Apollo Kironde

Apollo Kironde (1915 – April 21, 2007) was the first Ambassador to the United Nations from Uganda.^[1]

He was the scion of an ancient aristocratic family of the Nsenene (grasshopper clan). His grandfather, Sir Apollo Kaggwa, was a leading minister in the kingdom of Buganda when the British arrived, and served as a regent to the young Bugandan king Daudi Chwa until 1914, after which he remained Buganda's Katikiro (Prime Minister) until 1926. For his efforts he was knighted by Queen Victoria and became the first African to be knighted.

His grandson and namesake, Apollo Kironde, was the second son of his first son Asanasio. At an early age young Apollo showed a lot of promise and was sent abroad to school. He studied to be a teacher and after many years of teaching went to England and read law at Middle Temple. He went back to Uganda and was the first African to pass the bar.

When the King of Buganda Edward "Freddie" Mutesa was exiled to the United Kingdom, after a dispute with the colonial government, it was Apollo Kironde who went to England to win his freedom. The people of Buganda never forgot that. Subsequently he was invited to be a minister in the colonial government, a privilege heretofore limited to the English; another first. When Uganda won its independence he was named its first Ambassador to the UN.

Kironde's daughter Katiti Kironde was the first African-American covergirl of a women's magazine.^[2]

References