You could have known him for his thick glorious afro hair combed backwards but hey, the late Mayanja Nkangi was no ordinary citizen. He was one of the leaders agitating for Uganda to be freed from British rule in the 1950s, and went on to participate in the country’s post-independence politics for nearly 50 years.
Born in 1932, Nkangi went to Kabungo Primary School in Masaka, Kings College Budo and Makerere University College from where he graduated in 1953. He later joined Kebel College, one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, where he qualified as a lawyer.
He first became a Member of Parliament for Masaka East in the 1960s, and later Minister without Portfolio in 1962. He was also Minister of Commerce and Industry. When Idi Amin overthrew the Obote I regime, Nkangi fled to exile in the UK and only returned to Uganda in 1980 to form the Conservative Party.
He then returned to government when President Yoweri Museveni took power in 1986, and held various ministerial positions, including Finance, Education and Sports as well as Justice and Constitutional Affairs. The last major government office he held was chairman of the Uganda Land Commission, which he left in 2013.