Knowing Yourself, Serving Others: A Reflection on Huduma Fellows Seminar One, Class of 2026

The first seminar of the Huduma Fellows Class of 2026 has come and gone, and what it left behind is something far more lasting than a weekend's worth of sessions and conversation. Over two days, a new cohort of Uganda's emerging public servants gathered not merely to learn about leadership, but to interrogate themselves: their values, their motivations, their courage, and their sense of purpose. The result was a powerful, community-building experience that has set a strong foundation for the fellowship year ahead.

Know Thyself

The seminar opened with a deceptively simple question: Who are you, really?

Facilitated by Joanita Nvannungi and Michael Kayemba, the opening session, Know Thyself, invited fellows into honest self-reflection, asking them to explore the values and experiences that have shaped them as people and as potential leaders. The session was anchored by Judy Brown's poem "Trough," a meditation on the quieter, less celebrated moments in a leader's journey. Brown's poem offered a timely reminder: leadership is not only about peaks and breakthroughs. Sometimes the most important thing a leader can do is rest in the low point, conserve their energy, and trust that the tide will carry them forward again.

It was a fitting beginning. Before any discussion of strategy, policy, or systems change, the fellows were asked to look inward. Africa needs leaders who know themselves first. That work began here.

The Call to Serve

If the morning asked who are you, the afternoon asked who are you serving, and why?

Session two, The Call to Serve, was facilitated by Faculty Member Agnes Igoye and explored the philosophical and moral foundations of servant leadership. The anchor text was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail, one of the most profound pieces of writing in the history of public leadership. Fellows did not simply read the letter. They sat with it, wrestled with it, and reflected on what its lessons meant for their own lives and journeys in public service.

" We owe a deep commitment to our work, but an even deeper one to our own well-being. With limited time and energy, we must be intentional about where we give ourselves — Joanita Nvannungi

The message that emerged was unambiguous: genuine leadership has never been transactional. Across history, the greatest thinkers and public leaders have understood that to lead is, above all, to serve. That understanding is not a soft sentiment. It is the very foundation upon which transformative public service is built.

The Ethics of Excellence

Day two opened with an equally demanding set of questions. Can you succeed with integrity? What does it truly mean to pursue excellence in public life?

Session four, The Ethics of Excellence, moderated by Joanita Nvannungi, challenged fellows to examine their moral compass and reflect on what it means to contribute to society through their professional lives. Drawing on Clayton Christensen's How Will You Measure Your Life?, the session pushed fellows beyond conventional notions of career ambition toward a deeper, more durable sense of purpose. Excellence, they discovered, is not simply a performance standard. It is a moral act and a leadership obligation.

Michael Kayemba then guided the group through a rich reflection on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, drawing out three timeless lessons for leaders in any era: anchor your vision in the shared values of the people you lead; acknowledge the hard truths of the present before painting a picture of the future; and communicate with imagery that anyone can feel, not just understand.

Fellows also wrestled with some of the hardest questions a public servant can face: Why am I in public service? What is the most significant leadership gap in my sector? What does this community enable me to do that I cannot do alone? There were no easy answers. But, as the session made clear, the right questions are where great leadership begins.

As Kayemba observed during the seminar: "Africa's private sector remains too nascent and fragmented to drive enduring, systemic change. True, transformative impact across the continent will only be realized when we strengthen and expand the capacity of the public sector and civil service." It is precisely this conviction that animates the Huduma Fellowship.

Courage and Resilience

Perhaps the most visceral session of the weekend was the one that looked leadership in the face at its most demanding: when it is hard, lonely, and costly.

" Africa’s private sector remains too nascent and fragmented to drive enduring, systemic change. True, transformative impact across the continent will only be realized when we strengthen and expand the capacity of the public sector and civil service — Michael Kayemba

The session on Courage and Resilience opened with a question from Joanita Nvannungi that stopped the room: How do you want the people you serve to measure your life's work and legacy? She reminded fellows that while they carry a deep duty to serve, they carry an equally important duty to themselves. Time and energy are finite. Intentionality is not optional.

Awel Uwihanganye challenged fellows to define what success truly means to them, not in abstract terms, but in terms of the achievement they most deeply aspire to. Agnes Igoye, drawing on her experience mentoring young people, spoke to the quiet, often underrated power of deep and lasting friendships in sustaining a life of public service. In a world that celebrates individual achievement, she reminded the group that endurance is rarely a solo endeavour.

The session's anchor text was Theodore Roosevelt's "The Man in the Arena," and from it, three truths rose clearly to the surface. First, sideline commentary is not leadership: if you are not willing to be wrong, criticised, or defeated, you are spectating, not leading. Second, failure is not a sign of weakness; it is proof of the courage to try. The arena demands it. Third, what sustains a leader in the hard moments is not applause, but a cause that matters more than personal comfort.

Roosevelt's words, written in 1910, rang as true as ever in that room. The worst case in the arena is still infinitely better than the best case on the sidelines.

As Nvannungi put it: "We owe a deep commitment to our work, but an even deeper one to our own well-being. With limited time and energy, we must be intentional about where we give ourselves."

A Foundation Laid

The first seminar of the Huduma Fellows Class of 2026 has done what the best seminars do: it has unsettled comfortable assumptions, deepened self-awareness, and forged the early bonds of a leadership community. The questions raised over those two days, about identity, service, integrity, excellence, courage, and resilience, will continue to echo through everything the fellows do in the months ahead.

This is only the beginning. The foundation has been laid. The next seminar will build on it, continuing to develop Uganda's next generation of values-driven, transformative public servants, men and women ready to step into the arena and stay there.