Kiggundu Rodney 🇺🇬

When Legacy Becomes Foundation “I’ve come to believe in the connectedness of legacy and foundation,” my walk guest says. In the few seconds that follow that statement, while feeling curious to hear more, it also hits me that one of the @CivsourceAfrica entities is called @CivLegacy_F. Suddenly, his words feel less like a concept and more like a story waiting to be told. @rawdneyk begins to explain what he means. He was raised largely by his mother, who carried the everyday responsibilities of nurturing and providing with remarkable courage. Like many families, support came in different ways and at different moments, and much of the practical burden of ensuring her children’s education rested on her shoulders. At some point, a relative offered counsel that would quietly reshape her path: Find a way to become self-sufficient. Build something you can stand on. She listened. Rodney’s mother bought a small piece of land and built a modest shop. From that little structure came sustenance, stability, and dignity. The shop was never just a shop, it was a foundation. As Rodney grew, so did his love for art. Slowly, tentatively, art began to feel less like a hobby and more like a calling. Like many parents, his mother worried, not out of doubt, but out of love. She had worked too hard for her son to inherit uncertainty. Years later, Rodney travelled to India for an art residency. For thirty days, he lived among fifty artists from across the world. He saw what art could be, not just expression, but community, livelihood, impact. He returned home changed. Around the same time, his mother had stopped using the shop and asked him to move his art materials there, they had taken over the house. That move became a moment of revelation. Rodney realised that the shop could become more than storage. It could become a studio. A gathering place. A door. He transformed the space into an art studio and began hosting other artists. Apprenticeships followed. One by one, young creatives found their way into the space, not just to create, but to discover themselves. And that is when Rodney understood the truth of what he had been living all along: His mother built a shop to secure his future. He turned that shop into a studio to expand futures. She laid a foundation. He extended her legacy. Rodney had to unlock his foundation so that others could find theirs. How beautiful. How awe-inspiring: the never ending beautifully intertwined story of legacy and foundation. On whose legacy do you stand? And whose foundation are you quietly building as you create your own? #WalkTalkConnect #LegacyAndFoundation #AfricanCreativity