Wearing a cream suit, Barbie Kyagulanyi looked resplendent in a black academic gown and hood, her face lighting up with impish glee. She was enjoying yet another moment in the sunshine after graduating with a Masters Degree in Human Rights. A woman of substance.
Far into the future, today’s young generation of girls will look back at Barbie and revel in the knowledge that she was the woman model who inspired their success. Rising up at a time when many a woman would have coiled and taken a seat beyond the kitchen sink, Barbie has been the candle in a dark woman’s world.
In a country where women like Suzan Makula have worked hard to destroy the moral and family fabric; Barbie assuages the fears that values are dead. There is hope for a rennaisance after all. There is Makula and then Barbie. Two women, worlds apart.
Barbie is strikingly pretty; elegant even, supremely confident, self assured and focused. She is methodical, articulate and systematic. That’s her style.
To her husband – submissive to a fault, painstakingly loyal, a team player and committed to a dot. She’s seen the worst face of her hubby and witnessed his human weaknesses but still said ‘I love you’ and ‘we will overcome together.’ Together they have.
She has walked through bullets, fire and brimstone to watch over her man and die with him if she had to. She heard haters trying to bring her down but never raised a voice or finger. As long as her rasta was okay with her she is okay with the world. And somehow; as the post election violence, corona pandemic, and political unrest filled the space, she still found time to pursue and focus on her studies without ever failing in her duties as a wife, public figure or first lady in the opposition.
Yes, it’s possible to be the dream woman in Uganda. Looking at her now upon her graduation at the University of London, I can’t help but marvel at this work in progress.
So while Makula is busy crashing the hopes of young women who grew up believing that there was something called moral fabric of society, Barbie is re-building those hopes. She refuses to accept that woman should be looked at as symbols of shame. She is standing in the gap for the young and upcoming.
The photo;
This majestic grandeur and simplicity that gives Barbie the grace of a gazelle, is the picture that needs to be imprinted in the minds of young women in Uganda. A woman can be beautiful on the outside and on the inside. Such a woman can build a man and make sense of the saying ‘Behind every successful man there’s a woman.’ For every Bobby, there’s a Barbie.
Barbie is a lesson for young women – to attain wealth, greatness and fame, a woman doesn’t have to turn into a bitch. Loyalty, patience, commitment, intelligence and honour of God can take you places. Her celebrity is inherent.
Barbie fell in love with a hopeless rasta and sacrificed the good life with her rich family to love her rasta. She slept hungry, lived in the ghettos, bore mockery and humiliation for years. Today, she is celebrated and riding on high horses. A masters graduate from the University of London. Beautiful and famous, witty and instructive. Fitting of a first lady some day.
If beauty and brains is your search, start with Barbie Itunga – the wife of a rasta man.
Congratulations Barbie.
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