What a delight to be out of the ugly belly of the state’s brutality! Luzira Women’s Prison will forever hold a dear place in my heart. I made friends with prisoners. Thirty-three days of wearing the sickening yellow uniform, sleeping on a thin mattress spread on the cement floor – alongside sixty other in-mates in my ward, squatting in mock respect of underpaid prison warders, running to be locked up for ‘Foleni’ counts, undressing for body searches exposing my genitals to the prying eyes of warders, the nightmare of shitting in a flooding pit latrine, surveillance, interrogation, the works…
I am glad to be home with family and friends who love me. I am loved. I am grateful to be loved. All the days I was locked up in Uganda’s beastly prison, I was upheld by love from near and far. I thank you all for the love. Freedom smells lovely when among loved ones.
My lawyers and legal team kept my winning spirit up. My sureties restored my hope in humanity. All my visitors in prison inspired me not to give up. The public press media and the social media fraternities kept the fire burning. Human rights activists, feminists, queers, journalists, cartoonists, comedians, musicians, artists, scholars, researchers, foreign missions, and all my allies who stood tall and proud in solidarity with me, I thank you.
Stella Nyanzi