When Janice Kemigisha Mzungu walked across the graduation stage, the applause was more than just for academic success. It was a salute to her courage—for choosing a path many still don’t consider “real work.”
Graduation is supposed to mark the beginning of adulthood’s formal chapter: job applications, interviews, and a steady desk somewhere. But for Kemigisha, the end of university was the beginning of something very different—a journey into the chaotic, thrilling, and unpredictable world of digital content creation.
She didn’t start out with a plan. In fact, when she first got a smartphone at university, she was just happy to finally be part of the social media world she had only heard about. TikTok was fun, a place to laugh, experiment, and maybe get a few likes. But that first lip-sync video caught fire—and lit a fuse.
“I didn’t expect it to go anywhere,” she admits. “It was just something to try. But the reaction surprised me. People related to it.”
What started as fun quickly snowballed. As her follower count grew, so did the expectations—and the opportunities. By the time she had her degree in hand, Kemigisha wasn’t just another fresh graduate scanning job boards. She was a rising voice in Uganda’s growing creator economy.
A New Kind of Career
In a country where over 100,000 students graduate every year, competition for formal employment is fierce. For many, dreams are deferred at the altar of practicality. But Kemigisha defied that script.
She flirted with the idea of a “real job,” just like everyone expected. The pressure was there—family, friends, the voice in her own head wondering if content creation was too risky. But she trusted her gut.
“I kept coming back to how I felt when I was creating,” she says. “It was fulfilling. It felt like something I could build—not just something to pass the time.”
And build she did.
Today, she’s worked with heavyweight brands like Airtel, NSSF, Geisha, and Nice & Lovely. Her skits—ranging from laugh-out-loud relatable to bitingly insightful—speak to the daily lives and dreams of thousands of Ugandans scrolling through their phones.
Behind the Feed
But none of this came easy. Before the sponsorships and slick videos, there were late nights, exams to study for, and content to shoot—often with nothing but natural light and a borrowed phone. She’s been underpaid. She’s been overlooked. But she never stopped.
“There were times it felt like no one saw the work behind the post,” she says. “But I kept going because I believed in it.”
That belief became her anchor. Even when the views dipped. Even when the gigs didn’t come. Even when people around her whispered, “But when will you get a real job?”
A New Graduate Narrative
For Kemigisha, graduation wasn’t the start of a corporate career—it was the turning point in a creative revolution. Her story is a growing one in Uganda and across Africa: young people taking tech into their own hands and reshaping what success looks like.
She’s still learning. Still experimenting. Still growing. But she’s also leading. Showing that with authenticity, consistency, and guts, you can make your own way—even when the world doesn’t hand you a map.
And as she looks back at that first smartphone, that first post, that first spark, she doesn’t just see a lucky break.
She sees the beginning of a life she chose. A life she’s proud of.
“I graduated with a degree,” she says, “but I also graduated into myself.”
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