“‘We are going home,’ I often hear my parents announce before our family of five departs for Uganda. Yet in this home, the cadence of my “hello” declares me foreign. The grins as I attempt to speak the local language mark me an amateur. My self-scrutiny in conversation distracts from the reality of my selfhood. Fortunately, the otherness drifting on the surface of my presence in Uganda has never been internalized. I am ultimately a Ugandan-American. I am a niece embracing my uncle’s reminder to visit my motherland without my parents. I am a student that detests the savior mentality printed in the books before me. I am a consumer craving the truth of a beautiful, innovative Africa radiating from my television screen. I am an individual pursuing engagement and resisting diasporic detachment. I am a citizen of America and child of Uganda.”
High-res
