Nkurumah Hall held a freshers orientation to inaugurate the new students into the system at Makerere University yesterday.
This was done through rudely awakening the unsuspecting freshers and assembling them bare-chested to initiate them into the system in what was purported to be a military style. This comes after the official orientation done by the institution was long held.
This ceremony was justified as a culture that makes one a full member of this hall of residence. The event was held after a heavy downpour and the task was for freshers to courageously withstand the biting cold. This event deviated from the usual initiation that was a basic Saturday morning jog around the university premises.
The hall leaders and the culture committee insisted that freshers must learn the hall anthem and several ‘songs of wisdom’ among others to secure a fruitful stay in the hall. They were also taught the Makerere University war songs and chants that have headlined strikes and demonstrations at the Ivory Tower.
Boys’ halls at Makerere have unique cultures that have withstood the test of time. Every generation passes them onto the other. They are hinged on creating dominance over their counterpart halls in the local public opinions and within university circles. The way Lumumba Hall, for instance, has been in recent times known to be the hub of university policy resistance and state disobedience, the other halls strive to unseat it and achieve that.
The freshers who were ritualistically taught how to “attack” ( the act of holding ones private parts with one hand while simultaneously raising the other before singing the anthems as a sign of respect) in Makerere slang while singing the hall anthem before they were released at about 3 am in the night after close to 5 hours of vigorous exercise.
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