In 2023 amidst bewildered outcries of a post covid collapsing economy, the American multinational four-point Sheraton hotel majestically appeared on a corner in Kololo. Negotiating with the boda guy, he laughs and asks why someone who still smells of airplane fuel would try and make a buck off of him. I assure him that today, he probably has more money in his pocket than I do. There is a UB40 concert happening in the area and even if he won’t attend, he knows the price the tickets are going for and what a killing he will be making that night. He agrees to rip me off for a little less.
Having lived in many places, I say with utmost confidence that Kampala is most unique for its insatiable zest for life. People will travel from the ends of the earth to experience it. A year prior, when the Ukraine war first broke into mainstream media coloring my imagination with a thousand apocalyptic endings, I was quite embarrassed to see an in-the-flesh Ukrainian couple walk into a library in another Kampala suburb: Bugolobi. For one, I had been under the impression that every Ukrainian had been forcefully conscripted into the war. As we exchanged notes about politics, they let on that they were in Uganda for Nyege-Nyege, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Seriously, there is something about our vibe, this culture that can be banked like a rare jewel. Nothing quite like it.
I hurry into the hotel, and up the stairs, already infected by that thing that happens to the air as Kampala crosses into night. It’s the final day of the BOLD fellowship. For six weeks, ten young women entrepreneurs have undergone intensive training to boost their small businesses. They are now before an elite panel, the finest of corporate Kampala, who are here today to deliberate over their presentations and award a 2 million cash prize to the most impressive fashionista.
It's easy to take this moment for granted without some context. A decade ago, it was unthinkable for a tailor to be taken seriously in this city. My tailor till now is a Congolese man that sits on a bench in Namuwungo’s make- shift trading center. He re-sizes mine and others’ second hand clothes between 6am and 9pm.A persistent message from the panelists to the young women is that they should not be afraid of charging their worth. They are correct. CEO Kim Kasule assures one young woman that handmakes handbags that there is a less visible side of Kampala that understands and is willing to invest in fashion. No longer drawn to outside countries, more and more young and wealthier people are seeking to look and elevate what is within us.
This cultural shift is owed to a lifetime of work and the sacrifice of pioneers that have bit the bullet. We now have this field of magnetic forces like Gloria Wavamuno who has since 2014, put on Kampala Fashion Week, BOLD in Africa that stocks merchandise of folks that are battling shipping costs bridging the gap between talent and buyers, Tesi Fashion School that is up-skilling and graduating tailors to designers, KONA that is opening up international markets and so many more people breaking down barriers that cumulate into that knee jerk rejection you have about fashion and the arts.
Since colonial times, Uganda has been a chief exporter of unprocessed cotton. A great motivation for independence was the aspirations of Ugandans to own the mills reserved for Indian- Ugandans. The fight for full ownership of the supply chain persists today, including a recent promise by the government to revive the national textile policy. Uganda’s current industry is a conglomeration of small, independent businesses working against a current of global forces but the pioneers are not waiting. Unlike years before, people are breaking through by themselves utilizing grants, residences, communities, and using podcasts to interrogate and lobby for better policies and partnerships between the global north and ourselves. They are shifting the culture. Get into it.
These unbelievably talented women should not have to wait for the world to be good before they can live out their potential and I would argue that their empowerment and imagination can in turn free us, all the while preserving that rare jewel that powers who we are, collectively.
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