Sebastian Kyalwazi
Sebastian Kakule Kyalwazi,, was a Ugandan consultant surgeon who served as professor and head of surgery at Makerere University School of Medicine and concurrently as senior consultant surgeon at Mulago National Referral Hospital from the early 1970s until his death in the early 1990s. He is reported to be the first indigenous African to qualify as a surgeon in East and Central Africa.
Early life and education
Kyalwazi was born in Masaka District, in the Buganda Region of Uganda, where he was raised as a Roman Catholic.After primary school in Kampala and Masaka, he studied at St. Mary's College Kisubi, where he obtained both his GCE Ordinary Level and GCE Advanced Level certificates.
In 1948, he graduated from Makerere University, with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree. Later he undertook postgraduate studies in Edinburgh, Scotland, graduating as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, being the first African in East and Central Africa to qualify as a surgeon. In 1968, he spent a period of study at the Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute on a World Health Organization, scholarship.
Career
Kyalwazi was appointed as a lecturer in surgery at Makerere University Medical School in 1968. He rose through the ranks and became Professor and Head of the Department of Surgery at the medical school and the university's teaching hospital, the first African to attain that rank.He took interest in research and surgery of a number of solid cancer illnesses, including hepatocellular carcinoma, penile cancer, Kaposi's sarcoma and cervical cancer among others. At the time that Uganda Cancer Institute was established in 1967, Kyalwazi was the lead negotiator on the Ugandan side and is credited for allowing UCI to be established. In 1968, he was elected as the president of the Association of Surgeons of East Africa, the first African to serve in that position.