Julia was born on Monday 15th October 1917 in Mengo Hospital. She was the first born of Yafesi Paulo Mukasa and Sanyu Mukasa (nee Mulira).
Childhood
Two exciting events stand out in her memory during this early period. She was selected to present a floral bouquet to the Chief Guest (she insists it was the Prince of Wales) who came to commission the Bishop Tucker Theological College main building at Mukono (April 25, 1925), where her father was the first Ugandan tutor. The second event was the wedding of her older cousin Eva Bakaluba to the most eligible young man in Kampala, Semion Nsibambi, which was graced by only two lucky bridesmaids, Sarah Bakaluba (later Nagenda) and Julia. She also remembers seeing Rev. (now St.) Apollo Kivebulaya several times at the Nsibambi residence at Bulange on some of his stop-overs from Mboga Zaire.
School
Close proximity to Bishop Tucker Theological College was a clear advantage. She was briefly enrolled in the pioneer nursery school started by Miss Hill. She advanced with it when it developed into the Primary School for Girls at Mukono. At age 10, in 1927, she left home to join Gayaza High School in Primary 2, where she spent 10 years. She completed the education cycle offered by Gayaza and joined its affiliated college, Buloba Teachers College in 1938. She completed her training as an infants’ teacher in 1939.
Family Life
Julia married Asaph Ezera Ntumwa Lule, who was an Education Officer in Kabaka’s government, in 1940. They traveled widely around Uganda doing education work. Starting in Kampala, they were posted to Masaka, Masindi, Mbarara, Mbale, back to Mbarara and finally back to Kampala. Two children were born in Mbarara, one in Masaka, one in Mbale and five in Kampala. For Julia, motherhood extended to numerous other children starting with her own younger siblings and cousins Margaret Mukasa (now Luswata), Gibwa Kiwanuka (now Kanyerezi) and Esteri Mulira (now Matovu). Her household was always bustling with children and she took loving care of them all.
Work
When the family returned from Mbarara in 1953, Julia started a Nursery School, initially housed in the garage of her cousin’s home, Katie and Kupuliano Kibuka at Makerere. Enrolled in the school were the children of her numerous relatives, friends, interested parents as well as her own. The school was eventually given more spacious premises at Makerere College by Dr. Welbourne. As it grew bigger, it moved into the ground floor of Dr. Kisekka’s double storied house on Nakulabye/Namirembe Rd., finally settling into its own school house at Nakulabye, opposite Namwandu Nsibirwa’s residence. This Nursery School boasts alumni in various prominent positions in Uganda and abroad today.
Julia’s nursery school teaching was the precursor to more advanced work in education. Two of her biological children, Mary and Peter (No. 5 & 6) were deaf. They presented Julia with the most extraordinary challenge that was to change her life fundamentally. She refused to succumb to what many others of her time pronounced as a tragedy. She focused all her energies on finding a solution to the disabilities not only of Mary and Peter but to those of all deaf children in the country. She was inspired in her struggle by Miss Margaret Parry, a deaf English lady who was the Manager of Namirembe Guest House and who became instrumental in placing Mary Lule in a school for deaf children in England. Around this same time (1958) the Uganda Society for the Deaf (USD) was founded by Dr. Peter Roland, E.N.T Surgeon, Mr. Ernest Sempebwa, among others. Lip- reading lessons were also started for European and Asian hearing-impaired children at Aga Khan Mosque. African children were not catered for. Through persistent lobbying Julia was granted a scholarship by the Kabaka’s Government at Mengo to study deaf education for two years at Manchester University in U. K. Julia remembers this period as one of the toughest experiences of her life. Leaving her children scattered among relatives and friends and armed with only the skills of an infants’ teacher acquired from Buloba College in 1930s, she found herself in a university class of mainly British young adults. She had never studied science subjects. So it was no wonder that when she was confronted with the physiology of the auditory system she did not understand a single
thing for the first few months. But she persisted and completed her course in two years.
Returning home in 1959, Julia started the pioneer classes for deaf African children hosted by Mengo Primary School, then headed by Mrs. Rebecca Katakule Sebunya. She was assisted in the initial years by Miss Brown. Like many schools in the region, Mengo Primary School was a Church founded school (Church of Uganda) supervised by the Kabaka’s Government. Enrolment expanded fast and the Uganda Society for the Deaf assisted to establish it as the Uganda School for the Deaf by leasing the premises of the former Edith Rowe Vocational School on Namirembe hill. After independence the school assumed national status but continued to receive its main support from the Kabaka’s
government and donors. Julia opened the door for both abandoned deaf children and teachers who were willing to specialize in this new branch of education. Both her public and private lives were taken up by activities supporting the education and welfare of deaf children. Indeed many baffled Ugandan parents of deaf children would bring them and leave them at her doorstep. Her home has thus been home to scores of deaf children over the years. The school, now a fully-fledged Primary School situated at Ntinda, has so far triggered the establishment of 14 other primary schools, units, annexes in the whole country and one secondary school for hearing-impaired learners. Kyambogo University now offers courses in Special Education, which includes education for the hearing-
impaired (deaf).
1965 – 1967 Julia handed over the school to younger, freshly-trained staff and transferred to Mulago Hospital as Warden to the Nurses Hostel. She subsequently worked as a Cultural officer in the Ministry of Culture and Community Development based in Mubende. She also worked for the East African Industries as a Saleswoman. The job required her to drive long distances marketing company products. She then retired into a very active life the main focus of which was activities and services that supported deaf children. This is why she is generally known as the Mother of Deaf Education and of deaf children in Uganda.