When I reflect on my journey to Uganda, I am always drawn back to the first time I saw the Independence Monument. Located in the heart of Kampala, the 29-foot-tall concrete sculpture shows a woman standing firmly on the ground, tied with a rope around her body but lifting her child up to the sky, away from the bind holding her back. The child has both hands raised in the air with excitement, open to the endless possibilities of freedom. A symbol of Uganda’s colonial past and the independent pursuit of a better tomorrow, the monument reflects the universal experiences of marginalized societies of Africa and beyond. It is a beautiful reminder that we are the gift of our ancestors, and it reaffirms the importance of community care as an act of rebellion.
Community was a recurring theme throughout my travels to Kampala, Masaka, and Arua. You see, for me and many other scholars I was in community with during the forum, global health research is not a neutral endeavor of data extraction. It is deeply rooted in my love for the people in the communities I come from and my commitment to equity and justice by strengthening and supporting those communities toward collective liberation and social well-being. Throughout my travels, I was engaged in building and leveraging a community of collaborators to strengthen my research and capacity-building practices in low-resource settings. To meet the communities where they are and where they could actually be. Most of all, I was empowered to co-create and engage in resilience practices within an interdependent community of scholars and community partners for stronger and healthy families. After all, we are as free as the sacrifices of those who came before us. The Independence Monument succinctly memorialized this truth for me.