Background
John Barigye was born on January 10, 1940, the son of Sir Charles Gasyonga, the Omugabe and former King of Ankole.
John Barigye was born on January 10, 1940, the son of Sir Charles Gasyonga, the Omugabe and former King of Ankole.
Educated at King’s College Budo from 1946 to 1956 before going to Chartway Tutorial College, England and then in 1959 to King’s College, Cambridge, where he gained an MA in Economics.
In 1962 he returned home, joined the civil service and went on a United Nations course for diplomats, becoming an assistant secretary in the Ministry of foreign Affairs in 1963.
From 1964 to 1966 he was a secretary in the Uganda High Commission in London, returning to the Foreign Affairs Ministry, being promoted Chief of Protocol and Head of the Political Division in 1968 and Secretary for Foreign Affairs in 1969. After the Uganda coup of January 1971 he was appointed as Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany and to the Holy See.
A well-groomed diplomat who started early to equip himself for a civil service career, though his father was the King of Ankole before the traditional kingdoms were abolished in 1966. His royal background and education at Cambridge added to his style in dress and his polished manner gave him a flying start in the foreign service, where he proved himself with rapid promotions at the end of the sixties. He resigned in April 1973, because of “the tyranny and oppression that now exists in Uganda”.