Rose Nakato Ssemakula
Lovingly known as “Maama Rose”
6 May 1946 — 27 April 2024 · aged 77
Nakasero Market trader who kept a hundred vendors counting, saving and standing tall
Kampala, Uganda Born in Mityana, Mityana District Resting at Ssemakula family home, Kalisizo, Rakai DistrictAbout Rose
Rose Nakato never wrote down a price, because every price lived in her head, and in fifty years nobody ever caught her out. She opened her stall at Nakasero Market in 1966, at the age of twenty, with a basket of tomatoes and a borrowed scale, and by the time she retired she sold the best matooke, pineapples and passion fruit in the market, and half the diplomats' cooks in Kololo called her by name.
She was born in 1946 at Mityana, one of eight children, and left school after Primary Seven to help her mother on the family plot. In 1970 she married Emmanuel Kato Ssemakula, a young economist who had once bought a pineapple from her and stayed an hour arguing about the price. When he left for his doctorate in London she kept the household and the stall running and sent him parcels of groundnuts, and when he returned she told him that a woman with her own income was a woman with her own opinion. He never contradicted her, at least not twice.
In 1984 she founded a savings group among sixty vendors, many of whom could not read, and taught them to count, to keep records and to sign their own names. It grew into the Nakasero Market Vendors' SACCO, which paid school fees, medical bills and, one memorable year, a roof for the entire fish section. She wore a gomesi to church every Sunday at All Saints' Cathedral, sang alto, cooked groundnut sauce for the choir and made sure every child in the market ate before school.
Rose died peacefully in her sleep in April 2024, three years after Emmanuel, aged seventy-seven. She leaves three children, eight grandchildren and a market that is still, they say, counting her way.
“A woman who counts her own money does not need to ask for permission.”
- Faith
- Christian
- Place of birth
- Mityana, Mityana District
- Resting place
- Ssemakula family home, Kalisizo, Rakai District
- Passed away
- 27 April 2024, Kampala
Funeral Service
Friday, 3 May 2024 at 11:00 UTC
Add to calendarLife journey
Vegetable and fruit trader
Nakasero Market1966 – 2018 · Kampala
Began with one basket of tomatoes and a borrowed scale.
Married Emmanuel Kato Ssemakula
1970 · Kampala
They met over the price of a pineapple.
Ran the household alone during her husband's doctorate
1971 – 1972 · Kampala
Kept the stall and the family going from the market.
Founder of the vendors' savings group
Nakasero Market Vendors' SACCO1984 – 2018 · Kampala
Taught sixty illiterate vendors to count and sign their names.
Choir member
All Saints' Cathedral, Nakasero1975 – 2023 · Kampala
Sang alto in a gomesi and cooked for the choir.
Woman Trader of the Year
Kampala Capital City Authority2003 · Kampala
For building the vendors' SACCO and mentoring young traders.
Tap an organisation to find others who studied or worked there.
Family & connections
Also remembered on Evermore
Rose is survived by
- Dr. Ronald Kizza Ssemakula· Son
- Sarah Nabirye Ssemakula· Daughter
- Joseph Mukasa Ssemakula· Son
- 8 grandchildren· Grandchildren
Tributes & memories
5 people have shared a memory of Rose.
Knew Rose? Share a memory with the family and everyone who loved them.
Sign in to write a tribute- SS
Daughter
Mum measured everything with her hands: a kilo, a metre, a hug. When I was leaving for university she held my face for exactly as long as it takes to count to ten and said, 'Now go and be brilliant.' I counted to ten every morning afterwards.
- RK
Former vendor's son, now in Dubai
My mother sold tomatoes next to Maama Rose for thirty years. When I got a scholarship, Rose slipped a hundred thousand shillings into my pocket and told me not to tell my mother. I am an accountant in Dubai. I count every shilling the way she taught me.
- MS
Family friend
Professor Kato was the one who got the praise, but everybody on that street knew who was boss. Maama Rose could end a debate with a single raised eyebrow. They were the best double act in Ntinda, and I miss them both.
- GN
Market vendor, Nakasero
When my stall burned in 2009, the SACCO loaned me the money for a new one the same week. Rose came herself, tied on an apron and helped me stack the first crates. She never asked about interest. She asked if I had eaten.
- BN
Fellow trader and neighbour in Ntinda
Maama Rose taught me to read my own receipts. At fifty-two I signed my first cheque with my own name, and she wept more than I did. She never said 'I am proud of you'. She just bought me a new pen and said, 'Now use it.'
