Edith Mary Bataringaya (née Kaijuka; 1929–1977) was a Ugandan politician and activist. She was a co-founder of the Ugandan Women's Union and the Uganda Council of Women alongside Rhoda Kalema and Theresa Mbire. She was the wife of Basil Kiiza Bataringaya, the

interior minister An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a Cabinet (government), cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and iden ...

of Uganda from 1964 to 1971.

Early life

Edith Mary Kaijuka was born in 1929 in

Kabale Kabale City is a city in the Western Region of Uganda. It is the main city of Kabale District, and the district headquarters are located at Makanga hills. It is sometimes nicknamed "Kastone" as in the local Rukiga language, a "kabale" is a sma ...

, a city in the Western Region of Uganda. Her father was Reverend Kaijuka, a prominent reverend in the

Church of Uganda The Church of Uganda (C/U) is a member province of the Anglican Communion. Currently, there are 37 dioceses that make up the Church of Uganda, each headed by a bishop. Each diocese is divided into archdeaconries, each headed by a senior priest k ...

and teacher from the neighboring village of Bugongi Hill.

Political career

Edith Mary Kaijuka married Basil Kiiza Bataringaya, son of Marko Kiiza the Ssaza Chief of Bunyaruguru, and she changed her name to Edith Mary Bataringaya. At the time of their marriage, Basil Kiiza Bataringaya was attending school, at the Government Teacher Training College of Uganda (TTC) and at

Makerere University Makerere University (; Mak) is Uganda's largest and oldest institution of higher learning, first established as a technical school in 1922, and the oldest currently active university in East Africa. It became an independent national university in ...

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,875,834 (2024) and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kampala, Kawempe Division, Kawempe, Makindy ...

, Uganda. Basil Kiiza Bataringaya quickly became a prominent

political figure A politician is a person who participates in policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles or duties tha ...

in Uganda. Bataringaya ran as a member of the Democratic Party of Uganda for the legislative seat for the

Ankole Ankole was a traditional Bantu peoples, Bantu kingdom in Uganda and lasted from the 15th century until 1967. The kingdom was located in south-western Uganda, east of Lake Edward. Geography The kingdom of Ankole is located in the South-Western ...

District to the Uganda Legislative Council in the transitional government between the colonial-era

Uganda Protectorate The Protectorate of Uganda was a protectorate of the British Empire from 1894 to 1962. In 1893 the Imperial British East Africa Company transferred its administration rights of territory consisting mainly of the Kingdom of Buganda to the Br ...

and the Republic of Uganda in the first Ugandan nationwide direct elections, the March

1961 Ugandan general election General elections were held in Uganda on 23 March 1961.Dolf Sternberger, Bernhard Vogel, Dieter Nohlen & Klaus Landfried (1978) ''Die Wahl der Parlamente: Band II: Afrika, Zweiter Halbband'', p2325 They were the first time direct elections to th ...

s. He became the

Leader of Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...

during the Apollo Milton Obote regime and helped to establish the role as a check on the political leadership in Uganda. Basil Kiiza Bataringaya defected from the Democratic Party of Uganda to Apollo Milton Obote's

Uganda People's Congress The Uganda People's Congress (UPC; ) is a political party in Uganda. UPC was founded in 1960 by Milton Obote, who led the country to independence alongside UPC member of parliament A.G. Mehta. Obote later served two presidential terms un ...

party on the floor of the

Parliament of Uganda The Parliament of Uganda is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of Uganda. One of its primary functions is to pass laws that support effective governance in the country. Government ministers are required to answer to the people's represe ...

in the first high-profile political defection in Ugandan history. Basil Kiiza Bataringaya became the powerful Minister of Internal Affairs and quickly earned the trust of Prime Minister Apollo Milton Obote, and earned a spot in Obote's small inner circle of trusted advisors and amassed a large policy portfolio as one of the most powerful ministers in the Obote government. Edith Mary Bataringaya became an influential figure in the Apollo Milton Obote regime following Basil Kiiza Bataringaya's defection and ascension to the role of the Minister of Internal Affairs. She frequently traveled with her husband on trips abroad representing

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

, representing Uganda and discussing her role as the head and co-founder of the Uganda Council of Women with diplomats abroad. She most notably traveled to the United States of America and met with members of the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy of the United State ...

in addition to visiting

Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It was the first theme park opened by the Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney, ...

Activism

Edith Mary Bataringaya was a prominent activist in addition to the political duties she assumed as a high profile political spouse. Bataringaya started the Uganda Women's Union and the Uganda Council of Women alongside Rhoda Kalema and Theresa Mbire. In 1960, under the leadership of Bataringaya, the Uganda Council of Women passed a resolution urging that laws regarding marriage, divorce, and inheritance should be recorded in written form and publicized nationwide—a first step toward codifying customary and modern practices. During the first decade of independence, this council also pressed for legal reforms that would grant all women the right to own property and retain custody of their children if their marriages ended.Uganda country study

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

Federal Research Division The Federal Research Division (FRD) is the research and analysis unit of the United States Library of Congress. The Federal Research Division provides directed research and analysis on domestic and international subjects to agencies of the Unite ...

(December 1990). ''This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

.'' The work of the Uganda Council of Women under the leadership of Bataringaya led to changes in Uganda's Divorce Laws, leading to the written codification of the Divorce Act that gives men and women equal opportunities for divorce.

Death

Edith Mary Bataringaya's husband Basil Kiiza Bataringaya led an attempted arrest of

Idi Amin Idi Amin Dada Oumee (, ; 30 May 192816 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 until Uganda–Tanzania War, his overthrow in 1979. He ruled as a Military dictatorship, ...

, making him one of the first Ugandans to be detained by the new

government. While in detention, Bataringaya was

Torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...

d and was

imprisoned Imprisonment or incarceration is the restraint of a person's liberty for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is considered " false imprisonment". Impri ...

Makindye Prison Makindye Prison is a Uganda government state-run prison which became notorious for extrajudicial killings and execution of government opponents during the time of Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin. Makindye Prison started and was built as a conventional ...

. Bataringaya was then sent to the outskirts of the town of

Mbarara Mbarara City is a city in the Western Region, Uganda, Western Region of Uganda and the second largest city in Uganda after Kampala. The city is divided into 6 boroughs of Kakoba Division, Kamukuzi Division, Nyamitanga Division, Biharwe Division, ...

, where he was

dismembered Dismemberment is the act of completely disconnecting and/or removing the limbs, skin, and/or organs from a living or dead being. It has been practiced upon human beings as a form of capital punishment, especially in connection with regicid ...

alive. His severed head was then displayed on a pole, and paraded around the town of

until ultimately his severed head was displayed in the

barracks. Edith Mary Bataringaya became a

widow A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has Death, died and has usually not remarried. The male form, "widower", is first attested in the 14th century, by the 19th century supplanting "widow" with reference to men. The adjecti ...

raising her eight children alone on the Bataringaya land in

, and became a prominent political opponent of Idi Amin. Bataringaya herself was executed in 1977 during a later purge by Idi Amin, allegedly at the hands of Juma Bashir, the governor of the Western Province of Uganda. Her burnt body was later found on land in

owned by the Bataringaya family. This left her eight children orphaned. They were raised by her brother, Dr. Emmanuel Kaijuka.

Personal life

Family

Edith Mary and Basil Kiiza Bataringaya had eight children, Dr. Geoffrey Basil Bataringaya, Basil Bataringaya Jr., Grace Bataringaya, Kenneth Bataringaya, Jackie Bataringaya, Janette Bataringaya, Juliet Wavamunno, and Dr. Aisha Bataringaya-Ssekalala. The children were orphaned in 1977 as both parents were killed by the Amin regime. Edith Mary Bataringaya's brother, Dr. Emmanuel Kaijuka who later served as the Ugandan Commissioner of Health, raised the children since they were still young when they were orphaned by their parents' murders. In 1985, the eight children reunited for the first time since their mother's murder in the town of

Muyenga Muyenga is a hill in Kampala, the capital of Uganda and the largest city in that country. The name also applies to the upscale community that sits on that hill. Location Muyenga is located in Makindye Division, one of the five administrative di ...

, Uganda. Their children all went on to successful careers as of 2003: Grace Bataringaya is a veterinary doctor and events manager, Kenneth Bataringaya is a businessman who manages the family estate, Jackie Bataringaya is a doctor for

Action Aid ActionAid is an international non-governmental organization whose stated primary aim is to work against poverty and injustice worldwide. ActionAid is a federation of 45 country offices that works with communities, often via local partner organi ...

working in

Harare Harare ( ), formerly Salisbury, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of , a population of 1,849,600 as of the 2022 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census and an estimated 2,487,209 people in its metrop ...

, Zimbabwe, Janette Bataringaya is working in Public Health in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, Massachusetts in the United States, Juliet Wavamunno (née Bataringaya) is a doctor working for the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

, and Aisha Bataringaya-Ssekalala (née Bataringaya) is studying at the University of Western Cape in South Africa.

Religious views

Bataringaya was a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and involved with the

Catholic Church in Uganda The Catholic Church in Uganda is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. According to the 2024 census, there were an estimated 16,985,004 Catholics in the country, comprising around 37 percent o ...

throughout her career in both activism and politics. Bataringaya's father was a

reverend, and Bataringaya was raised in the

. Bataringaya's husband was initially a teacher at a Catholic school in

, and eventually ran all

Catholic school Catholic schools are Parochial school, parochial pre-primary, primary and secondary educational institutions administered in association with the Catholic Church. , the Catholic Church operates the world's largest parochial schools, religious, no ...

s in

before entering politics. Edith Mary Bataringaya became a

after marrying Basil Kiiza Bataringaya and she worked with local Catholic ministries throughout her career, and has been listed as a friend and ally of the Catholic missions in the Mbarara Region of

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bataringaya, Edith Mary 1929 births 1977 deaths Ugandan Christians Ugandan activists Ugandan women activists 20th-century Ugandan women politicians 20th-century Ugandan politicians People from Kabale District