“If you want to beat me for my heartfelt birthday poem, come and find me at my home. Ask the bodabodamen [male commercial motorcycle drivers] to direct you to Mama Stella’s house with a red gate,” anthropologist Stella Nyanzi wrote at the end of a Facebook post last September. Nyanzi had dedicated the poem to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in office since 1986. On November 2, 2018, the government arrested Nyanzi, charging her with “cyber harassment” and “offensive communication.” On August 1, 2019, after spending over 250 days in jail, Nyanzi was found guilty of cyber harassment. The following day, she was sentenced to 18 months in prison…
