Kemigisa Jacky is very passionate about journalism, writing and reading. Her interests include; working to bridge the information gap in Uganda and East Africa, reducing corruption in Uganda, encouraging girls to reach their full potential, advocating for Human Rights and a just world; improving media freedoms and working on youth employment and empowerment. She works with social media as a blogger, writer, activist, and technologist to reach these goals.

I am a Ugandan feminist journalist who is interested in making sure that woman’s story is represented and told alongside their male counterparts. I write and contribute to women for Women Uganda, an online space where we question, appreciate, dissect, and share issues that affect women in Uganda.

I also co-host an all-woman podcast that is dedicated to telling the history of Uganda, putting the woman at the forefront for women have always been left out of history.

I head the content team at Parliament Watch Uganda, a program under the Center for Policy Analysis that is dedicated to sharing information from Parliament of Uganda with the aim of making parliament accessible to the public and breaking down the technical language to make it relatable and easy to consume, we do all this through the use of online tools.

For my volunteer work, I do communication for the Writivism festival which is organized by the Centre for African Cultural Excellence. Writivism identifies, mentors and promotes emerging African writers. The festival is Uganda’s leading literary event and it celebrates various arts around an annual theme.

All in all, the work I do in its different spaces, my medium of communication is using online tools.

WHAT FUELS ME?

 Learning; Everything I do is to learn, I write to learn, I read to learn, I co-host a podcast with the aim of learning, each day I aim to learn something new and unlearn something toxic, that is my daily challenge.

Passion; Passion is fuel to my soul, half the initiatives I am part of is because I 100% believe that there is something to be achieved and that can be changed, with or without money, I trust that as individuals, we occupy a certain amount of space and each can collectively contribute to change something small that we do not like in big and small ways.

Imagination: I believe that the moment you lose your imagination is when you stop to live, as a creative person, imagination is what helps me to focus, with an imagination there is no limitation to what I can achieve and what my community can achieve if they put their minds to it. I think imagination is important for all parts of our lives. Imagination provides opportunities for me to view the world as a better place.

MY GREATEST INFLUENCE:

My mother

MY TOP THREE ROLE MODELS:

Bell hooks; Her intelligence is stunning, her ability to simplify feminist theory and practice making it relatable through clear writing is the kind academic I aspire to be.

Irene Ikomu; Her ability to open spaces to young women with literarily no experience, with the hope of teaching them and making better is a skill and kind of trust that I would love to extend to young people.

Rebecca Rwakabokoza; She is a space creator, always thinking of new spaces to be created for black women, making sure women voices tickle down to newspaper opinions, influence policy, are represented in the creative spaces and that history doesn’t write the woman off. As a creative person, I aspire to be able to create the same spaces and make them even better for the next woman that walks in my shoes.

IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS…..

 My vision for the next five years to able to teach and change mindsets in whatever space I occupy, I work with a group of amazing women who never fall short on calling me out when I go off track, at the same time learning from them on different fronts, both personal and professional.

THE AFRICAN WOMAN’S CHALLENGE:

 I honestly think the biggest challenge for all is the patriarchy, the different forms it takes, it is a system that is designed not recognize the humanity of women, it is amorphous in the shapes it takes on, from the limiting gender roles assigned to women and men, to the harmful cultural practices, the emotional labor, gender pay gap.

My everyday challenge is to practice feminism, as a journalist, I, highlight issues affecting women in the regard to the elective politics arena, I read to unlearn, learn and relearn constantly and share the content through the different online platforms I occupy. I believe that information and knowledge practice and sharing and that is my contribution.

I also create spaces for young people to discuss political issues and how to create change.

WHAT I DO TO RELAX:

I am a podcast junkie, my mode of unwinding is listening to podcasts that address interesting questions like the Why Factor, basically addressing everyday questions like why we enjoy music, why do we yawn when another person yawns. It is interesting the things you learn from podcasts, half my music is podcasts on different things, science, history, music, religion, name it, I have it.

At the center of my being, I am a creator, so I paint, recycle bottles into art that I then give to my friends over bottles of wine because why not? I also journal a lot, when that doesn’t work, going for a run helps, always.

MY   –   I.C.E. [INSPIRE|CELEBRATE|EMPOWER] VISION

Because the African woman is phenomenal!

MY AFRICAN UNION PLANS:

I would seek to occupy the communications and content department, given the fact that information is key, and how it is packaged to be received is the most important. Every day we communicate because as human beings that is our mode of interaction, the most important part of advocacy is communication, how to creatively create campaigns that have an impact besides the general slogans, share information, broken-down from all the technical language and making it accessible to the lowest woman on the food chain.

All this is work of the communication department, that is the team I would seek to be part of, for my experience through professional practice is specializing in creating and sharing content that seeks to address issues and it is informative in its packaging with aim of creating change.

FINAL WORDS OF ADVICE:

Like Audre Lorde said; “your silence will not protect you”, speak out when you see evil and unfairness done irrespective of gender or sexuality of the victim, believe women and make the spaces you occupy comfortable and better for the next African woman.

Lastly, decolonize your mind, decriminalize the marginalized.