Norah Owaraga

African Hairstyles for Beauty & Liberation

In our African societies, it used to be that braid patterns and hairstyles indicated a person’s community, age, marital status, wealth, power, social position, and religion. Our hairstyles for both men and women, it follows, therefore, were a powerful identification code system. For example, among the Iteso, my people, currently the fifth largest first nation…

Banana republic politics & Kakwenza-type writers

Kakwenza’s first book, “The Greedy Barbarian,” is a fiction novel, a satire, and is available in hard copy and ebook. Following its publication, Kakwenza was illegally abducted from his home, taken to an ungazetted detention facility and tortured by state operatives, he testifies. Kakwenza’s legal team and other advocates successfully mounted a spirited fight; Kakwenza…

Family Unit, Politics and Governance in Uganda

Take, for instance, the family of Ms Agnes Namaganda, who is contesting for the Kampala Woman MP seat and is the flag bearer for the National Unity Platform (NUP) party, who has reportedly accused her husband for chasing her out of their marital home. Reportedly, she is complaining that her husband first banned her from…

African Culture, Blood-Money & Death Penalty

First, as a Pan-Africanist, I celebrate the strength of African-Ugandan cultures, to the extent that they were not completely erased by English colonization of our people and territory. Evidence of my assertion, for example, is the modern day application of the Acholi First Nation Justice System on Matthew Kanyamunyu, an accused that is not of…