Humanist

The data is in. I am thrilled that in all tracked aspects of my website, I performed better than in the previous year. Thousands visited, viewed, read and reacted to my posts and pages.

• Likes went up 998% (yes, nine hundred and ninety eight percent).
• Visitors went up 43%.
• Views went up 40%.
• Comments went up 27%.

Whereas, my website and blog are not yet listed by FeedSpot among its top 70 in Uganda, my content is published in Watchdog, which among the top five blogs.

My 2024 top five most viewed posts were all people-centered, discussing issues of empowerment, identity, people and cultures of Uganda and Africa.

One of my 2024 top five posts, I actually published in 2021. Essentially, I shared another’s work. It was my fifth most viewed post – “People of Africa – The Mongo of Central Africa,” originally shared by Bintu Ohinoyi on Facebook.

Also first published in 2021, my second most viewed post was “Uganda’s Indigenous Communities as at 1^st February 1926.” I am ashamed to admit that the reasons that motivated me to author and publish this post, remain valid.

There are 65 indigenous communities recognized by the Uganda Constitution and many are never spoken about in popular public discourse; and my knowledge of them is scanty, at best.

Perhaps, this is an issue I should focus my blogging in 2025. And for each of those communities, the first nations of Uganda, least mentioned in public discourse, I at least answer the questions that I posed in the post:

“Seriously, do these communities have some of their members in the top echelon of leadership in the national government? If so, who are they? And do they have their own languages? Are those languages still spoken?”

Particularly so, in light of the spirited ethnic identity and representation discourse that was triggered by the admitted errors in the preliminary results of the 2024 National Population Census Report by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS).

UBOS published population sizes of the different first nations of Uganda were questioned. Forcing UBOS to retract the preliminary census report.

The subsequent final 2024 National Population Census Report that UBOS published contains “Table 3.2: Population by Tribe/Ethnicity, 2014-2024” with broken down population figures of 2024 and of 2014; enabling comparative analysis of indigenous community population trends in a 10-year period.

In 2025. I will do my best to research around this topic and share more blog posts focusing on the least written and talked about first nations of Uganda. There is indeed an appetite and interest for cultural posts and the ways of people around the world.

My third and fourth most viewed posts in 2024, I authored and published in September of the same year – “Iteso are in mourning for our Central Pole, Onapito Ekomoloit, has fallen”; and “Knowledge of the ways of my ancestors needs my conscious attention me thinks,” respectively.

Both were about the ways of the Iteso as exemplified by the burial ceremonies of the late Onapito Ekomoloit, especially, his choice of internment.

Whereas, my top post was people-centred and covered cultural topics, it also had a strong element of empowering others with life skills. The title speaks for itself – “Tips for writing and giving the ‘employer’s speech’ at marriage ceremonies,” (pan intended).

I authored and published it in December 2023. Insight for me to explore. Is there an appetite for posts containing tips for self-empowerment? It would appear so.

Not surprising, the largest proportion of my followers and or visitors accessed my website and blog from Uganda. The other nine countries among the top from whence visitors accessed are, in order of the largest proportion:

• United States
• United Kingdom
• India
• Kenya
• Germany
• France
• Netherlands
• South Africa
• Canada

United States, perhaps, because my spaces are powered by WordPress; and United Kingdom is where I went to college and university for my first and second degrees. I also spent four months at the University of Guelph in Canada as a visiting scholar. But still a lot of food for thought for me.

How come my space does not have more followers and or visitors from the other East African Countries – Tanzania, Rwanda, South Suda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Federal Republic of Somalia; countries in which we share peoples of first nations with similar cultures as those of Uganda.

Be that as it may, I am thrilled that my civic engagement has a global reach and is being accessed from several continents of the world. Those who visited, the majority, 71 percent used mobile phones; 28 percent used desktops and only one percent used tablets. Good to know, as I tailor the design of my space.

Looking forward to continued experiential learning in the college of life, and through ‘self-learn posts’, especially on how I can regain more the proportion of visitors who engage through comments and discussions.

Thank you for journeying with me and I wish you a prosperous blogging year 2025.