Black Beauty Television Network

04/12/2024

Reposted**

Twenty-four years ago, I learnt of a couple of job openings at Makerere University through a friend who worked there. I decided I would apply for one of the jobs pinned on the Main Building noticeboard.

I remember being asked about the roles an office messenger plays. I do not remember being confident enough inside that interview room; I only remember expressing a willingness to learn and work, which I believe won over the interviewers. I was young and timid but eager. I got hired as an office messenger/janitor in 2000. I have watched thousands of students walk into the College of Humanities, linger for three years, and then walk out as graduates. Over time, my work expanded from just administration assistance to preparing and serving tea, cleaning, to helping students trace for their missing marks.

I love it here.

The beauty of working in an environment like this is the number of lives you can touch through simple acts of kindness. I am more of a mother to most students here, who look at me through that light. To others, not so much - just another faceless support staff. Here, you get to meet children from diverse backgrounds of difficulty. I see their commitment. I see their struggles, and as a mother, I cannot afford to eat knowing a student out there is going hungry. So I tell those who come to me that they never have to go hungry on campus. They can always break bread with me. It costs nothing to offer such children tea, a warm meal, upkeep when I can afford it and a word of prayer or encouragement. As a mother of three, nothing is as heartbreaking as seeing students go on the path of ruin through drugs, betting, or alcoholism.

My work has enabled me to pay tuition for my biological children, who have been lucky enough to study here. I am a solo parent, and it can be tough raising money for basic needs. But I must be grateful for my small place where I can safely lay my head to sleep and Farm land where we grow crops that supplement our diet.

At the end of the day, we all need a place to belong, a warm bowl of food, people who value us, meaningful work and a roof over our heads. I cannot complain much.

Nabwire Teddy, 53.
Makerere University, Uganda.

©️ USU2024

04/03/2024

SOME AFRICAN COUNTRIES AND THEIR NICK NAMES.
• South Africa – Rainbow Nation 🇿🇦
• Rwanda – Land of a Thousand Hills🇷🇼
• Madagascar – The Red Island 🇲🇬
• Lesotho – The Kingdom In the Sky 🇱🇸
• Egypt – The Gift of the Nile 🇪🇬
• Burkina Faso – Land of the Upright Men🇧🇫
• Ghana- The gateway to Africa/The Blackstar of Africa🇬🇭
• Nigeria- The Giant of Africa 🇳🇬
• Namibia- Land of the Brave 🇳🇦
• Uganda- The Pearl of Africa 🇺🇬
• Malawi- The Warm heart of Africa 🇲🇼
• Zambia- The real Africa 🇿🇲
• Kenya - the pride of Africa 🇰🇪
• Tanzania - Brain of Africa (Bongo) 🇹🇿
• Gambia- the smiling coast of Africa 🇬🇲
• Ethiopia- the land of origin 🇪🇹
• Burkina faso - the land of upright men🇧🇫
• Morroco -the land of colours 🇲🇦
• Mauritius- the continental island 🇲🇺
• Comoros- the perfum island 🇰🇲
• Sierra leone - salone 🇸🇱
• Chad- the dead heart of Africa 🇹🇩
• Mali- the eyes of africa🇲🇱
• Djibouti - the pearl of the gulf of tadjiboura 🇩🇯
• Cabo verde - llha do 🇨🇻
• Sao tome and Principe- the chocolate island 🇸🇹
• Cameroun- the hinge of Africa 🇨🇲
• Seychelles - the land of perpetual summer 🇸🇨
• Gabon - Le bled 🇬🇦
• Somali - the horn of Africa 🇸🇴
• Botswana - Peaceful nation 🇧🇼
📸 @ Bokeh_Photographie

01/07/2024

I have reached 14K followers! Thank you for your continued support. I could not have done it without each of you. 🙏🤗🎉

04/05/2023

A boy in Katakwi writes his notes at night using the street lights

The dream is alive and can get better

03/20/2023

“THANK YOU ”

I want to take a moment and truly thank Maureen Asiimwe Kalemba, president of the UGANDA BOSTON COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION for this award and recognition of Black Beauty Events . and it’s contribution towards the Ugandan community it was an honor to be chosen thank you truly for celebrating amazing women in our community . It was such a lovely night & I was happy to be apart of it .

“A week of gratitude “

12/25/2022

Happy Holidays ! Wishing you the very best that 2023 has to offer and more. Thank you for being apart of a very wonderful & successful 2022. For Black Beauty Television 📺

Merry Christmas

12/25/2022

Happy Holidays ! Wishing you the very best that 2023 has to offer and more. Thank you for being apart of a very wonderful & successful 2022 for BLACK BEAUTY TELEVISION NETWORK

12/08/2022

A young lady selling peppers at a market in Togo, West Africa. Peppers are a big part of African cuisine also because of its many health benefits. Mek ya food your medicine and your medicine ya Food❤️

11/20/2022

One of the most challenging things about fatherhood is how much you have to pretend. You learn to pretend to be happy. You get used to pretending to your kids that everything is alright because you can't afford to have them see that you are struggling. Even on days when your wife tests your patience, you pretend all is well. When I first met my wife, I was barely seventeen. I owned a small chapatti stall in Mengo-Kisenyi. Esther lived with her mom and occasionally bought from me. Esther gave me my first experience of the joy of fatherhood when she brought forth our daughter Sheila. Sheila sat her Primary Leaving Exams early this month. That girl has a gift for the arts. She was offered a half bursary at her school because of her abilities in Music, dance and drama. I have constantly pledged to my wife and three children that for as long God grants me the gift of breath – I will wear patched trousers or sell my trousers altogether, so my children go to school. I didn't go to school, but my children must study. My only prayer to God is that He holds my hand.
Sheila knows she is 'my everything' coz I told her so. I must pretend to my other children that Sheila is not my favourite. I love all three of my children, but she and I quietly know I love her more. I still have to pretend I love them all the same but do I?
The only image I have on my little phone is Sheila's, that's telling enough.

Serugo Joseph, 30

©USU 2022

07/23/2022

06/22/2022

1/3 World Refugee Day.

In my culture, forehead tribal marks are given as a rite of passage; boys deemed mature undergo 'Gaar', an initiation ceremony. During Gaar, elders inscribe marks across the foreheads of young boys using the sharp points of spears. The tribal marks mean one will not be compelled to do any chores, like milking. The new adults are also given a spear and deemed fit to marry. Growing up in South Sudan, I often took the family goats to drink at a stream 5kms away from home in the company of 14 of my dogs. I was a troublesome child growing up. I was strong-willed, and despite being my mother's last-born child, I was bolder than my immediate big brother. Among the Nuer, boys below ten communally rear calves and goats. Where young boys are assembled, fights are bound to break out. We often fought amongst ourselves. My big brother cried quickly, and I often stepped in to protect him. I was small, but all my older mates knew that I didn't give up fights. I would fight to the very end. Boys generally avoided me altogether.

One time, I found a group of people assembled in my uncle's courtyard. The group was performing Gaar. When I noticed my brother among the boys meant to be initiated into adulthood, I rioted.

'This boy is a coward and soft. If he is getting tribal marks, I deserve them too,' I said.

I was barely 8, yet I insisted on getting marked. My cousins would not let me have my way, but I somehow convinced the men making the marks. The men agreed to shave my hair and initiate me.

'This young man is brave. Let him lie down and get initiated,' they seemed to agree.

My elder cousins were mad when they found me bleeding profusely across my forehead. On my forehead was the red mark of my tribe. I had become a man among my people at seven. What I didn't realise then was that I would soon view life through an adult lens because, as a man, I had to face the ugly sides of war; death, decay and disruption.

Marot Simon Touloung, South Sudan.

World Refugee Day UNHCR Uganda UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency

06/01/2022

04/06/2022

03/26/2022

Reposted* coffee & cream talk

Happy Thursday! 😍😍😍

If you learned nothing else by watching Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's Confirmation Hearing, I sincerely hope you learned that whom you choose to marry matters.

It matters. It always matters.

It ESPECIALLY MATTERS if you are an educated, career-focused, career-driven Black woman.

Say what you will...
Think what you will...
Wish what you will...

But Judge Jackson wouldn't be in the position she's in if she'd married a black male... 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

WHY?

Because black males simply don't rise to the level of Black women.

And because Black women often outshine their black male counterparts, it's just not in the cards for Black women to be *this* successful with a black spouse in tow.

And, ultimately, if a Black male is successful and he actually has a Black wife, he EXPECTS HER to take a BACKSEAT to support HIM...

Because he always feels that YOU are his COMPETITION...

HE IS COMPETING AGAINST YOU. 🙃🙃🙃

Judge Jackson's husband, Dr. Patrick Jackson, is on her level in EVERY WAY, and these black dudes are PIPING HOT MAD because they KNOW they could NEVER!!!

Ketanji and Patrick met while they were both students at Harvard. He is quintessential Boston Brahmin (read: Boston Elite; Boston's traditional UPPER CLASS; Mayflower lineage), and he is the SIXTH GENERATION of his family to graduate from Harvard.

So, no. Patrick was never interested in competing with Ketanji because HE HAD HIS OWN! 💃💃💃

And because he had his own, he had no problem encouraging his wife to shine her brightest light! He was always her biggest cheerleader!

According to NPR, after long nights on call at the hospital, Patrick would often go to the courtroom to watch his wife work:

"Federal Judge Patti Saris, who hired Jackson as a law clerk straight out of law school, recalls her husband, who now looks full-on prep, as less so back then. At the time, he was a surgical resident at Massachusetts General Hospital, but he was so fascinated by his wife's work he would often go to the courtroom after a long night on call to watch what was going on. As Saris remembers, the young doctor had often been up for 24-plus hours and looked incredibly scruffy, sitting in the back of the courtroom. Finally, one day, the judge's courtroom marshal came up to her and whispered, 'Judge, would you like me to remove the homeless man in the back row?'"

So, all of that to say this...

If your guy doesn't encourage you to shine...

Doesn't support your dreams, goals, ambitions...
Doesn't believe in being your support system...
Lacks emotional range...
Isn't moved to tears when you speak about how much you love him...
Won't be protective of your heart and your belongings...
Isn't proud of you and your accomplishments...

THEN...

WHY ARE YOU WITH HIM? 🤨🤨🤨

Why are you with a man who doesn't INFINITELY make your life better?

Patrick PROUDLY sat behind Ketanji every day. And each time she entered the courtroom, each time she exited the courtroom, she CARRIED NOTHING!

Her hands were free. He ALWAYS had her thermos. Any papers, files, or bags, he handled them. He made sure that she was UNENCUMBERED...💅💅💅

Because that's what a man does WHEN HE HAS HIS OWN!!!

Because that's what a man does WHEN HE HAS NO PROBLEM TAKING CARE OF HIS WIFE'S NEEDS!!!

Also note, The Jacksons have two daughters who were there with them in the courtroom. Understand how important it was for them to see their father treat their mother with such love, tenderness, and care.

Witnessing their father OPENLY WEEP because he was so incredibly PROUD of his wife, their mother! 🥰🥰🥰

That's a lasting impression, y'all. ABSOLUTELY PRICELESS.

Their daughters KNOW how any man they choose to be with should regard them because they've seen how their father is with their mother.

Marry well. It matters.

IT ALWAYS MATTERS.

Take a look at the pictures below. Your thoughts?

03/24/2022

Reposted from Untold Ugandan stories

The Independence Monument reminds me of many things. It reminds me of my first night in Kampala and the hopes and excitement I had in my heart then. Because I knew no one here and thus had nowhere to go, I spent my first night in Kampala at the base of the Independence Monument. The only thing I had between me and that Kampala night sky was the old bedsheet my grandmother had gifted me. I was 16.

I remember telling grandma my plans to leave home because nothing was happening for me there. I told her I was leaving to find work in the city. Grandma didn’t stop me - that was her parenting style. She allowed me to explore and learn about life myself. I had the freedom most children could only dream of, for my grandma trusted me enough to behave.

Grandma weaved mats and baskets to bring food to our table. When she noticed my interest in art and craft, she encouraged it. Instead of four subject books, grandma continually bought me five; the extra school book was mine to draw, colour, and paint in. I had her eye for colour and patterns, and by the time I clocked 10, I could weave mats and baskets as neatly as she did. Despite grandma’s affection, I, with time, figured that my life was empty – full of gaps. I, for instance, noticed that I had no memory of both of my parents. Grandma saw to it that I didn’t miss my parents much. She constantly promised that my mother had gone on a safari in Kenya and that she would return to me someday – but mother never returned.

While grandma found satisfaction in weaving mats and baskets, I did not. I felt I was living beneath my potential, so I elected to come to the city. I had just 20,000 to name when I boarded that bus. I must have paid 15,000 to the bus company. All I carried with me to the city were; two shirts, a pair of shoes, two pairs of shorts, and a bedsheet. I was excited about the city. I spent my first days roaming the city. But the excitement of the high rise buildings and many cars would rapidly be replaced by panic and hunger. The troubles of the streets might be many, but nothing beats hunger.

Massa Brian
USU 2022