By Rebecca Harshbarger and Arao Ameny

NEW YORK (Ugandans Abroad)— Thousands of women suffered immense violence during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and much of the country’s economy was destroyed.  Rwandan women have played a large role in rebuilding the country, from the banks to the market to the country’s families and cultural institutions.  Women launched the first funeral parlors in Rwanda, opened hotels and started other independent businesses, employed people and stabilized the economy.

On April 12, six Rwandan female entrepreneurs spoke at the Columbia Business School about how they started their businesses.

These women included Soline Habilyayo Mukamana , a former nurse, owns a landscaping and garden business center named Saintpaulia Flower Center, and employs fourteen people.  Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, is one of her clients.

Rwandan women speaking about their business success at Columbia University. Arao Ameny.

Marie Claudine Mukamabano, part of the Rwandan diaspora, spoke to Ugandans Abroad.

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PARIS, France (Ugandans Abroad)– It is such a rare gift to experience two hours fully dedicated to African theater, which is rarely known or seen abroad. But this year, UNESCO celebrated World Theater Day by focusing on theater from the African continent and its culturally-rich diaspora. Best of all, the International Theatre Institute selects an author annually to give a message for World Theater Day on March 27th, and they chose Ugandan playwright Dr. Jessica Kaahwa this year.

Dr. Jessica Kaahwa is a prominent Ugandan playwright, teacher, and actress.

People of all backgrounds gathered at the UNESCO House in Paris on March 23rd for an evening of African theater. South Africa’s Thembi Mtshali-Jones performed her play “A Woman In Waiting.” The production is a one-woman play that shows us the evolution and disillusion of a young lady who lived in the village with her grandmother, before she finally discovers the reality of Durban after a long wait.

Despite its slight political sensitivity, the play masterly mixed humor with some melancholy, and is based on the playwright and actress’ life.  Mtshali-Jones is considered by many to be a queen in the tradition of the African performing arts.

The second play looked at the Black diaspora in France. Renowned author Alain Mabanckou’s play “Black Bazaar” depicted the daily questions and implicit identity questioning a Congolese man abroad faces, as well as his everyday life among fellow Congolese living in France.

I found the play to be full of amusing and realistic moments for Africans living and born in France, like me. Mabanckou is an actor and journalist who now lives in the United States. He is from Congo (Brazzaville), and studied law at the Universitè Paris-Dauphine

The guest of honor, Uganda’s Jessica Kaahwa, is an actress, author, director, academic and playwright. She ended our special evening with a monodrama called “Putting Words Between The Eyes.” The drama depicts the scene of a woman waking up after a conflict, and trying to figure out what to do after having faced such horror.

South Africa’s Thembi Mtshali-Jones is a legend in the African performing arts.

Cries of babies and gunshots still resound in her head and haunt her in this one-act play. A beautiful allegory of a jar that should be emptied and refilled helps her realize the path she will choose. She decides to not let herself be haunted by the ghosts of war and violence, but decides to rise and march on. Kaahwa is a senior lecturer at Makerere University, and teaches mass communications and drama back home.

UNESCO’s long-term mission is to contribute to peace and security by promoting global collaboration through education, science and culture. We took part in this special night at the UNESCO House in Paris.

Kaahwa’s visit to France was also a very lovely occasion for many Ugandans in Paris to unite amongst some very good local dishes the day before, when she was received by the Uganda Embassy of France. Matooke was the clear winner in this, and the dish was applauded by all.

Forty fellow Ugandans came out to the event, including eight young people. The diaspora was delighted by this, since many Ugandan youth in France are trying to get to know one another. We are indeed a small community, but both tight bonds and receptions like this create unforgettable moments of reunion. Fellowship under Ugandan food and music binds our community!

Shari Hammond is a law student in Paris of Ugandan and Ghanaian heritage with a love of the arts.

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NEW YORK (Ugandans Abroad)– Many know Canadian plus-size model Sunday Omony for her beautiful body and smile.  But this 25-year-old Ugandan woman in the diaspora has a huge heart, drawn to humanitarian work and giving a voice to the voiceless in her motherland.

Sunday Omony is a Ugandan model and humanitarian based in Calgary, Canada.

Omony’s professional background may surprise you.  Her background is in the oil and gas industry, and she’s worked for years as a procurement analyst in supply chain management.

She’s also a student at the University of Calgary, a public research university in Alberta where she is pursuing a degree in communications.

She first moved to Canada in 1991, an Acholi girl from Kitgum in northern Uganda, with her parents and siblings.

“My parents wanted more educational opportunities for us,” she told Ugandans Abroad.  “It was also not safe for us to stay home because of the conflict in northern Uganda.”

Despite living in Calgary for the past twenty years, she still is very much Ugandan when it comes to winter.  “I’m still not used to the cold here,” she joked.

However, she says that it’s “a clean, calm and friendly city.”  She has been the secretary of the Ugandan association in Calgary for three years.  The Ugandan community in Calgary is quite small.

“Sadly, there’s not too many Ugandans here,” she said.  “As a community, we’ve had positive and some negative experiences, but I think that’s what has made our community stronger.”

Sunday Omony loves being a plus-size model.

Omony developed an interest in modeling when she was only sixteen years old.  A modeling agent approached her in high school, and she began to consider it as a potential career.

She began modeling in 2004, working for international magazines like U.K.-based FabAfriq, as well as companies like Old Navy, Corbis, and Veer.

Publications as diverse as the Acholi Times, The Weekly Albertan and UGPulse have also featured her, and she has hosted the AfroCanada Beauty Pageant, among other events.

“The fashion industry considers a model over size 6 as plus-size,” Omony said.  “Generally, plus-size models are 5’9, and size 10 and up.  The only difference between a plus-size and straight-size model are their measurements.  I love being a plus-size model because I don’t have to change my body.”

Around the time she started modeling, she also founded a nonprofit organization called Immigrant Youth Empowerment Society.  She’s always been very involved in her community—for example, she is the new spokesperson for Hearts 4 Peace, an organization that offers services and courses in conflict transformation and social justice.

Omony is also a big supporter of GuluWalk, an international campaign for war-affected youth in northern Uganda.  She also loves to volunteer with UNICEF, the United Nations Association in Canada, and the Cerebral Palsy Association.  People may know her for her beauty, but the size of her heart also leaves a lasting impression.

Sunday Omony.

“I’m very passionate about helping people,” she said.  “I want to be an agent for positive changes in my community and around the world.”

At the end of the day, Omony’s strong spiritual beliefs and Ugandan identity keep her focused and help her achieve her diverse aspirations.  “I’m very proud to be Ugandan,” she said.  “I embrace my heritage and culture with pride.  I grew up Catholic, and went to Catholic schools.  God is the center of my life.”

In 2008, Omony had the opportunity to return home to Uganda for three months.  She also plans to go back this summer.  “I would love to go back home every year if possible,” she said.  “It was a life-changing experience for me.”

This beautiful young lady in the diaspora is single, preferring to concentrate on her career.  However, she loves going on adventures for fun—traveling, art exhibits, community festivals, road trips, concerts, and watching independent films have given her many rich, satisfying experiences.

Part of her inner and outer beauty is the combination of Ugandan and Canadian cultures.  “I think living in two countries has influenced me in a positive way,” she said.  “I’ve learned to embrace both cultures in me.”

Beautiful, inside and out.

What message does she have for the international Ugandan community? When it comes to her roots, Omony is deeply grateful for the foundation that being a Ugandan has given her.

“I value and love all the Ugandans that have stood behind me, and send me positive messages to go ahead,” she said.  “I’m nothing without the support of my people.  Uganda Oyeee!”

Rebecca Harshbarger is a journalist based in New York City.

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UGANDANS ABROAD (New York) — Her voice breaks slightly when she talks about the pain. In the same breath, the inflection in her voice raises with excitement when she talks about her deep faith in God, and how she realized the possibility of overcoming that same sadness with reconciliation and forgiveness.

Marie Claudine Mukamabano is a Rwandan genocide survivor in the diaspora working to support orphans in her homeland.

Marie Claudine Mukamabano, a 31-year-old Rwandan woman in the diaspora, is a genocide survivor and founder of the Kuki Ndiho Foundation. Mukamabano, a Tutsi, survived the genocide that claimed the lives of approximately 800,000 Tutsis and Hutus.

She founded the Kuki Ndiho Rwanda Orphans Support Project in New York City, known as Kuki Ndiho Rwanda in her mother country, which helps 200 children orphaned by the 1994 Rwandan genocide and HIV/AIDS attend school.  Rwanda has one of the highest rates of orphans in the world.

Mukamabano, herself a teen during the genocide, tragically knows this firsthand.

The genocide had a huge impact on her, as she lost her mother and father, grandparents, sister, cousins, and other loved ones.  Her journey has since taken her to the United States, where she lives in the diaspora as an executive director of the orphan-focused foundation, and also works as a dancer and actress.

In 2005, Mukamabano came to the U.S. on a UNESCO scholarship, and worked in an international summer program for artists at Watermill Center, a New York-based arts research laboratory on Long Island. Soon after arriving in the U.S, she spent her time working a variety of jobs. She played drums at various events around the country, modeled for African designers and taught dance and music classes in New York City.

Mukamabano speaks at the U.N.

After surviving the genocide, Mukamabano said that she asked herself why she did not lose her life, like many of her relatives that were lost. She asked herself and God, “Kuki Ndiho?” which means “Why do I exist?” in Kinyarwanda, her mother tongue.

With her deep Catholic faith, Mukamabano said that she realized that her purpose was to praise God by helping others, particularly helping survivors of the genocide move past harboring resentment and embrace reconciliation.

She decided to found the non-profit Kuki Ndiho Rwanda Orphans Support Project in Brooklyn, New York, which is the question she asked after her survival. Mukamabano was determined to answer that question by living a life dedicated to helping Rwandans cope with the genocide, especially orphaned youth and youth living with HIV/AIDS.

In an interview with Ugandans Abroad, Mukamabano recalled the gruesome atrocities, taking a deep breath after each sentence.  She recounted each moment, sighing deeply with each pause. “When kids were killed in front of me… during that time, I decided if I get a chance to survive the tragedy, to help the orphans.  I will do the best of my ability to help the survivors,” she said.

The Kuki Ndiho foundation helps support orphans back home in Mukamabano's motherland, Rwanda.

Mukamabano said that before the genocide, she loved mathematics and planned to get a doctorate. However, the memories and horror she witnessed during the genocide pulled her life into a different direction.

“I now wanted to help orphans and study business to learn how to run a non-profit to help children.  That’s when the idea of Kuki Ndiho was born,” she said. Mukamabano said that although she had lost so many loved ones, she was experiencing her own rebirth.

Armed with the experience of surviving such immense tragedy and understanding what it meant to forgive, Mukamabano decided to launch the Rwanda Peace Convention in September 2009, the first of its kind in Rwandan history.  Mukamabano said she was on a mission to help her fellow Rwandese start dialogue about what happened and promote reconciliation and forgiveness.

“I did research about forgiveness. We have different beliefs and different ways of understanding things,” she said.  “Without judging, we understand forgiveness in different ways.”

“Forgiveness is emotional and you have to be willing to let it go to move forward,” she said.  “Not for the person who had done wrong to you but for yourself so you can heal.”  Since the convention was launched, the Peace Convention has also been held in Somalia and Ethiopia. Mukamabano plans to bring the Peace Convention to the U.S. in the near future.

Mukamabano said that her faith was instrumental to forgiveness. “As far as faith, I credit my mom because she exposed me to the youth Catholic movement at age 3 or 4, where they taught us to love and help people.” she said.  Mukamabano grew up not only learning scripture, but also practicing it daily, learning how to build a relationship with God.

The foundation helps orphans lead normal lives.

“My mum was involved in church and helped me to have faith in God,” she said.  “I saw evil was taking over mind of some of the people during the genocide but I understood the importance of forgiveness.” Her faith helped her understand that forgiveness is the only key to move forward after the genocide, and that it was the one act that would help her overcome the negative feelings she once held on to.

Currently, Mukamabano is involved in speaking engagements educating the public and school children in New York City about the Rwanda, the genocide and promoting peace.

“I do speeches at schools, universities, churches and local communities,” she said.

Mukamabano said that dialogue is the first step to making peace, not only for survivors for traumatic events, but also for everyday challenges in life. She said that making peace after a wrong is done is not to forget but simply to let go, an important life lesson that she wants to teach the public and children.

Mukamabano believes strongly in reconciliation and forgiveness as a path for Rwanda.

“Reconciliation doesn’t mean forget,” she said. “[But] We need to reconcile in our daily life.  I may have a gift you need to progress in life, and you may have a gift that I need to enrich my life. How will we realize our potential if we do not share these gifts, because we have not forgiven and we have not reconciled? We need each other as a community, whether in America or Rwanda.”

Mukamabano said that for Rwandans back home and living in the diaspora, forgiveness is necessary to move forward to live healthy lives and build healthy communities, especially for the children who listen and everything adults do.

“Like my mother told me, the children are always watching,” she said. “Children learn how to forgive and we are the ones who can teach them how to do it.”

When Ugandans Abroad asked what message she had for Rwandans at home and Rwandans in the diaspora, she said that after studying international trauma studies, she wants fellow Rwandese to fully acknowledge and deal with her country’s past. “It is like a gaping wound that will not close, it will only close and heal if you talk about it,” she said.  “Stop pointing fingers, but have dialogue.”

The Rwandan flag symbolizes happiness and peace, economic development, and the hope of prosperity.

Mukamabano acknowledged that some Rwandans have still not yet come to terms with their past, choosing not to face it, because it is too painful.

“I know that some people it is like a dream, and it is not a reality because it is too overwhelming,” she said. If we get a chance and acknowledge what happened and understand why genocide happened, then we can move forward. Even scripture tells us the truth will hear you.”

As a Rwandan woman, Mukamabano believes that women can play an integral role in building bridges of peace in Rwanda and in the Rwandan diaspora community. “Women have the capacity of leadership, control and humility,” she said.  “Women can love unconditionally and help influence men to promote a culture of peace.”

Mukamabano asserts that women have the power to do whatever they want to do, and if they want to promote peace, it is completely possible to do so.  She feels that Rwandese people and Africans in general should not place ethnicity at the forefront of dialogue, since nationality and community is more important than ethnic groups.

“To be a Hutu and Tutsi it is not a problem. We all came to the world and found ourselves here; our ethnicity can’t guide us to misbehave,” she said.  “We cannot use our tribes as umbrella to create division.”

Mukamabano hopes that people throughout the continent will not resort to isolating other ethnic groups, because individuals need one another to build successful communities and nations. “We need to overcome barriers of ethnicity. Ethnicity is only an identity. My mom used to tell us good and bad people come in all ethnic groups,” she said.  “If you choose a friend, find one that complements you, don’t just choose someone because he is Hutu or Tutsi; choose someone without looking at their ethnicity.”

Mukamabano said that anyone, regardless of language, can help support Rwandan children by being a pen pal, a letter-writing exchange program between Rwandan youth and individuals around the world. “Anyone can be a pen pal. It helps the kids cope to know that somewhere someone cares about them,” she said.  Translation services are available for children who only speak their mother tongue, however, children are also taught English in addition to French.

The main source of motivation in Mukambano’s life now is her mother, which has given her a sense of purpose that helped her come to terms with the loss she experienced.  As a survivor of genocide, she said she decided along time ago that she would not let the experience of loss define her, but would instead take the experience and transform it into something meaningful.

“The challenge is not there to put me down. Life is a challenge; in fact it is a war and we need to fight everyday. Every day I have a feeling that I have to overcome and take control to be in charge and overcome,” she said.

Mukamabano said that any individual, regardless of life experience, can still grab hold of life and find a sense of freedom. “It is that freedom from my heart, and then the peace of mind and the courage that I was created in God’s image to become master of my life,” she said.  “I have the power to control everything in my life.”

To learn more about The Kuki Ndiho Rwanda Orphans Support Project or donate money to its mission, please kindly visit: http://www.kukindiho.org/ or http://www.whydoiexist.org/.

Arao Ameny is a New York-based journalist for Ugandans Abroad.  She is interested in issues like Ugandan cultural identities, Lango and other Ugandan languages, and women’s rights.

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New York (Ugandans Abroad)—Last Friday, 26 Liberian women graduated from 10,000 Women, a program run by the Goldman Sachs Foundation and CHF International, earning an entrepreneurship certificate.  They joined the first wave of 25 female students that have already graduated from the high-quality business and management program.

Keynote speaker Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf speaks to the program's new graduates.

In Liberia, the formal unemployment rate is more than 80 percent.  The weak economy has led many women to try and launch their own businesses, even without any business education or training.

The Goldman Sachs Foundation launched 10,000 Women in March 2008 to provide a high-quality education to 10,000 undeserved women around the world, with an investment of $100 million USD.  In Liberia, they partnered with CHF International, an international development organization that works in post-conflict, developing, and unstable countries.

In Liberia, 10,000 Women plans to provide this education to 250 women Goldman Sachs and the World Bank Group, as well as the Centre for Enterprise Development Services, a Nigerian business school in Lagos, developed the curriculum.  It was then customized for Liberia at Cuttington University, where the program is based in Suacoco.

To earn the certificate, the women complete about 200 hours of training, or 12 modules.  The modules range from taxes and law to bookkeeping.  10,000 Women’s philosophy emphasizes that investing in women creates long-term economic growth and prosperity.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was the keynote speaker at the graduation ceremony.

““We know investing in women yields many dividends in any country. It benefits the entire community, because when you change a girls’ life, you can be sure that she will help her parents, her siblings, and her whole family,” said Sirleaf.  ”As an educated mother, active citizen, and ambitious entrepreneur, she will contribute immeasurably in bringing the cycle around to others. Investing in women is one of the keys to a prosperous future for a country.”

Kabeh Sumbo, a former Liberian refugee and graduate of the 10,000 Women Program.

When selecting the women that would participate, the program focused on supporting women in small businesses that already exist.  ”The small to medium enterprise sector is tiny [in Liberia],” said Brett Sedgewick, the CHF International country director for Liberia. “We’re looking to build up the sector so they can employ more people.”  The challenge in Liberia is building up the small to medium enterprises so they can hire a significant team, rather than having many small businesses run by individuals.

Developing small to medium enterprises is also a major concern of Sirleaf’s in rebuilding the Liberian economy.  “This is critical to the Liberian economy. We can take pride on our progress, in developing stable, and we have seen steady growth: over 6% real average growth over the last five years,” she said.  ”We have weathered a global recession, and investors are being attracted to our country, but they’re also major challenges.

According to Sedgewick, 90 to 95 percent of small businesses in Liberia are tables run by individuals that buy wholesale and sell items individually.  They might have three to four employees, but often there might be only one worker.

“We’re looking at shopowners and classical business owners to expand their business operations to go from two stores,” Sedgewick told Ugandans Abroad.  ”From shipping one contianer to three to four containers, that’s what we’re really shooting for.”

Since Liberia is emerging out of fourteen years of civil war, he says that is very common to see general employment trainings organized that teach basic business skills.

“This is very much about the economy and building the private sector,” he said.

The 26 graduates run businesses that range from rubber collection to imports, entertainment, and computer services, as well as retail stores, jewelry, and beauty salons.  Collectively, they employ 40 staff and made profits of $39,000 between January and September 2009, out of sales of $127,000.  When they joined the program, only five had bank accounts, and not a single participant paid herself a monthly salary.  Nine did not have any record-keeping system to track their finances.

One of the largest challenges the Liberian businesswomen said they faced were human resources.  Getting staff and one to two levels of management women can trust is very difficult.  ”The woman that runs three tailor shops say she can’t find a tailor that shows up five to six weeks, or a tailor that won’t steal from me.”

Access to financing is another critical issue.  ”The banks here are doing a pretty good job of expanding and reaching new clients,” he said.  ”But enforcement is difficult, and a lot of loans go bad.  The lending rates are very high, which really hurts the business sector.”

Electricity is also very expensive in Liberia compared to countries like the United States, and many female entrepreneurs have to rely on generators to keep their businesses going.  The generators can be very costly to maintain, and may even need to be replaced every couple of years.

“Businesswomen in Liberia are amazing, they’re super dynamic,” Sedgewick said, describing the country’s entrepreneurs.  ”Historically in the market, it’s mostly women.  [And] if you read the history of the war, it’s the iron ladies who stood in front of the soldiers, and said this has got to stop.”

Women in Uganda strongly contribute to the country's long-term economic growth and prosperity back home. Edward Echwalu.

At Strathmore University this year, 10,000 Women’s Emerging Leaders Program led to 98 delegates from Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, Malawi and Mozambique to participate in a four-week training course in microfinance and financial services that will help them serve micro, small and medium enterprises in their home countries.

For this program, Goldman Sachs partnered with Opportunity International to train talented women for careers in financial institutions that serve poor people living on the African continent.

In Uganda, more women have been rising in the business community.  Like Liberia, the weak job market has led to many Ugandan women launching their own businesses.  Higher levels of female education in Uganda have also benefited female entrepreneurs.  Women have helped drive economic growth in Uganda, according to the Uganda Investment Authority, and made families more prosperous as a whole throughout the nation.

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Ugandans Abroad editor Rebecca Harshbarger.

“Everyone was calling me madam instead of mzungu!” Rebecca Harshbarger recently updated the Uganda Beat blog about her trip to Uganda this month, after being away from her home away from home for a year.  Check it out here to catch up with your favorite munnamawulire.

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Ugandan women abroad celebrating Independence Day.

Earlier this month, the international Ugandan community gathered in New York City on independence day to reflect on the changes to the status of Ugandan women in the past 48 years.  Women in the Diaspora and Ugandan Merchandise organized the women-focused event at Hartley House in Manhattan.

Ugandans Abroad and East African Business Innovative Consultants also helped sponsor the night.  New Jersey-based DJ Clein spun tunes for the night, and the organizers served generous amounts of local East African food.

The impact of HIV/AIDS, the conflict in northern Uganda, and political instability in the 1970s and 1980s often had a brutal toll on Ugandan women.  Still, the Ugandan government has made advances in attempting to eliminate discrimination against women, and has helped them find more opportunities in the military, finance, corporate life, and agriculture.

Harriet Zaffoni, who runs Ugandan Merchandise, with Pius Bugembe, chair of the Ugandan American Association of Greater New York.

Recently, the Ugandan Women Parliamentarians Association, a Kampala-based parliamentary caucus, had large victories when the government passed the Marriage and Divorce Bill, the Domestic Violence Act, and the Female Genital Mutilation Act.

The first modernizes the marriage and divorce institution in Uganda, the second punishes domestic violence perps, and the latter prohibits female genital mutilation, which is primarily practiced in eastern Uganda and the Somali community.

Ugandans Abroad reporter Adeola Oladele created this special video that we feel really captured the event.  Check it out, and please share it with your friends.

Happy Independence Day!!
Ugandans Abroad

Adeola Oladele, a friend of Uganda, is a broadcast journalist who frequently reports about the international African community.  Oladele runs the website African Spotlight, a news website that spotlights Africans in the diaspora.  ”The aim of this site is to tell their stories, celebrate their successes and feel their struggles,” she says.  Oladele is a native of Nigeria’s Kwara State, and based in Brooklyn, New York.

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Ugandans and their friends in their New York metropolitan area will gather in New York City on October 9th to see how women have advanced since Uganda became independent in 1962.

How have women's lives improved and/or worsened since 1962? Global Voices Online.

This unique independence day celebration is hosted by the group Women in the Diaspora, and the audience will enjoy an East African showcase of goods organized by Ugandan Merchandise, as well as music by DJ Clein.  Ugandans Abroad is excited to sponsor this event and celebrate Uganda’s independence with Ugandan Merchandise and East African Business Innovative Consultants.

The event will be held at Hartley House in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen, a community house on 413 West 46th street, between 9th and 10th avenue, from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.  Due to time restrictions, organizers would love for well-wishers to be punctual.  East African local food will be served generously at $10 a person, and a cash bar will be available.

Historically, Ugandan women have had major economic and social responsibilities across the country’s different cultures, particularly childcare and subsistence cultivation.  Some Ugandan women had rights that exceeded women in other Western societies, but cash-crop agriculture often led to men claiming land owned by female relatives, successfully grabbing it through local councils.

Women begin to organize politically before independence through associations like the Uganda Council of Women, which emphasized legal reform so that all women could own property and have custody of their children if their marriages ended, according to the U.S. Library of Congress.

However, political instability in the 1970s and 1980s had a large toll on women.  The destruction of public services and infrastructures made women and children’s access to markets, hospitals, and schools very difficult.  Some women say that the political disturbances gave them a chance to pursue new economic roles that they had been locked out of.  The war in northern Uganda had a devastating impact on women’s lives, with many women facing grave sexual violence, HIV, abductions, and a total breakdown in social services.

President Museveni’s government promised to eliminate discrimination against women, and was particularly aggressive in giving women opportunities in the military, government, office, agriculture, and in finance.  More recently, the Uganda Women Parliamentarians Association has had large victories in passing bills to modernize marriage and divorce.  30 percent of Uganda’s parliament is female.

As the metropolitan New York community celebrates independence away from home, event organizers hope that they will also take a look at how the status of women has changed since 1962, when Uganda gained its freedom after over fifty years as a British colony.  For more details or questions about the event, please contact Harriet Zaffoni at 347.224.7821.  To learn more about Ugandan Merchandise, visit their new website here.

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UA's Rebecca Harshbarger at the Banyakigezi Convention last August.

Ugandans Abroad reporter Rebecca Harshbarger will be heading back to Uganda next month for business, reporting and other adventures.

Click here to read her latest blog post at Uganda Beat.  She also talks about her experiences at recent Ugandan conventions (including meeting a favorite Ugandan artist), and the U.N. General Assembly this week in New York.

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U.K.-born Ugandan designer Linda Lwanga’s accessories and jewelry are traditional.  And they’re not.  Looking at her scarves, they may at first seem straight out of a shop on Bombo Road– but upon second glance, they also have a fresh, international spunk to them.  Lwanga’s unique designs in her new company Zanaa draw upon her rich Ugandan heritage, but also her eye for fashion and love of travel that she has embraced from a young age.

Linda Lwanga is a Ugandan designer born in the U.K. When we caught up with her, she shared some of her recent adventures with UA.

Zanaa is a new company– Lwanga incorporated it in the U.K. in May 2009, and in May 2010 in Uganda.  She came up with the name when she was playing around with online domains, looking to see which ones were available.  Many of the African words she loved were taken, so she tried to come up with something original on her own, but with an African sensibility.  ”To me, the word Zanaa means illuminate the source,” she said.  ”And the source is Africa.”

I met the designer at the Washington, D.C. UNAA Convention, where she wore a basuuti-inspired dress; gold, orange, and brown bangels, and a yellow and black scarf.  Prior to the convention, where she was showcasing Zanaa’s products on the exhibition floor, Lwanga had been working from the Mukono district in Uganda.  There she’s converted her late grandfather’s house  in Seita into a design workshop.  To my surprise when talking with her, Lwanga has been focused on a particularly unique preoccupation these days– Ugandan slaughterhouses.

It was hard to reconcile those two images– this genuinely glamorous British-Ugandan fashion designer, and slaughterhouses back home.  Luckily, Lwanga explained her latest preoccupation to me.  Slaughterhouses and fashion can actually go together.  ”The Chinese are buying horns in Kampala, and buying the slaughterhouses,” she said.  ”[Before] the horns were left to rot… The Chinese people are collecting the horns, and have locked down all the contracts.  So we’ve gone to the local slaughterhouses [to buy horns], and we try to make beautiful things out of it.”  For instance, some of the most eye-catching jewelry I’ve seen in a long time.  Lwanga uses the horns to make the handles of purses, as well as other jewelry.

A model showcases some of Zanaa's designs.

One has to wonder, of course, what made Lwanga leave London for these kind of adventures back home.  What made her go back? “I was born in London,” she told us.  ”I’d go there [to Uganda] on holiday, and have a great time.”  One thing that always caught her eyes were Ugandans’ talents when it came to craftmanship, which has special meaning for her life’s work.

“I am trying to bring out the craftmanship and skills handed from generation to generation.  I want to keep them alive.”  This is the practice for the designer, who literally works out of her grandfather’s home now in Uganda.

The concern for craftsmanship comes from experiences with friends in the community.  According to Lwanga, her peers no longer remember some of her culture’s traditional crafts, such as beading, which she says “was so key for the Toro bridal ceremonies.”  Unfortunately, she remembers, “not a single friend in Toro knows how to bead, just the elderly in their nineties.  Who will know how to bead? It saddened me.  Nobody in my age group knows this.”

Despite her love of Ugandan traditions, she hasn’t been completely heartened by the local craft market, often aimed at tourists, and many times not actually Ugandan.  When she visited craft stalls back home, she spotted people with “crafts on their shelves that they couldn’t sell.  It’s okay for the general tourists, but not the local market.”

She feels that this is not the fault of the artisan, but the brokers who deal the crafts.  ”Sometimes there are new things at the National Theater,” she said.  ”[But] it’s hard to buy local crafts from local makers.  It’s the broker who doesn’t know anything about it except the profits, which I find very sad.  It takes the life out of it.”  And unfortunately, she says, a lot of stuff is passed off as Ugandan, but is really from the Kenyan markets.

Lwanga's work has international appeal, and draws upon many different fashion circles.

“We’re passing off other country’s crafts,” she said.  To combat this, Lwanga hopes the diaspora will play a role and buy Ugandan whenever they can.  ”Whenever I meet an Italian,” she said half-jokingly.  ”They wear Gucci products!”

To make products more appealing to the local market and the Ugandan diaspora, Lwanga draws upon her travels and love of fashion.  ”I was lucky enough to have international influences in fashion, to have felt the soul of different circles,” she said.  ”For an artist, traveling really helps.  I want to leverage my passion.”  Although Lwanga appreciates the local craft markets, she says that “nobody’s changed anything since I was a kid.”

Many in the diaspora can probably relate to Lwanga’s journey back home.  For her, going back to Mukono to work in her late grandfather’s house was a rewarding and memorable experience– and her face lights up when she speaks of it.  ”I am absolutely glad to be home!’ she told Ugandans Abroad.  ”As somebody born in the diaspora, I was like a newborn baby.”  Although she had often been to Uganda to spend time with her family, she experienced cultural shock as she adjusted to life back home.

“Everyone is on African time in Uganda,” she said.  ”When you’re trying to do things in a snap, you have to give it extra time.”  Her community, she remembers was particularly helpful when she adjusted to coming back, helping her for instance in finding local materials for her business.

Zanaa designs.

Although I own a great deal of Ugandan jewelry and love East African design, I couldn’t help but notice something both irresistible and unique about her work that made it stand out.  Her booth was crowded at the exhibition, with many Ugandan women in the international community stopping to try on scarves and earrings.  Many of her products quickly sold out.  I discovered this the hard way when I had to order an out-of-stock set of earrings that I was eager to wear at the convention.  Lwanga assured me it wouldn’t take more than a few weeks to get them from Uganda to me.

Lwanga says that reactions to her work are often very enthusastic, as I could easily observe.  She noticed this as soon as she began selling her work.  ”People were excited about something unique,” she said.

For those interested in checking out more of Lwanga’s work, you can check out her website Zanaa Trends.  She will also take part in an upcoming U.K. exhibition at the Ethical Fashion Source Expo, which is an annual industry trade show for suppliers of ethical and fair trade fabrics, components, and manufacture.  It will be held on October 6th at the Central Hall Westminister.  Click here more details.

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