Jessica Nambowa Damarie Nassaka Nabongo is a Ugandan-American travel blogger[1] who has visited every country in the world.[2]
In 2019 Nabongo claimed to be the first Black woman of African descent to have documented visits to every country in the world,[3] a claim that is disputed by another African-American woman, Woni Spotts, who claimed to have done so in 2018.[4]
Nabongo was born in Detroit, Michigan to Ugandan parents who settled in the United States in 1969[1]; she has dual citizenship.[2][5] Her mother, Rose Mary Namubiru from a village called Mbale, near Masaka, Uganda. Her father, Ephraim Mukasa Nabongo, grew up on the outskirts of the Ugandan capital, Kampala.[1]. She attended St. John's University in New York City[1] where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in English[citation needed] and then the London School of Economics,[2][3][6][7] where she acquired a social sciences Master's degree[1] in international development.[5]
According to Nabongo, she received her first passport at the age of four or five.[1] 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,[2][3][5] before becoming a travel blogger.[8][better source needed] She founded a travel agency called Jet Black, which creates itineraries for small group trips to Africa.[1][2][5] She also works with hospitality businesses as a brand influencer.[2][6]
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.[1][2] She arrived at the 195th country on her list, the Seychelles, on 6 October 2019, at the age of 35.[1][2][5][7] The certification group Nomad Mania approved her claim through their random spot checks.[5][9]
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.[1][10][11] 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.[2][12] 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.[4]