By Destiny Gladys Chaiga aka The Midknight Owl
FORTY STARS AND FORTY STEPS
In the beginning,
A gentle spark with clear-eyed vision shone
a steady flame lit in the heart of Uganda.
A fiery quest for stronger sisterhood, like braided cowrie logs,
a movement meandering through waiting hearts,
walking the familiar dew-kissed bare feet of our foremothers.
Voices like talking ngalabi drums echoed through grassroots paths,
refugee settlements, and parliamentary halls,
their heads high in resilience like sorghum,
carrying a gentle healing breeze across drying brooks
in the wide desert of equality
a forty-step journey reminding us that freedom is better walked together.
In the beginning, they saw distant stars
those that guided dreamers, kings and caravans to a savior’s chambers.
Little glimmers of hope in the eyes of women
exploded into firelights in every courtyard,
and like dancers in a sacred rhythm,
they dared to take little steps toward a dream turned reality.
Now forty steps forward
forty seasons of rising like harvest moons,
with a great bonfire lit by generations apart
yet knitted tightly in Mama’s bright, rugged kitenge fabric of womanhood.
With ankle jingle bells and ululations spiraling into victorious praise,
there is a nationwide drumbeat declaring that change is here.
Here lies a legacy firmly rooted in our hearts
by forty footprints
like long-preserved seeds kissing wet earth after the long dry spell.
Blow, for ACFODE, forty trumpets!
A worthy hallelujah of adoration ripples across the land
a salute of graceful fortitude resounding
through classrooms, courtrooms, and community huts.
As sisters are unyoked from untold generational burdens,
as the laughter of daughters heals bruised silence,
as widows reclaim their ancestral homelands,
as men wave banners of true transformation,
as youths emulate this fire of leadership
this is a full circle, complete in a constellation made brighter.
Pay attention to her solid granite footmarks paving new paths.
Study her firm grip on an open map unfurling toward fresh dawns
an affirmation that integrity is non-negotiable
and equal opportunity is a right and a law, not a luxury;
that fairness and equity are bedrocks of freedom.
From such truths were handed to us like forty mirrors for reflection
to redefine our understanding of strength,
as leaders rising like acacia in the savanna plains,
as innovators and trailblazers in untamed grasslands,
as flame-bearers carrying torches for the next generation.
All this brooded in a patient intentionality,
in the quiet yet relentless power of a lioness
stalking possibility with grace and certainty
here, where empowerment is a communal rhythm of possibilities,
here, where every woman is worthy
of every headline celebration.
Now rise with forty salutes and glasses,
with lifted gourds and calabashes of gratitude.
Cheers once again;
to a legacy smelted like iron by our foremothers
to footmarks of national transformation
to forty years of rebuilding and rising
to forty steps toward an eternal destiny
for more women and girls,
for more men and boys,
for forty more stars shining brighter in our shared sky,
for forty more steps forward in purpose.
For God and my country.