Apollo Kironde (1915 – 21 April 2007) was a Ugandan lawyer and diplomat who served as the first ambassador to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

(UN) from

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

. He was the scion of an ancient aristocratic family of the

Nsenene Nsenene is the Luganda name for ''Ruspolia differens'': a bush cricket (a.k.a. katydids or misnamed "long-horned grasshoppers") in the tribe Copiphorini of the 'cone-head' subfamily. It is often confused with the closely related '' Ruspolia ni ...

(grasshopper clan). His grandfather, Apollo Kaggwa, was a minister in the kingdom of Buganda when the British arrived, and served as a

regent A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

to the young

Buganda Buganda is a Bantu peoples, Bantu kingdom within Uganda. The kingdom of the Baganda, Baganda people, Buganda is the largest of the traditional kingdoms in present-day East Africa, consisting of Buganda's Districts of Uganda, Central Region, inclu ...

n 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 Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

, becoming the first African to be knighted. His grandson and namesake, Apollo Kironde, was the second son of his first son Assanasio Sentenza and Bladina Kironde. 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 The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

. He went back to Uganda and was the first African to pass the bar there. When the

King of Buganda the kabaka Palace in kireka Kabaka is the title of the king of the Kingdom of Buganda.Stanley, H.M., 1899, Through the Dark Continent, London: G. Newnes, According to the traditions of the Baganda they are ruled by two kings, one spiritual and ...

Mutesa II Sir Edward Frederick William David Walugembe Mutebi Luwangula Mutesa II (modern spelling: Muteesa) (19 November 1924 – 21 November 1969) was Kabaka of the Kingdom of Buganda in Uganda from 22 November 1939 until his death. He was the thirty- ...

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. Subsequently, he was invited to be a minister in the colonial government, a privilege formerly limited to the English. 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.

References

1915 births 2007 deaths Ugandan diplomats Permanent Representatives of Uganda to the United Nations {{Uganda-politician-stub