Ugandan activist and poet, Stella Nyanzi, does not mince words. Her criticisms of President, Yoweri Museveni certainly put her in the spotlight, and even got her arrested by the government. In The Woman Who Poked The Leopard, Patience Nitumwesiga focuses on the woman behind the words – the mother of three at home, fighting for a better future for Uganda.
The Woman Who Poked The Leopard follows Nyanzi’s campaign to represent Kampala in Uganda’s Parliament through to her exile from the country, calling back to her arrest and various ways she had protested the government beforehand.
While the documentary highlights the oppression of governments like the ones Nyanzi protests, it paints an intimate picture of the effects of her mission on her family. Her teenage children frequently help with campaigning, roles they seem to willingly play, especially her oldest, daughter, Baraka. Still the fractures in the connection between Nyanzi and her children is evident, exacerbated by time Nyanzi has spent away working or imprisoned.
Still, it is inspiring to see the effect Nyanzi has on the next generation, starting with her kids, to their friends, to the people she speaks to directly or who have watched her from afar. And while the documentary ends with her departure from Uganda, Nyanzi has planted seeds in the soil that promise fruit.
The Woman who Poked the Leopard is playing at Hot Docs ’26. For more information, click here.
