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Month: March 2023

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Spotting Champions by Siraji Afeku Kassim, Munir Primary School

Spotting Champions by Siraji Afeku Kassim, Munir Primary School

Before 1960, no black African athlete had won any Olympic medals. In 1960, in Rome, the Ethiopian Abebe Bikila won the Olympic marathon race, running bare foot. In 1964, in Tokyo and wearing shoes, Bikila became the first man to retain the Olympic marathon title. That was also the year Wilson Kiprugut became the first Kenyan athlete to win an Olympic medal, when he came third in the 800meters. Since then, Kenya has produced many Olympic and world champions in running events, from Kipchonge Keino who won the 1500meters race at the 2000 Olympics’ in Sydney. In fact, Kenya athletes have won every Olympic 3000meters steeplechase final that they have entered since 1968, when Amos Biwatt won the gold medal.

Ethiopia has also produced many great athletes from Miruts Yifter who won the gold medal for both the 5000meters and the 10,000meters races at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow to Haile Gebrselassie who in August 2001 suffered his 10,000meters defeat in eight years when he was beaten by Charles Kamathi a Kenyan of course. But it is not only Kenya and Ethiopian Athletes who have thrilled spectators around the world. In 1972, the Olympic 400meters hurdle was won by the Ugandan John Aki-Bua. In 1987, Abdi Bile became the first ever Somali athletics would champion when he won the 1500meters in Rome. At the 1994 commonwealth games, Samuel Matete a Zambian won the 400meters hurdle while Frankie Federick from Namibia won the 200meters.

Two years later, at the Olympics in Atlanta, the Ugandan Davis Kamoga was a surprise bronze medallist in the 400meters. At the halfway point in the race, he was trailing the entire field, but he produced an amazing burst of speed to finish in the third position. In 1989, the New York marathon was won by a Tanzanian Juma Ikangaa. African women too have had many Olympic successes. These include the Moroccan Nawal el Moutawakil, winner of the 400meters race in 1984 and the 1500meters runner Hassiba Boulmerka, who won Algeria’s first gold medal in 1992. At the same Olympics in Barcelona, Mary Musoke of Uganda won a gold medal in table tennis. At the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Chioma Ajuna of Nigeria won the women’s long jump and Uganda’s Mbabazi took gold in the 3000meters race. The same year, the Kenyan Tegla Loroupe broke the world record for the women’s marathon. Mozambique’s Maria Mutola has had many successes running over 800meters including winning the world championship at Edmonton in 2001. At the same championship, Ethiopian Athletes filled the first three places in the women’s 10,000meters; the winner being Derartu Tulu. A year earlier, Tulu had won the Olympic gold medal with Getewami an Ethiopian taking the Silver medal.

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Born to Suffer by Cheka Yassin, Munir Primary School

Born to Suffer by Cheka Yassin, Munir Primary School

Since I was born, I have never felt the love of my mother and father. I do not know if I am going to continue with my education up to the level I want because my father is responsible for my education. If you ask him for anything you want, he can’t give you the items you like; imagine he sent me to be in boarding school and when I ask for things like soap, sugar, books, pads, pants, uniform and school fees. The only thing he can tell you is to go ask your mother. Imagine my mother is not doing any single work, so to get money is impossible and because of this issue my mind for education is not with me. I used to pass in first grade and now because I am not thinking well, I am no longer performing well in class.

END

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Importance of Being In School by Cheka Yassin, Munir Primary School

Importance of Being In School by Cheka Yassin, Munir Primary School

School is the fastest place to be at, in school you acquire knowledge and learn skills like reading and writing and these skills will help you in the future. Education also prepares you to achieve your dreams like becoming a doctor, teacher and an artist. So being in school protects us from staying in bad peer groups, reduces the rate of pregnancy cases. You can see during the period of corona virus people lost their memories, people were behaving the way they like; pregnancy cases were so many.

Being in school therefore controls wrong things which are happening to our people. Being in school help people to become good leaders in the near future, build confidence of people and you become very important person in the future to be well known like Ismail Hassan who is talking like whites and I also want to be like Him.

END!

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Stories

My Beautiful Country by Cheka Yassin, Munir Primary School

My Beautiful Country by Cheka Yassin, Munir Primary School

My name is Cheka Yassin; I am in Munir Primary School. My beautiful country Uganda, full of mountains, hills, valleys, lakes, rivers, forests and fertile land. Because of the fertile land, it is called the “Pearl of Africa”. I am proud of my country. A country that is a source of admiration for the visitors, a sight to reckon is the singing of beautiful birds, animals walking gracefully in the fields and the blossom of plants in the bushes bygone in the beauty.

Forests cleared, swamps drained and rivers polluted all in the name of development. Do not despair my country for the time has come to fight for the preservation. United we stand, divided we fall.
END!

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Communication in Uganda by Siraji Afeku Kassim, Munir ECD Primary School

Communication in Uganda by Siraji Afeku Kassim, Munir ECD Primary School

In the 1960s, radios were not common. They were scarce and expensive and very few people had them. To listen to news, one had to go to the chief’s home or a rich man’s house. These were the only people who could afford radios. There was only one radio station, Radio Uganda and one Television Station, Uganda Television (UTV. Now, the situation has changed, radios have become very cheap and available in almost all parts of the country. You don’t even need to have electricity because they can work on batteries. There are even radios that you can wind like a clock. There are also many radio and TV stations. You can listen to news, announcements and music from these stations in several languages every hour. There is also a programme where you can call into the studio and discuss current affairs with the presenters. You will also get adverts, entertainment and government information on health or elections on TV.

Today, there is a radio in virtually every home. You can find a young child of four or five years tuning a radio. Televisions have several channels that you tune into. There are those that only broadcast religious programmes, while other stations have both religious and secular programmes. The talk show programmes have also become very popular. Sometimes some radio and TV channels are not very clear. This is because of poor signal reception, but when the aerial is adjusted; the user can get clear pictures and sound.
When my father bought a television set last year, my best friends came to our house to watch interesting programmes like cartoons, wrestling and sports. They enjoyed so much that when they went back home, they requested their father to buy them a television set. Their father accepted their request; he bought them a big flat screen. They now enjoy and even sleep in the sitting room.
END!

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Stories

Holiday with my Grandmother, by Bako Suraya Munir ECD and Primary School

Holiday with my Grandmother, by Bako Suraya Munir ECD and Primary School

My name is Bako Suraya; I go to Munir ECD primary school and live with my parents. Last year when we broke up for the third term holidays, my father took me to Kibaga. He wanted me to spend my holiday with my grandmother; he also wanted me to learn the chores done by the people in the village. It was my first time to go to the village. I was excited because I had always heard of sweet stories about village life this included; getting free water, free fruits and free and fresh food etc.

When I reached the village, I proved that some stories were not correct for example getting water was tag of war. We had to walk along distance to fetch it then carry it on our small heads to our home for one to enjoy the fresh food, one had to dig. It was during the holiday that I first held a hoe and I will never forget in my life. In my grandmother’s banana plantation, I stepped on a nail hurting me for weeks making me regret why I had gone to the village. Preparing food with firewood was also a challenge for me; the smoke from the fire wood could make me cry like someone who was beaten.

One day my grandmother received visitors, these visitors were my cousins from the neighbouring village; my grandmother asked me to peel some matooke and put it in the saucepan to cook. When the food was ready, my grandmother came and served the guests. She was surprised to found a cluster of unpeeled matooke cooked, that was when she discovered that I didn’t know domestic work. She began to teach me with a lot of patience, by the end of my holidays; I had learnt how to dig, cook and wash utensils. I thank my grandmother for being a good teacher; it is good for us to stay with our grandmothers.

END!

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Stories

Catch A Thief by Izama Amir Yusufu, Munir Primary School

Catch A Thief by Izama Amir Yusufu, Munir Primary School

One night Mrs. Katunda was sleeping when she was woken by a strange noise. She quietly got out of bed and took her torch from the table. She flashed the torch around the room, but there was nothing to be seen. Then she heard a door slam and her goat started bleating, Mrs Katunda rushed into the sitting room and looked out of the window. There was her washing hanging on the lines and there was a thief. With her new radio one hand and a heavy bag in the other, Mrs Katunda yelled “stop a thief! Stop”. The man looked very frightened and ran across the garden.

He jumped over the fence into her neighbour’s garden, Mrs Katunda’s neighbour Kato heard the noise of the goat bleating. Mr. Kato ran into his garden and saw the thief making his escape. Mr Kato was a policeman, so he knew just what to do. He chased the thief and caught him, and then he took him to the police station. Mrs Katunda was very grateful. The police gave her back her radio and her watch which as well as many other stolen items they found in the thief’s bag.

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The Longest River In the World by Izama Amir Yusufu, Munir Primary School

The Longest River In the World by Izama Amir Yusufu, Munir Primary School

The Nile is the longest river in the world, it is 6700km long. It has two parts, the While Nile and the Blue Nile. The While Nile is longer than the Blue Nile and begins here in Uganda. The White Nile flows north from Lake Victoria into Sudan. Lake Victoria is the largest lake in Africa, bigger than both Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika. The Blue Nile begins in the steep Mountains of Ethiopia. The While Nile and the Blue Nile meet at Khartoum in the Sudan, some rivers called tributaries join the Nile. The longest tributary is the Atbara River which joins the Nile at the Atbara River north of Khartoum.

In Egypt, the Nile flows through the desert on its journey north towards the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile passes through the Cairo, the Capital of Egypt. At Cairo, the Nile becomes two rivers again. These rivers are called the Damietta and Rosetta. They water a large delta where the Egyptians grow cotton and maize. The Nile is famous for many reasons, millions of people depend on its water for food and transport and there are some large dams on the river. The water from these dams makes electricity for example the Owen Falls Dam at Jinja produces electricity for our country. The Aswan Dam supplies Egypt with most its electricity. Below Aswan, the Nile Valley widens. The people of Egypt grows crops on the river banks, they use the waters of the Nile to irrigate their crops.

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Ganda Cultural Practices, Shadia Nashreen Munir Primary School

Ganda Cultural Practices, Shadia Nashreen Munir Primary School

The Ganda people are famous for their beautiful craft work; they make mats and baskets with many different designs. Mats and screens which they use to decorate their houses, are woven and plaited or sewn in patterns of black on a pale yellow background. Their shields are made from wood, hides and canes then covered with straws or painted in black or natural colour. Ganda drums are often decorated with knitting or have coloured beads and shells sewn on them. The best example of Kiganda architecture is the great court house of Mutesa I at Kasubi. The palace, built in 1882 is the largest thatched building in the country. The king chose this site as Kasubi because it over looked the main roads to every part of his Kingdom. The palace was built facing west so that the palace guards could see easily any hostile army approaching from the kingdom of Bunyoro with whom the Baganda were then at war.

The main entrance to the palace is a hut which was once manned day and night by the palace guards. Behind this is a small hut housed the royal drums. The palace itself, which is 15 meters in diameter, is made of poles, reed and grass. It was built by many different clans, thatching was done by the colobus monkey clan, and the decoration by the leopard clan. Inside the court-house, large posts support and great roof. The huge rings inside the roof are made of palm leaves which were carefully beaten to make them bend easily then tied together. The king by tradition laid the first three rings of the roof by tradition then every clan adds another according to their hereditary order. Today the great court-house houses graves of the last four kings behind which is a chamber known as Kibira or Forest where special sacred ceremonies are still performed.

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Stories

Escape from Rebels, a Story by Essence Nadia Munir Primary School

Escape from Rebels, a Story by Essence Nadia Munir Primary School

Sometime in late 2019 while I was sleeping in a hut with my grandmother, there was a noise in the compound. The door was forced open and flashed torchlight in my face; four men pulled me out of my bed. My grandmother pleaded with them to leave me since I was still quite young and an orphan. I struggled with them and tried to bite one, instead I was given a strong blow on the back of my head as they dragged me outside. In the compound there were already a number of other children tied together with sisal ropes around their waists. I was given a heavy load of groundnuts to carry with the warning that if it fell down, I would be killed.

The following day, I was given mortar shells tied in a piece of cloth to carry. They were very heavy. I also feared that they might explode at any time. At the time there was a man with a gun following me and watching me closely so that I don’t throw down the shells. This quite frightened me. Two young girls were caught while attempting to escape, they were brought near us and chopped into pieces by other children who were ordered to do so. As the children cut them with pangas while hitting them with big sticks, the two girls cried I pain and pleaded for mercy. But their cries were ignored!

As it approached evening on the second day of my abduction, we were still walking in a single line. It was getting dark and rain clouds were starting to gather with thunder and lightning. I slid off the line and hid in an abandoned house near where we were passing. Luckily, the adult rebel in our group was still behind me and did not see me. In the morning, I tried to retrace my way back through the bushes. In the jungle I was alone, hungry and thirsty with nothing to eat. For three days I was lost. I fed on wild fruit and drank stagnant water. I was eventually escorted home by some kind people I met on the road. I was sick for some days; I still get bad dreams and wake up shaking and sweating. Even when I am not a sleep, I get bad dreams I hear the rebels threatening to kill me. I see a long line of frightened children tied with ropes and hear rebels with guns and pangas ordering them to kill the children and I still feel frightened.

THE END!