This is a narration about Ugandan Community History. These facts have not been ascertained by UCABC but provide a view into the roles played by various individuals in founding the Ugandan Community in BC.

The Uganda Community has been in existence in British Columbia for over 3 decades. It was created out of the need to establish an Identity, a cultural Identity and a sense of belonging for people of Ugandan descent or ancestry. It was a requirement that was necessitated by the overwhelming situation of a keen sense and feeling of isolation in a distant Land. The solitude that bore down hard to make one feel an urgent need to come together and form the base for mutual support, encouragement and coexistence in a strange and culturally shocking environment. It was the result of an initiative to recreate a cultural identity and life that would simulate the one Ugandans were used to back at home.

In retrospect, how it played out was that in the 1970s and ‘80s, the first few Ugandans who had migrated to Canada didn’t find very many of their compatriots here to be able to associate with. Some of those immigrants found their way to British Columbia, and quite a number of them were students.

(Photo) Michael and Birgit Okoth

At that time, Ugandans were isolated, few and far in between. This was overbearingly frustrating for most of them as they started seeking each other out. This point was driven home and illustrated by the confessed words of one of them, Michael Okoth who was the Head of Department at Lint Marketing Board's Technical section in charge of all cotton ginneries in Uganda before he left Uganda headed for Nairobi, Kenya in 1977 and later immigrated here in Vancouver with his family in 1984. He said he used to go out in the streets and stop to ask anyone who was Black with the hope of identifying someone who would share his sense of isolation, and better still, hopefully, find someone who would be from Uganda and Share his Cultural Identity. He kept on seeking them out and hoping.

As truth and reality would bear it, Michael found that having to visit those he had already known one by one was time consuming, at best inadequate and was not uniting them fast enough as one would have expected, and even out right frustrating. Something had to be done differently and as a matter of imperative, done urgently.

It was at this point that Michael Okoth, together with his wife Birgit Okoth (Photo above), started to think through and conceptualize means and ways of how to bring Ugandans together in a form of organized social setting. From this simple urge of necessity and concept came the initial formation of a Ugandan Association. For a number of years, Michael and Birgit Okoth hosted dinners and dances for all Ugandans in their home near UBC several days each year on such days as Easter, Christmas or Boxing Day, October 9th (Independence Day) and during the summer months until the group grew too big to fit in one house.

Over time, Michael and Birgit Okoth, owners of Abantu Beauty Products Ltd, then took the initiative and the necessary measures to ensure that the Association was registered to become official under the Society Act and this materialized on January 4th, 1993 with Dr. Olal Andrew, Ocheng Lubay, Moses Kajoba, and Birgit Okoth as the first executives succeeded by Dr. Alfred Ojelel, Akonyu Akolo, Khamis Doka, and Dan Kashagama in 1998. It is noted without doubt that Birgit Okoth did a lot of administrative paper work for the Assocition to be approved. Also, Michael and Birgit Okoth provided the Association with an office space at no charge for the first 2-3 years of the Association’s inception.

Throughout its existence, the Association carried out activities and made some achievements; viz:

• Association organized and held a Successful Conference here in Vancouver, BC that was sponsored by the Ministry of Multiculturalism, Ottawa, with the then Hon. Speaker of the BC Legislature, the late Emery Bernes and Ocheng Lubayi as some of the Keynote Speakers.
• The Association also sponsored Seventeen (17) representatives to go and attend a Nation-Wide Ugandan Canadian Conference in Edmonton, AB, which was a very successful event.
• Social Events were always the hallmark of the Association Activities and it organized social and entertainment functions such as Dinner Dance (some of which were Fund-Raising in nature), Community Barbecue Gatherings, Sporting Event participations such as Soccer Tournaments with Three (3) Championships to its Credit and many more.
• The Association notably and actively Organized and Implemented Wedding Events of Ugandan Couples here in British Columbia.
• The Association was instrumental in Organizing Funeral Arrangements including Memorial Services for the departed amongst us.
• It is also engaged in Fund-Raising Activities.