- Abby Mukiibi attributes his successful career to a disagreement with his father over his career choice
- His father wanted him to become an engineer, but Mukiibi pursued a Music Dance and Drama course at Makerere University
- Mukiibi secretly returned to Uganda to continue his MDD course after being sent to the US by his father
Ugandan veteran drama-actor and radio host Abby Mukiibi attributes his illustrious career to a disagreement he had with his father.
Abby Mukiibi
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At a young age, Mukiibi had a big clash with his dad, the late Erias Simwogerere, about his career choice.
Right from when he was 5, Mukiibi had his aspirations locked. He had told his parents he wanted to be a big film star. He also dreamt of owning a two-storied house.
His father, however, wished for his son to follow in his footsteps and become an engineer.
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The late Simwogerere was incensed upon learning that Mukiibi had enrolled on a Music Dance and Drama course at Makerere University.
He reacted by pulling him from the university and sending him off to the US to take up a different course.
Mukiibi however, had no intention of becoming an engineer.
“I hated the stuff…I never even tried,” he told Crystal Newman in an interview.
Returning home
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While in the US, Mukiibi says he contacted the late Prof Rose Mbowa, who was teaching MDD at Makerere.
Mbowa had seen him as a young boy in primary and secondary school and taken notice of his talent in arts.
So she agreed to help him apply for a dead year at Makerere.
Abby Mukiibi
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Soon, Mukiibi travelled secretly back to Uganda and resumed his MDD course. Only his mother, the later Madina Simwogerere knew about this.
However, one Sunday morning while chilling in his room at Lumumba Hall, someone knocked on his door.
Opening it, it was his father.
“He looked at me and made just one statement; ‘you should have spoken out instead of wasting my money.’ He then slammed the door behind him and drove off,” Mukiibi recounted.
Although they didn’t speak again for the next three years, Mukiibi said his father eventually forgave him.
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At the end of the course, he attended the graduation and even held a party for him at his home.
From that point, Mukiibi says he made the decision to work hard to prove to his father that he could be better off than an engineer.
Thankfully, his career in drama and radio picked up right after school shooting him into the limelight as one of the most revered artists in the country.
Before his death, Mukiibi says, his father did admit he felt proud that he had realised his childhood dreams.
