Black Women in the News
She’s trying to be the first black woman to visit every country
By Lilit Marcus, via https://edition.cnn.com
Some people set records by jumping the highest or running the fastest.
But for Jessica Nabongo, a UN employee turned travel blogger, becoming the first black woman to visit every country on Earth isn’t just about getting her name in a record book — it’s about paving the way for women and people of color to do the same.
Nabongo was born in Detroit to Ugandan parents and holds two passports.
Although she felt like she’d achieved “the American dream” by landing a six-figure job at a pharmaceutical company after college and buying her own place in the Motor City, the work didn’t satisfy her.
She began renting out her condo to make money, then hit the road — first, teaching English in Japan, then grad school at the London School of Economics, followed by a job at the United Nations that took her to Benin and then Italy. But that wasn’t enough to sate the travel bug.
But simply being able to afford a ticket doesn’t mean that travel is easy or seamless.
Nabongo’s experiences traveling the world undercut many of the exhortations travel brands have to “live like a local,” being able to seamlessly blend in anywhere simply by changing …
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