"Greetings from Uganda... I was a part time Masters student.  We were I think about 20 in class: three Ugandans, a Zambian, two Zimbabweans, and the rest were South Africans who included one white, one Asian and the rest black South Africans.

 

We used to come over to Rhodes four times a year for two weeks each time. It was a lot of fun. Very interesting and great lecturers. The course was a bit hard for those who had not been introduced to media studies at undergraduate level. I had done a post graduate diploma in Mass Communication from the University of Nairobi after my Bachelors from Makerere University in Uganda. I was at the time News Editor of the New Vision, Uganda's  leading daily newspaper.

 

The Masters course included subjects like Communication Theory, Research Methods,  A project, a thesis. Communication theory was quite exciting especially for people who had not done it at undergraduate level. I remember lecturers like Prof Larry Strelitz, who was my supervisor for the thesis; Prof Anthea Garman, supervisor for the project; Prof Tawana Kupe and Prof Guy Berger were exceptionally inspiring. There were a few occasional ones too like Nixon Kariithi.

​

I loved the student centre, the TV studios and the RMR. The course content now is very different from what we had. I must say I still carry the department with me and Rhodes made a special breed of journalists and lecturers back in Uganda. I and other Rhodes alumni teaching at Makerere University unconsciously contributed the South African tradition to journalism studies different from the Nordic tradition and the North American tradition.

​

One challenge we had as part-time student is that supervisor follow-up ca

n be very tricky once you left Rhodes and returned home. But it was fun I must say.

The highest moment was coming back to attend the Highway Africa Conference. It is a great thing.

​

This is how my studies at Rhodes influence my work today. It introduced me to an intellectual culture, to media studies as opposed to journalism and the intersection between media and a range of other fields.

​

There were other interesting things in Grahamstown: the Museum of Natural Sciences; the museum of African Music, which incidentally had lots of Uganda traditional music you cannot find in Uganda now; the Rat and Parrot pub, where Larry Strelitz occasionally played a guitar after work; the staff coffee to which MA students were always allowed and the meals.

​

I was impressed by the high quality of teaching and research; the organised hand-outs; the support from the Academic Development Division and the library facility.

​

But I was struck by the endless arguments in class between black students from SA and Zimbabwe and white lecturers. The race narrative in Southern Africa always made us from outside the region feel a bit strange. We do not have that in our countries.

​

My supervisors were Profs Strelitz (main) and Prof. Lynette Stenveeld. That was very tricky for me. The two were very good; were husband and wife but they seemed to each belong to a different intellectual tradition. They rarely agreed. So in the morning you would work with Larry’s guidance and by evening that approach was shredded down by Lynette. The differences, however, enriched my thesis and I thank them very much.

​

Incidentally, our department then was housed in the Drama building. It moved to Africa Media Matrix after we had left."