To have your mind actively conspire against you is perhaps the hardest betrayal of all. You’re never sure if you are the sane one or the mad one in the room. So, you quickly learn to wear the right face, that of a well-adjusted, strong … Continue readingNtokozo: “I was just an incredibly sad boy wearing the face of a man to mask my pain.”
God was subtle in the way he let me stumble upon my call. It was an otherwise normal day in 11th grade, Afrikaans class, when a strange feeling washed over me. My whole being moved with an irresistible urge to get up and walk out. … Continue readingGrant: “Braving through hard things is what makes your life impactful”
I did not grow up aspiring to be an artist nor any other profession. In that sense, I did not set out on a journey towards one mountain. I’d be life’s eternal passenger, eager to trek and cruise across many mountains, forests and rivers. Taking … Continue readingKhulekani: Making High Art in eSwatini
“What do you mean we’re not from here?” I painfully asked my elder sister Steph. Even though I’d always felt like an outsider, I had never questioned my roots. There was no reason to. In my eyes, we were like every other Kenyan family. We … Continue readingSteve: “I am yet to figure out where home is”
Read in French When I was 19, my aunt took me with her to New Jersey, in the US. Once we got there, she took me to another aunt, who ended up kicking me out a month later. Slightly confused, I jumped on a Greyhound … Continue readingModu: “If you want something, figure it out”
Part 1: Walking my way out of poverty I was born and raised in Korogocho, one of the largest slums in Nairobi. In Swahili, Korogocho means ‘crowded shoulder to shoulder’. That’s how we lived, with my parents and nine siblings all in one room. My … Continue readingRaphael: “I was a slumdog who dared to dream”
Read in French The most important lesson my parents ever taught me is that there is no limit to my potential as a woman. I have no doubt that I owe my success to the equalitarian education they gave me. It made me self-confident enough … Continue readingDr Balaka : “I want people to see me first and foremost as a qualified doctor”
It was up to me to raise my four children on my own when my husband left Zimbabwe for South Africa after 15 years of marriage. The businesswoman that came out of this, had been in the making since I was a kid. When we … Continue readingMabel: “Being a single mum doesn’t mean that you cannot make it in life”
Growing up, I was a very shy kid. Whenever the teacher asked me a question, it could take me more than a minute to answer. The other kids in class were much faster, so I felt insecure. This is how I realised that I was … Continue readingDiana: “Fear makes my life difficult, but it won’t defeat me”
I grew up along the shores of Lake Victoria, where parents pay thirty cows to get their sons a wife. My mum and dad wanted their first child to be a girl. They were trying to give their brand-new family a future, so I can’t … Continue readingFelister: “If we raise our kids well, we will get to enjoy later”
On 26 June 1986, I entered the cosmos as Steven Ojok, but my biblical name barely saw the light of day. As much as my father was religious, he also was a dedicated soccer fan. “When your father saw Argentina score two world class goals, … Continue readingOjok: “Call me Ojok Okello from Okere city, North Uganda”
A story of not belonging, of not being here nor there and of navigating countries, identities and cultures. That story is mine. My parents are former refugees who fled Sudan (now South Sudan) in the early 80s. They settled in Gambella, Ethiopia, where my siblings … Continue readingNyamal: “I want to be the last generation to wonder where I belong”
For most of us who lived abroad, we came back home because we wanted to make a difference, but making that decision wasn’t easy. Before I returned, my career was just taking off in America. I had a very good job and to be honest, … Continue readingChristabel: “To whom much is given, much is expected”
As the long awaited first born in the family, my parents decided to name me ‘Kazeneza’, which means welcome in Kirundi. Bringing a child into this world was something so precious to them, that I’ve always aspired to live a purposeful life. My story is … Continue readingKazeneza: “I am not planning to stop before I have a PhD”
By the time I turned 30, my job in procurement started to feel repetitive. I had reached my make or break point and couldn’t see how I was adding value to the lives of people around me, until a work trip to Monduli made me … Continue readingMwanaidi: “We need to embrace periods as part of womanhood”
What most people don’t know about me is that I’m a fully trained engineer, but I veered off that path to pursue that which sets my heart on fire – working with underprivileged children in the slums of Nairobi. I studied telecommunications and information engineering … Continue readingEsther: “My heart was always in community development”
The world is evolving at a fast rate. The future of work is changing and now is the time we should all accept that there is no job that was created for men alone. When a once green me started investing in real estate at … Continue readingJean: “I cannot settle for less in a field dominated by men”
Like every kid, I had dreams. While growing up in Sudan during the civil war, I always saw nuns giving to the vulnerable and helping people in need. So, for a long time I wanted to become one of them. It was only when I … Continue readingAsan: “I grew up in a warzone, but never lost sight of my dreams”
My story is one of survival, of loss but also of finding purpose. I survived the most terrible event in history: the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda. It was stressful before it even started. We weren’t treated as human beings. It was hard to watch how … Continue readingLaetitia: “I survived the most terrible event in history”
Even if some people discriminate against my profession, I see dance as a way to involve my community and send important messages to society. Here in Tanzania, dancers and artists in general are not well regarded. Most people around me think that I should just … Continue readingZingo: “Dance is my way to send messages to society”
In my community, you do not qualify as a woman if you have not undergone Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). My siblings all went through it and I was lucky enough to escape the dreaded cut. My grandmother, who was a strong advocate of the practice, … Continue readingJanet: “FGM does not define you as a woman”
Growing up in a big polygamous family, with my mom being the fourth wife had a big impact on how we were raised and who I became. She was a fishmonger bringing fish from Uganda and selling it in Kenya. She would wake up at … Continue readingTopyster: “When I think of my mum’s limitations, mine pale”
When I got my diploma in procurement and logistics, I was so ready to work. I applied to countless jobs, did so many interviews but I was competing with thousands of other young Ugandans. Being turned down time after time really made me feel low … Continue readingNoah: “I settled for a job in Saudi Arabia”
During the 2007 general elections in Kenya, our family was forcefully evicted out of Mumias, following the heavily contested polls because we are from a different tribe, not indigenous to the area. Our house was burnt down forcing us to move back to our ancestral … Continue readingGitau: “We were evicted from a place we called home for 22 years”