Dr. Yefusa Okullo Epak, M.P, Apac

- Monitor
interview with

Dr. Yefusa Okullo Epak,
The genius from Loro.
By Grace Naisamura
May 30 - June 5, 2004

The old high way that passes through Adyaka village may not
mean a lot to the present generation but for Dr.Okulo Epak,
the Member of Parliament for Oyam South County in Apac
district, the road is a monument of the good 1940’s.

“This high way was used by the British soldiers on their way
from Egypt to Mombasa after the World War II,” says Epak.
“They used to travel in a convoy using green trucks and
jeeps and whenever they passed by, the villagers, except the
women would stand by the roadside and stare at the convoy,”
he says.

But it was not only the convoy that attracted the crowd, the
soldiers used to throw biscuits at the onlookers and the
moment the dust of the convoy settled down, a scramble for
the biscuits ensued.

Epak’s secondary school education was on scholarships
which he won. (interview photo by John Nsimbe)

“I tell you that moment was terrible. Some people would
leave the scene with injuries. The women were not allowed
anywhere near the highway when the convoy was passing by
for it was rumoured that at one time some British soldiers
stopped and raped a woman,” Epak reminisces.

And where was Epak when all this happened? He watched from
a distance for fear of being trampled upon. “Hey, only stupid
people could get injured. If you knew you were not strong
enough to fight the crowd, why would you risk your life?” he
remarks.

Epak was born in 1940 to Mika Edule and Cecilia Oroma Villa
in Adyeda parish in Loro sub-county. Adyela is 51 kilometers
from both Gulu and Lira and it is also blessed with a river
called Kole where the locals used to go fishing.

“I used to wake up very early in the morning over the
weekend or during holidays and carry 30 hooks treated with
baits, deep them in the river and when I found some fish
trapped on some of them, my day was made,” he says with
nostalgia.

The locals used several methods for fishing including
throwing spears into the river randomly until they hit their
target. Apart from fishing, the locals also produced cotton
for cash.

“Indians bought cotton from our homes and took it to the
ginneries in Teboke which was six kilometers away or to Aber
which is 20 kilometers. They competed for it and that made
prices good,” he says.

Although there were hardly any schools in Epak’s village,
his parents took him to a church missionary school called
Loro Primary Vernacular School in Loro in 1949.

“Six O’ clock every morning found us rushing to school on
bare feet. You know we had murram roads with sharp stones
that could prick and hurt our feet. Sometimes we knocked our
toes on protruding stones and lost our nails. That’s why we
have few people with all their toe nails,” Epak reveals with
a grin.

His school had permanent buildings, which formed a sharp
contrast with grass and wattle houses back at home.
But that did not inhibit Epak, an enigma from displaying
what God gave him:

“Grace, this I can tell you; I was very clever at school. I
recall one time the teacher gave us a mathematics text and
the moment he was through with writing the questions; I was
also through with the answers. He asked me why I was not
writing and I told him that I had finished. He marked my
work and he said I had failed one number but I argued and
said it was right.

He said even the textbook agreed with him but I told him the
author (Curley Francis) was wrong. He then wrote to the
author who lived in Nairobi. When the author replied, he
said I was right,” he says with a smile of satisfaction.
Those days, the government used to give scholarships to the
first 30 pupils in PLE and schools could grant scholarships
to the best six students. Epak qualified for both.

“I studied on scholarships throughout my secondary
education,” he says. He went to Boroboro Junior Secondary
school in 1956 for junior one and two before travelling
miles and miles to joined Busoga College Mwiri for his S1
and S4. He then went to Mbale SS for his higher education.

Traveling from one place to another in this village was not
very difficult because a number of people could afford
bicycles.

“We used to enjoy riding bicycles especially when one was
carrying a loved one. Carriers were meant for men so the
women sat on the front bars and we could ride with one hand
holding the bicycle horns while the other held the girl
tight.

See, you had to protect the girls properly,” he
reminisces. And they did this past midnight sometimes when
they were riding the girls from their homes to the boys hut.
They would return the girls to her parent’s home 5am.

This is how most marriage affairs sprung up. When the
relationship blossomed, the boy would send a go between who
was a close relative to the girl. He would go and tell the
girl’s relatives that they would have visitors. On the
agreed date, the boy visited the girl’s parents.

The go between would then give Shs 4 to the girl and if she
took the money, it would mean that she knew the suitor. The
boy would then be told to pay the luk fine because it was
assumed they had fornicated.

The boy would then go back and tell his parents that he had
“killed a bufallo” and wanted them to help him chop the
meat. This idiom implied that he wanted them to help him pay
bride price.

His parents then visited the girl home to negotiate the
price.
“This was normally a hot debate and actually for me when
I was marrying my wife, I just walked away.

It is my mother who stuck around and negotiated with them,”
he says before revealing that he married Ms Martina Akello
in the middle 1960’s. Those were the enviable days. To date,
Adyaka has not developed much.

“You see our village is just three kilometers from Loro
sub-county and so we have concentrated on developing Loro
and it is developing according to the development plan I
made for it in 1984. It has now developed from one
primary school in Epak’s days to 54 schools.

“There is also a plan to build a dispensary at Loro
headquarters and yes, a teachers training institution
has also been set up.... he says.

May 30 - June 5, 2004.
Dr. Yefusa Okullo Epak
in an interview with
- Monitor Publications

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p.s search -
Enigma:

One that is puzzling, ambiguous, or inexplicable.
A perplexing speech or text; a riddle.

[Latin aenigma, from
Greek ainigma, from ainissesthai, ainig-,
to speak in riddles, from ainos, fable.]

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary
of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

enigma

1. Inexplicable saying; a riddle; a statement,
the hidden meaning of which is to be discovered
or guessed.

A custom was among the ancients of proposing
an enigma at festivals. -- Pope.

2. An action, mode of action, or thing, which
cannot be satisfactorily explained;
a puzzle; as, his conduct is an enigma.

enigma

1: something that baffles understanding
and cannot be explained;
"how it got out is a mystery";
"it remains one of nature's secrets"
mystery
secret

2: a difficult problem
conundrum
brain-teaser

Source: WordNet ® 1.6, © 1997 Princeton University

enigma

<hardware, cryptography>
The electro-mechanical cipher
cipher - engine used by the Germans
in World War II. Many of their messages
were deciphered at Bletchley Park by
Alan Turing and others.

(2000-09-30)

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