Jessica Nambowa Damarie Nassaka Nabongo is a Ugandan-American travel blogger who gained public attention in 2019 after having visited every country in the world and claiming to be the first Black woman to have done so. Her claim is disputed by Woni Spotts, an African-American woman who claimed to have done the same in 2018; Spotts' claim has been confirmed by recent research according to media scholar Tori Omega Arthur.
Early years and education
Nabongo was born in Detroit, Michigan to Rose Mary Namubiru and Ephraim Mukasa Nabongo, Ugandans who settled in the United States in 1969; she has dual citizenship. Her mother is from Mbale, in Eastern Uganda and her father grew up on the outskirts of the Ugandan capital, Kampala. According to Nabongo, she received her first passport at the age of four or five.
She attended St. John's University in New York City where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and then the London School of Economics, where she acquired a social sciences Master's degree in international development.
Career
Prior to travel blogging
After completing college, she worked at a pharmaceutical company for two years, taught English in Japan and worked for the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization.
Travel blogging
As of 2016, she had already visited 60 countries. In February, 2017 she decided to visit all 193 UN member countries and the two nonmember observing states of the world. She arrived at the 195th country on her list, the Seychelles, on 6 October 2019, at the age of 35. She documented each of her visits to a new country on her blog. The informal certification group Nomad Mania accepted her claim through their random spot checks.
Nabongo notes that there is some controversy over her record as she was unable to enter Syria and instead chose to visit the Golan Heights, which the United Nations Security Council considers to be Syrian territory occupied by Israel. Her claim of being the first Black woman to visit every country is also disputed by Woni Spotts, an African-American woman who says she completed her own full country count in 2018. Media scholar Tori Omega Arthur, writing in the journal Social Media + Society, says Spotts, because she completed much of her journey in the 1970s and 80s, has been overlooked and that recent research has indicated she was indeed the first Black woman to complete visits to all countries.
In this period, she founded a travel agency called Jet Black, which creates itineraries for small group trips to Africa. She has also worked with hospitality businesses as a brand influencer.