# Years after school, the group became a college again.

A school network does not die. It mutates into adult infrastructure.

By Michael Cengkuru · Interactive version: https://cengkuru.com/essays/once-a-ngonian/

## The story

Once a Ngonian, always a Ngonian. In 2019, the group woke up again: a place to network, to reminisce, to argue, to organize, to show up.

This is a living social atlas of an old boys' network: 84,426 messages from 189 members, 2019 to 2026, across six rooms of conversation. Old boys argue politics, organize sports, raise money, share faith, trade opportunities, mock each other, and still show up when it matters. This is not a leaderboard. It is the social atlas of a school network that refused to die.

Every voice has mass. In the interactive version, each member is a ball sized by how much they speak, drifting and colliding the way a room of old boys never quite settles. But the plain shape of the college is simpler: everything said here falls into six kinds of conversation.

Sports is where we talk sport, and it is 5,799 conversations deep. Football and rugby above all: match-day, the leagues, the galas, who captained what, and the mockery between fans. When old boys organise a team, it starts here.

General talk is the biggest room of all, at 12,226 conversations. This is where we just talk: banter, memes, teasing, marriage jokes, and the back-and-forth that has nothing to do with anything. The glue that keeps everyone here between the serious moments.

Politics is where we argue, 6,905 conversations of it. Uganda, power, governance, and the long debates that follow. It runs hot, because arguing about the country is part of how this group stays awake.

Religion is where we talk faith, across 5,477 conversations. Not one denomination: prayer, scripture, Phaneroo devotions, and the conversations about God that run alongside everything else.

Jobs and opportunities is where we trade and look for work, 6,407 conversations strong. Job openings, things people are selling, plugs, advice, and contacts. Where being an old boy quietly turns into an opportunity.

Fundraising is our running baraza for money, 2,779 conversations. The conversations where we collect: contributions, drives, and emergency support for one of our own. The atlas shows the collective momentum, never who gave what.

The real map, though, is not the topics. It is the people who move between them: someone who argues politics also mobilizes money, plays match-day, and carries the banter. These are the connectors who hold the common room together.

The group has a pulse too. The timeline shows the quiet years before the 2019 revival, then the surge. And it has a tongue: the words that mark this room as Ngonian, counted from the chat itself. The most-used word in the whole chat is "Ngo", the Namilyango marker, worn inside names like a second surname.

Then there are the relics, the places that made us. Not backdrops: each carries a story every old boy knows on sight. The Titanic, the pioneer bus, carried us from one event to another, and to the various girls' schools. Iconic, and a magnet for ridicule: other schools laughed at it without mercy. That mockery is exactly why we named it the Titanic. We owned the joke. The dining hall, our actual Namilyango dining hall, is where double deal was a badge of honour: the men who came back for more than one plate. And the beans soup with the oily top layer. That top layer was the word when you walked in to eat. The chapel where mass was held stands through every season of the college. The brick-pillar corridors we walked between classes, day after day, year after year. The iconic assembly area, where the whole college gathered.

Along the way, we lost some of our own. They are very much still part of us. The memorial roll carries Gita Deogracias. Still part of us.

The bus is still there. So are we. A school network does not die. It mutates into adult infrastructure.

Once a Ngonian, always a Ngonian · Nisi Dominus.

## The data

Observed · WhatsApp export

| Measure | Value | Note |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Messages logged | 84,426 | Observed · WhatsApp export |
| Voices on the roll | 189 | At least 8 messages · alias-collapsed |
| Rooms of the college | 6 | Keyword-classified |
| Group life | 7 yrs | 2019-03 to 2026-06 |
| Sports (The Pitch) | 5,799 conversations | |
| Fundraising (The Treasury Table) | 2,779 conversations | |
| Religion (The Faith Room) | 5,477 conversations | |
| Politics (The Parliament Bench) | 6,905 conversations | |
| Jobs and opportunities (The Market) | 6,407 conversations | |
| General talk (The Canteen) | 12,226 conversations | |

Rooms are assigned by keyword signal, so a message can belong to more than one room; room counts overlap rather than summing to the total.

## Sources

Built from a WhatsApp export of 84,426 messages, 2019-03 to 2026-06. Members with fewer than 8 messages and phone-number-only entries are excluded. Rooms are assigned by keyword signal, so a message can belong to more than one. Connections combine direct @mentions (weighted) and conversation proximity within a 10-minute window. Contribution amounts are deliberately not attributed to individuals. Archetypes and quotes are a curated layer, blank until reviewed. Observed data only; no psychoanalysis, no rankings of who talks too much or gives too little.