Christopher Henry Muwanga Barlow (1 May 1929 – 20 August 2006)"Barlow- a consummate civil servant" business.highbeam.com (22 December 2006). Retrieved 17 January 2014. was a
Ugandan
}), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The southe ...
poet,"Henry Barlow was a living Poem" , ''New Vision'' (30 August 2006). Retrieved 17 January 2014. notable for his poem "Building the Nation"."Building the Nation" , Poetry Foundation Ghana (2013). Retrieved 20 December 2013. "Nation building or nation destruction?" thepatrioticvanguard.com (Tuesday 8 September 2009). Retrieved 20 December 2013. He was one of the recipients of the Uganda Golden Jubilee medals in 2013. ''New Vision'', 31 January 2013. Retrieved 8 April 2014.GOLDEN JUBILEE MEDAL" monitor.co.ug. Retrieved 8 April 2014.
Early childhood and education
Born on 1 May 1929, to John and Maliza Barlow, Henry Barlow attended
King's College Budo
King’s College Budo is a mixed, residential,
secondary school in Central Uganda (Buganda).
Location
The school is located on Naggalabi Hill, in southern Wakiso District, off the Kampala-Masaka Road. This location lies approximately , by road, ...
(1936–48), where he excelled in cricket and lawn tennis. It was at Budo that Barlow discovered poetry. He joined
Makerere University College
Makerere University, Kampala (; Mak) is Uganda's largest and oldest institution of higher learning, first established as a technical school in 1922. It became an independent national university in 1970. Today, Makerere University is composed of ni ...
(1949–53), graduating with a BA degree (London). He was among the 13 pioneer graduates to be awarded degrees. Before, the university used to award only diplomas. He later did a diploma in Agricultural Economics at
Balliol College
Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...
,
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
(1959–60)."Henry Barlow: the builder of the nation is gone" ''New Vision'' (23 August 2006). Retrieved 20 December 2013."A song for forests" , onemansweek.com, 25 August 2006. Retrieved 8 April 2014.
Civil Service
Starting out as a co-operative officer in 1954, Barlow rapidly rose through the civil service ranks to become Permanent Secretary in 1963, a year after independence. After working in several government ministries, he was seconded to the Lint Marketing Board as chairman and managing director. That was in January 1971, the same month
Idi Amin
Idi Amin Dada Oumee (, ; 16 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. He ruled as a military dictator and is considered one of the most brutal despots in modern w ...
took over power. In 1976 Barlow resigned from the civil service and eventually moved to
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...
, to become secretary general of the African Association for Public Administration and Management. He returned to Uganda in 1981, to rejoin the civil service as permanent secretary in the president's office and head of the civil service. Barlow retired from the Civil Service in 1987. After his retirement, he served as a member of the Zimbabwe Public Service Review Commission (1987–89). He also kept busy doing consultancy and charitable work, while at the same time pursuing his life passion, poetry. In spite of his achievements, both as a public administrator and a writer, Barlow maintained a low profile, especially after retiring from civil service. He kept out of politics, apart from 1994, when he stood for Constituent Assembly in Makindye East.
Writing
Although he started writing in the mid-1940s, while a student at Budo, his collection of poems, ''Building the Nation and Other Poems'', was first published in 2000, almost 55 years later. But even before they were published as a collection, Barlow's poems, especially "Building the Nation", were already popular with poetry lovers both in Uganda and abroad and they regularly appeared in literature journals and text books. Fourteen of his poems had earlier been published under the title ''Of Feathers and Dead Leaves'' in 1989."The Pontiff's Regret" , onemansweek.com, 23 September 2006. Retrieved 8 April 2014.
Published works
Poetry collections
* ''Of Feathers and Dead Leaves and Other Poems'', Harare: Sapes Trust, 1989.
* ''
Building the Nation and Other Poems
''Building the nation and other poems'', published by Fountain Publishers in 2000, is a collection of 76 poems by Ugandan poet Christopher Henry Muwanga Barlow
Christopher Henry Muwanga Barlow (1 May 1929 – 20 August 2006)