Accepting an Award

It is Easter Sunday and there was no church or the hullaballoo of Kampalans running up and about in their Sunday best to fill churches. Not many people have made a fuss about not being able to do that on social media either. Some one has called it a ‘scientific Easter Sunday’. The longest holiday each year is seemingly going un noticed. Over the past few days I was thinking about teenagers. How are they copying? I have read of numerous accounts of parents trying to keep them occupied as they struggle through the unending boredom. For those that are in slums, many a time have no option but to build friendships with neighbors. Does any one think about youths in army barracks, refugee camps, shelters and prisons? I have a friend who once shared a story growing up with a mother in an army barracks outside Kampala. This friend confided that they barely had enough to eat, slept in small spaces (uni-ports) and often heard their parents have sex! This family’s girls got marri

A few weeks ago, I visited Rwanda’s Kigali Genocide Memorial Museum . The memorial site for where remains of persons who perished in the genocide were buried. A pictures galore welcomes you of some of the weapons people used to kill one another over tribal grievances. Skulls, chains, padlocks, sticks, guns, machetes name it. People were using anything and everything to eliminate each other. The children’s section is what gripped my heart though. Children are seen to tell stories of the genocide through their eyes at the time. There’s a room filled with pictures of little ones that perished. Parents I bet were told to indicate when their child was born, when s (he) died and what the last words of the child were prior to their death. The one last word/statement I left that museum thinking about was of a 7 year old, besides whose picture memorial were written the words, “mama which way should I go?”  He was shot in the head when the genocidaires came to their village shooti

Women’s bodies are viewed in feminist-legal studies as a site for politics and control. The public space largely dominated by men controls women’s bodily appearance, how the woman's body should appear, define what amounts to pleasurable bodies and what not (see 'Mini-skirts bill, penalties for prostitution, abortion & indecent dressing as an excuse for sexual violence et al). Feminists however view eroticism as women’s resistance to oppressive ways men subjugate them in society. Well as certain traditions advocate for cutting off the labia as it makes sex pleasurable for women and consequently presumed infidelity, some cultures celebrate elongation (stretching) of the same to maximize pleasure for both men and women. Elongated labia I have learned is also called the ‘khoikhoi apron’. The practice is so revered by men and women in many parts of southern and eastern Africa. The purpose of stretching the labia (pulling in ‘okukyalira ensiko’) it is believed is to intensi

One chilly sunday afternoon at a church in Kampala, a family went up to the podium to tell of God’s goodness in their lives. Testimony time it is called. Every one loves a good reality story with a happy ending. In church – it is victory over the enemy and an opportunity for theologians to practically illustrate God’s power in humanity in our day and time.  On this occasion though, I was taken a back by the insensitivity of the church to global public health concerns. This particular testimony hurt me deeply because of the many lives living with or affected by HIV/AIDS in our time and in that church too. Many vulnerable people find solace in the church – for it is where hope is presumably sowed – it is where a God who Judges us NOT can be accessed to accept us and hopefully wipe away our tears. The family up the podium, narrated to us events including a time when they hired a lady to support them with domestic work. Several weeks into her employment they decided to su

I had never thought about being recognized for anything I do. I consider myself to be an ordinary person doing good when I can and simply living in harmony with my surroundings. Recently I received a call from the Germany ambassador to Uganda. He said I had been named for a peace and reconciliation award from The German and French embassy to Uganda. They annually recognize individuals doing transformative work to support vulnerable members in the Ugandan society. Quickly I started focusing on me. Why me? Surely this must be a scam! I had only co-founded the Women’s Pro Bono Initiative (WPI) barely a year and a half ago. We are supporting the most vulnerable women and girls access justice, speak up against their abusers and reclaim their basic freedoms. Our work received media attention and enormous publicity contrary to my expectations. Hearing an outsider say they appreciated us, me? Was quite overwhelming.  I did not know what to say, how to respond or if I should ask some