Farewell to A Village Landmark

One of the oldest houses in Nninzi village, Komukungu House, is no more! Today, there is a field of exuberant maize plants where the house used to stand. Modernization and the clamor for land have caught up with it. The house was named after its owner, Komukungu, the matriarch of a family that settled on the land in the 1920s. It is said to have been constructed by 1923. Clearly, it must have been a grand structure in its day.

Above is the front of the house with a prominent porch. There are suggestions that the porch was a later addition in the 1950s or 60s when porches came into fashion with the introduction of corrugated iron sheets as roofing. Below is the back of the structure with several sturdy poles supporting the veranda rafters. Village residents suggest that three additional bedrooms were probably added at the back at the same time the porch was devised.  Clearly, Komukungu House must have been magnificent!

As is evident, the walls were of mud and reeds but the house was strong and built to last. The original roofing was made of tin pieces, an expensive material then. The tin roofing was replaced with corrugated iron sheets in the 1960s during the so-called coffee boom in the area and before independence turned sour. Although by 2010, no one was living in the house, one can still see how residents harvested rain water from the roof, as indicated by two poles placed on each porch valley side to lead water into an oil drum.

Komukungu House has been an essential landmark in the village for as long as it has existed. The surrounding area was sparsely populated and quite desolate during the 1930s. It was agricultural land for commuters from other parts of the village and burgeoning Kalisizo town in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. As a matter of fact, the family was one of the few residents up the hill after a vast wetland of the Kyoja River filled with papyrus and water lilies. As Komukungu House perched on a steep hill, people pointed to its central location to give directions to travelers to the east, west, north and south of Nninzi village. 

Since the 1980s, Komukungu House's claim to the role of a village GPS has rested not so much on being located on a hill but on its possession of mud walls - instead of fired bricks or sand blocks - and brown-rusted corrugated iron sheets during an era when roofing sheets come in all colors of the rainbow.

Apart from re-roofing, the house underwent other renovations, such as painting its walls white, strengthening the porch supports and replacing some of the mud blobs with bricks to create better ventilators. Unfortunately, these actions were unequal to the powerful elements, especially the frequent thunderstorms and gusty winds that are a staple in the area. As seen above, the back of the house was the first to wing down and crumble, tilting the remaining structure. Eventually, only small portions of various adjoining walls were left in the center. Ultimately, the remaining structure collapsed under its own weight. Owners of the land were quick to level the ground, flatten the mud boulders, and plant maize which had started sprouting healthy stems by October 12, 2023 as shown below.

Today January 13, 2024 the Komukungu family gathered at their palatial home across the road from where Komukungu House used to stand. Friends and relatives came to pray for the last matriarch's daughter Bena Nantale who died during COVID and was buried in the absence of most relatives. There were many speeches about her by family members but none remembered the recent demise of the important Nninzi Village landmark so as to pay a tribute to its tenacity for more than 100 years!.

 On a very positive note, the maize crop that was planted (as shown below) did quite well. It produced compact cobs now ready to harvest.  

While strong and enduring remnants of Komukungu House can still be glimpsed among the mature maize plants.

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