Emmanuel Kato Ssemakula
Lovingly known as “Prof. Kato”
9 February 1941 — 23 October 2021 · aged 80
Makerere economics professor who taught three generations to ask one question: why?
Kampala, Uganda Born in Kalisizo, Rakai District Resting at Ssemakula family home, Kalisizo, Rakai DistrictAbout Emmanuel
On the first day of every course he taught at Makerere University, Professor Emmanuel Kato Ssemakula wrote a single word on the blackboard: 'Why?' Then he sat down, folded his arms and waited, sometimes for ten full minutes, until somebody was brave enough to answer. Three generations of Ugandan economists, civil servants and at least two ministers learned the same lesson from him: the answer matters less than the courage to begin.
He was born in 1941 at Kalisizo in Rakai, the son of a catechist father and a mother who grew matooke and expected each of her seven children to read before the age of six. A scholarship took him to King's College Budo, then to Makerere, at that time the intellectual capital of East Africa, where he took a first-class degree in Economics in 1964, and finally to the London School of Economics for a doctorate. He returned in 1972 and stayed through the hardest years that followed, teaching in lecture halls where the lights failed and the chalk ran out, because, he said, 'a university that closes teaches the wrong lesson.' He became a Professor in 1985, led the Faculty of Economics and Management for nine years, and wrote the textbook on African agricultural economics that half the region still uses.
At home in Ntinda he played omweso every Sunday with anyone who dared, and lost only on purpose. He cooked an excellent luwombo of smoked fish in banana leaves, and was a lay reader at Namirembe Cathedral for more than forty years. He married Rose Nakato, a vendor at Nakasero Market, in 1970, and admitted freely that she understood prices better than he did.
He died peacefully at home in October 2021, aged eighty. He leaves Rose, three children, eight grandchildren and a long line of former students who still hear the question: why?
“The answer matters less than the courage to begin.”
- Faith
- Christian
- Place of birth
- Kalisizo, Rakai District
- Resting place
- Ssemakula family home, Kalisizo, Rakai District
- Passed away
- 23 October 2021, Kampala
Memorial Service
Saturday, 30 October 2021 at 09:00 UTC
Add to calendarLife journey
BA (First Class) in Economics
Makerere University1961 – 1964 · Kampala
Graduated top of his year at the height of Makerere's golden age.
PhD in Economics
London School of Economics1966 – 1971 · London
Researched peasant farm economies in southern Uganda.
Married Rose Nakato
1970 · Kampala
A marriage of fifty-one years.
Lecturer, then Professor of Economics
Makerere University1972 – 2006 · Kampala
Taught through the hard years and refused to leave.
Dean
Faculty of Economics and Management, Makerere University1992 – 2001 · Kampala
Rebuilt the faculty's library and its research standards.
Lay reader
Namirembe Cathedral1978 – 2021 · Kampala
Read the lesson every first Sunday for forty-three years.
Tap an organisation to find others who studied or worked there.
Family & connections
Also remembered on Evermore
Emmanuel is survived by
- Rose Nakato Ssemakula· Spouse
- Dr. Ronald Kizza Ssemakula· Son
- Sarah Nabirye Ssemakula· Daughter
- Joseph Mukasa Ssemakula· Son
- 8 grandchildren· Grandchildren
Tributes & memories
6 people have shared a memory of Emmanuel.
Knew Emmanuel? Share a memory with the family and everyone who loved them.
Sign in to write a tribute- SS
Daughter
When I was nine I asked Dad why the sky was blue, and he said, 'Why do you think?' I was furious. I am now a physics teacher, and I understand it was the greatest gift. I will keep asking, Papa, I promise.
- JK
Former PhD student, now in Sheffield
He read all four hundred pages of my thesis in a week, with a green pen, and returned it with one comment on the last page: 'Why not say this on page one?' I rewrote the whole thing. It was the best advice I have ever had.
- BN
Neighbour in Ntinda
Every Sunday afternoon you could hear the omweso seeds clicking from Professor's veranda, followed by his enormous laugh when he was beaten. He taught half the street's children to play. I have never seen a great man lose so happily.
- AN
Colleague in the Economics Faculty, Makerere
When the university closed in the bad years, Emmanuel taught under the mango tree outside his house, with a handful of students and a borrowed blackboard. 'A university is people, not buildings,' he said. Several of them are professors now, and I tell that story at every graduation.
- DL
Canon at Namirembe Cathedral
For forty-three years Professor read the lesson at our cathedral with the same slow, careful voice he used in the lecture hall. People who understood nothing of economics understood every word of Isaiah when he read it. That was his teaching.
- MS
Former student, now at the Bank of Uganda
Prof. Kato never gave the answer. He gave the next question. I took his course in 1998, and I still use that technique every day when briefing the Governor. Our graduating class gave him a blackboard with 'Why?' on it. He kept it in his study.
