From the beginning of time, humanity has mourned its own.
In the ancient Biblical scriptures, we read of Jacob tearing his clothes and weeping for Joseph, of David crying, “O my son Absalom, would I had died for thee,” and of Job sitting in ashes to mourn his loss. From the pyramids of Egypt where Pharaohs were buried with treasures for the afterlife, to the great wailing ceremonies of the Basoga, to the lighting of candles in cathedrals in Europe and the quiet incense of Asia — every culture, every tribe, every civilization has always stopped to say goodbye to its dear ones.
Mourning is therefore not new. It is the oldest language of love. It is how we tell the dead that they mattered, and how we tell the living that we are still one family.
It is this same ancient tradition that even the elites, the great legal philosophers, and the thinkers of our time have never escaped. For all their knowledge of law, logic, and philosophy — from Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43BC) who wrote of grief in Rome, to modern jurists who argue about justice and legacy — they all return to one simple truth at the hour of death: that law ends where love begins, and what remains is not our titles, but the memories we gave each other.
And so, it is with Prof. Isaac Christopher Lubogo, a distinguished legal philosopher and academic, who today has set aside the gown of the law to wear the heart of a younger brother mourning his elder sister, Juliet Tahomerawo Kunya Kasenge.
A Sister Separated by Time and Distance.
The family of the late Juliet, one of the elder daughters who spent most of her adult life in South Africa, is mourning her passing this week. She leaves behind children and siblings across two countries.
In a deeply personal and philosophical tribute titled “I Gave Her What I Had”, Prof. Lubogo reflected on a relationship shaped by distance that many Ugandan families know too well.
“I did not know you as well as I would have wished,” he wrote. Separated by nearly thirty years in age, born of different mothers and different homes, and eventually separated by continents — with Juliet in South Africa and Lubogo rooted in Uganda — their bond was tested by the very circumstances that define many African families.
“Our family circumstances, like those of many African families, sometimes create distances between siblings that nobody necessarily chooses,” he noted.
The Wairaka Visit That Erased the Distance.
Yet, it was one visit more than twenty years ago in Wairaka, Jinja, that erased all that distance.
Prof. Lubogo recalled how Juliet, who had travelled from South Africa with her friends and her sister Carol, deliberately took the trouble to find him — her much younger brother.
“Of all the people you could have visited, of all the places you could have gone, you came to see your much younger brother. I remember being deeply humbled by that,” he wrote.
It was during that visit that a family treasure changed hands. Lubogo showed his sister an old family album containing the only photograph he had of their father as a teenager — aged about 15 or 16, during his Senior Four days at Busoga College Mwiri, where he played cricket. The photo had been kept by Lubogo’s mother.
“When you saw it and asked me for it, I understood immediately that you were not merely asking for a picture. You were asking for a piece of your father,” he said.
Without hesitation, he gave it to her, though it was his only copy.
“I gave you what I had. I gave you what was precious to me because I understood that it was precious to you too,” he wrote.
For Prof. Lubogo, that moment has now become his source of peace. While he could ask what more he should have done, he finds comfort in knowing that when his sister reached out for a connection to her father, he did not hold back.
A Message to the Children and a Final Goodbye.
In his tribute, Prof. Lubogo addressed Juliet’s children directly, urging them to see the photograph not just as paper, but as heritage.
“That photograph was once kept in my mother’s album. It passed into my hands and eventually found its way to your mother. In that small journey is a much bigger story — a story of family, memory, heritage and belonging,” he said.
He concluded: “I will not allow the years we did not have together to become my greatest regret. Instead, I will remember the years we did have, and especially that one unforgettable visit… You came looking for me once. Today, I say goodbye to you with love.”
He summed up his entire grief and love in one powerful line: I Gave You What I Had.
Burial arrangements will be communicated by the family.
We at The Exposure Uganda (TEU), a revolutionary digital news platform join the family in mourning the passing of Juliet Tahomerawo Kunya Kasenge. We stand with our brother Prof. Isaac Christopher Lubogo and the entire family in this difficult time, and we pray that God comforts the children and all who mourn her. May her soul rest in eternal peace.
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