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Written by Fergus Linley-Mota

Beginning in May of this year, I spent three months participating in Insight Global Education’s Semester in Development (SID) program, in which I had the opportunity to intern and study in Kampala, Uganda. Over the course of my time there, I spent four days a week volunteering with the Alliance for Finance Monitoring (ACFIM), a non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to promoting financial accountability and transparency in Ugandan electoral and political processes. My work with ACFIM was mainly composed of research into the effects and sources of excessive commercialization in the country’s politics – ‘excessive commercialization’ referring to the presence of too much money in the political process, manifesting itself in a number of ways, such as vote-buying and other forms of bribery and corruption.  ACFIM also provided me the opportunity to participate in a number of dialogues with student societies at various nearby universities relating to the above topic.

My experience also included Friday classes at Makerere University in downtown Kampala, where I had the opportunity to take classes on African international relations as well as conflict resolution and post-conflict recovery along with the other program participants. In the evenings and on weekends, I was able to explore the city and, on a number of weekends, visit other locations throughout and outside of the country.  I met and saw countless amazing people and places during this time.

My time in Uganda prepared me for future work experience in a number of ways, granting me an insider’s perspective into the world of NGO work and – perhaps more importantly to a student of International Studies– giving me my first taste of international work. In addition to the actual every-day effort involved in the work itself, an international position requires consistent adaptations to unique and new (to me) social and cultural realities.

Undoubtedly the most personally interesting and rewarding benefit of working and studying in Kampala was the opportunity to witness first-hand how Ugandan citizens consistently and resiliently manoeuvre their way through a semi-authoritarian and severely corrupt political system. Both at ACFIM and in the markets, bars, and streets of Kampala, I encountered countless Ugandans who consistently expressed differing but equally passionate, ambitious, earnest and optimistic visions for their country’s future, rather than accepting the status quo. To learn about politics and foundational political and social change in a classroom is one thing – and an incredibly valuable thing, at that – but to meet so many people eager to join in said change, eager to actively affect and participate in their country’s politics at every level of society, is another thing entirely. I feel more lucky than I can describe in words to have had the opportunity to call Kampala my home for these few short months, and I am very excited to see how the country will have changed when I return to it next.