Hi, Primah! Could you please tell Quick Talk about yourself?
I am Primah Kwagala. I am the firstborn in a family of eight children. I was born to Moses Ngobi and Florence Nabirye on October 14, 1987, in Luuka district. My father was the secretary-general of Busoga Growers Cooperative Union, while my mother was a secondary school teacher.
And which schools did you attend?
I did my PLE at St Patrick Kigulu Girls’ School, Iganga, then joined Iganga secondary school for O-level, before proceeding to Maryhill High School Mbarara for my A-level. In 2010, I graduated with my first degree from Makerere University.
In 2013, I started my second degree in Ethics and Human Rights which I concurrently did while pursuing my diploma at the Law Development Center. I joined the University of Pretoria, South Africa, where I graduated with a master’s degree in Sexual and Reproductive Health in Africa. I am currently doing my PhD in Gender Studies at Makerere University.
From Luuka to Mbarara; that must have been quite a transition!
Our family was based in Jinja. I went to a church that had girls from Maryhill. I loved how the girls from Maryhill carried themselves. They kept their hair yet almost all the other schools [made students cut off] their hair. When we were registering choices for school, I put Maryhill as my first choice and I was considered for admission.
Had you consulted your parents about joining Maryhill?
[Smiles] Nope! My father had hoped that I would join Gayaza High School. I did not like the Gayaza uniform. When he learned that I had been admitted to Maryhill, he was shocked because he did not even know where it was located.
I also did not know where it was; I thought it was around Kampala [bursts into laughter]. He traveled to Mbarara before I could report and he did his background checks and established that it was a good school.
How does a non-Catholic fit in a church-founded school?
Maryhill was not a totally Catholic school. It had very liberal policies that allowed us the non-Catholics to have a nice stay and enjoy the school. We had very many social parties with nearby schools, especially Ntare, Mbarara High, and JOVOC [St Joseph’s Vocational School, Mbarara]. A-level girls were allowed to go to the market over the weekend. We were ‘forced’ to speak our local languages over the weekend. This helped us appreciate very many local languages.
Did that environment influence your interest in gender studies?
Not really; my interest in gender studies was influenced by my inward struggle for equality. I come from a very patriarchal family. I was born in a family of eight girls and one boy. For a long time, my father was the only man in the house. My paternal uncles were very polygamous and always pushed my dad into marrying a second wife so he could get an heir [a son].
At some point [mid-90s] the extended family drove us out of the home when we had gone back to the village for Christmas. They thought that if our mother left with the children, our dad would marry a second wife who could give him a son. It was tough to see my mother struggle so that she could be accepted by her in-laws and society.
From a very young age, it got rooted in my mind that we were not enough at home. There was a missing link because my dad kept searching for a boy. The most shocking thing was that my dad had a son from an earlier relationship.
He was never considered but the family needed more men. I grew very interested in helping society understand that women can be as good as men; that girls can be heirs like men, can own property, etc. This was how I saw society treating us.
What does Women’s Probono Initiative do?
We founded the initiative to advance equity and promote autonomy and voices of women in policy and other matters in society. To tell other women that we have a voice, belong and deserve, and are entitled to everything.
Sometimes discrimination and stigma are self-imposed. We want to help women to notice that the tools to self-advocate for fairness are within their means. We also provide legal aid. We just hold the hand of the women to let them know that they are capable of anything.
Land ownership by most women remains a dream…
The patriarchy in our society is calibrated on people’s brains. For that to change, it shall take the willingness of society to learn what they always knew. You shall find even women, who believe that their property can be inherited by only their sons.
Shockingly, it is the men that always squander property. My dad passed on recently and I used to tell him that “if you are giving my brother land and you’re not giving me anything, you are setting me up for poverty because you don’t know whether the person I shall marry will be able to look after me. We all should be entitled to land.” We are now involving our cultural leaders to debunk some cultural restrictions that lock out the woman from land ownership.
What challenges come with offering probono services?
We are constrained by finances, of course. We locked our services to only women because it is expensive. The money isn’t enough to cover everyone. Because of resources, we are very picky with the cases that we take on. The corruption in the justice system is very tiring.
Photocopy this, airtime this. The system is there but it is not even functioning. Because of the patriarchy, there’s a belief that women don’t commit crime. If you went to the police, you wouldn’t find a detention facility for women. We inherited a colonial justice system that doesn’t criminalize women because women who commit crimes are punished with words or sent to their aunties for guidance.
What keeps you going?
I love reading. A good book is enough for me. I have been reflecting on Barack Obama’s The Audacity of Hope.
Are you honing any political ambitions?
Nope! I think everyone can change the world from wherever they are. Even those that run to become our leaders are backed by selfish reasons. I prefer empowering people from the grassroots. Maybe I would play a role at some point but in the far future.
I have been waiting for you to say something about family and marriage…
I am not married. I have children that I adopted. I am not seeing anyone either. [Huh! How do you handle the pressure from your aunties?] When I go to church, there are mumbles of people wondering why I am not married yet there are other people quite younger than me that are married.
My parents always look out for the best in us. They are happy to hone and support our choices. Before my dad passed, I had this discussion with him. Most of my younger siblings are now married. My father told me not to get married because other people are forcing me to get married: “After all, you are not going to be in that marriage because of other people”.
More about Primah:
Describing herself as a student of life, she has received the Peace and Reconciliation award from the French and German embassies and the recent nomination to the EU Human Rights Defenders Award.
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