About The Legends of St. Joseph's College Ombaci

If you want to meet a Ugandan gentleman who stands out for his dignity, intelligence and calm demeanour, then look for the boys of St Joseph's College Ombaci who studied there in the 1980s. I have met them and I am awed.

St. Joseph's College Ombaci is a boys' school situated in Northern Uganda, Arua District, just over 450 km Northwest of Kampala. The District borders the Congo border of Vurra. Arua is a polite and cleaner version of Kampala. 

My 2024 book research takes me through the West Nile, Congo and specifically, through the sacred school of St. Joseph's. Founded in 1943 by the Comboni Missionaries/ Verona Fathers, it is known to train students to become model citizens  who are impactful in their communities.

The O' level class of 1985 particularly suffered in unimaginable ways. During the 1979, 1980 and 1981 political turbulence in Uganda, these boys bore the brunt of their homes and villages being destroyed during the various massacres in their home areas in and around Arua and at a young age, ran for refuge with nothing on their backs. 

They missed at least two years of school, most of them having lost loved ones. St. Joseph's College Ombaci was attacked too during the Ombaci massacre of 1981. These students returned to school in 1982 having lost a couple of years and with no scholastic material, shoes, beddings or uniform. They just had a heart of strength and a good brain on their shoulders.

 

In 1985, these students, upon sitting for their O level, performed so well that out of the best out of the best ten in the country, three were from Ombaci. I have had the pleasure of holding long conversations with all three. 

Each is highly skilled in their profession, communicates with such skill, respectable and pleasant. I have learned wells of wisdom from each and as I conduct further research, there is so much treasure in the communities that raised these fine gentlemen. 

Apart from the Angara fish and well-prepared inyasi, something deeper has refined them into exceptional individuals.

To Arua and to the people who give our country a great name.

Bless!

Beverley