning for the construction of a bigger and standard museum and other better ways of collecting, preserving and promoting East African revival heritage from the grassroots.
Ankole diocese on May 25, 2023 won an award from CCFU at the 5th National Heritage Awards ceremony to recognize “Promoters of our National Heritage”, for establishing the East African Revival Museum in 2016. The museum houses artifacts, documentaries, research work on religious beliefs and practices as well as historic revival champions.
The visit was part of the two-day training in Mbarara city, organized by the Cross-Cultural Foundation of Uganda-CCFU for selected journalists from western Uganda, on culture, heritage and media coverage.
According to the Deputy Executive Director CCFU Mr. Fredrick Nsibambi, the organization is undertaking measures to ensure extensive media coverage for culture and heritage, noting that culture is dynamic and will never die.
ENDANGERED: The cultural and heritage sites that are currently endangered include the historic Kamukuzi church structure that hosted the first missionaries, and a site where George Galt was buried. Harry George Galt, sometimes called Harry St. George Galt, was a British coloniser and white supremacist newly appointed as the sub-commissioner of the Western Province of Uganda, a British protectorate, and was killed at the age of 33 (on May 19, 1905) in Kagongo, Ibanda. He was born on 28 January 1872 in Emsworth in Hampshire in Great Britain to Edwin Galt JP and Marion Galt. This heritage is almost being demolished due to ongoing constructions.
A stone’s throw from the historic Kamukuzi church near the King’s lake (Ekiyanja), is the Ankole kingdom palace. While at the palace, you have a clear view of the magnificent British Overseas Management Administration (Boma) hill, Nkokonjeru hill where the Ankole Kings’ tombs are, Ruharo hill, Rwampara hills, Ntare hill, Biharwe hills, and other unexplored Ankole heritage and cultural sites. By Aaron Ainomugisha.