I am blessed to work as an independent expert in my field so I live and work in both Uganda and South Africa; wherever is convenient to do my work at any given time. I specialize in strategic and organizational development for women’s rights organisations on the African continent. My aim is to ensure women’s rights is not taken as a project but a process of shifting patriarchy in real ways.

I actually do not call myself a feminist, I believe that I embody feminist principles and values and live them on a daily basis. Being a feminist to me is not a label but a lifestyle. In my professional life, how I interact with my colleagues or those I lead is based on my understanding and comfort level of equity within the context of human rights and dignity. I unashamedly am biased towards ensuring women’s rights are incorporated in any work environment I am privileged to work in. In my private life, I am a mother of one girl. As a result of my own experiences growing up as a young African girl, I am committed to impart information that will safeguard my daughter as she grows and experiences the world. I do not want her to grow up in fear or with a negative attitude towards the world, but to be strong to protect herself and empowered to make decisions that make her happy, content with her choices and safe within the environment she works and lives. I ultimately I feel that I need to have some ideology that guides how I practice, behave and simply be in this world so I can remain happy and content with myself and the world. I am comfortable in the skin of feminism.

In my opinion the greatest challenge is us as women being able to deconstruct what we have been taught and socialized into over the centuries. Our understanding of the depth of inculcation is something we do not interrogate enough considering as Africans it is from a traditional and colonial experience. Our ability not to self-hate is the second challenge in my view. Patriarchy has successfully managed to socialize women to a point of not liking or attaching negative connotations to being a feminist or feminist thought and principles. Thirdly, Africa has competing issues such as poverty, HIV and its social impacts food security and conflict. Therefore, one can argue that if we do not address feminism strategically within these aspects of the African context, feminist ideology becomes a competing issue that is really an ideology. The question would then be: Does Ideology have space to compete with pressing survivalist matters that are competing for attention and need for redress in themselves?

I do believe feminism is the ideology that will bring about an equal and just society/world and must be entrenched in addressing challenges of the African continent. The challenge then is how we incorporate feminist ideology into the workings of leading and strong INGO’s and NGO’s, governments, and international financial institutions that seem to be the drivers of global agendas. 

I am inspired by the long line of women who had to fight for their place in their communities and social circles. These women did not identify themselves as feminists but clearly upheld principles and practices that are of feminist ideology. I believe I am where I am today and content with my life choices because of the paths set by the strong women in my life. I want to promote the positive aspects of womanhood that I know of from a personal level.