Meet Uganda’s original slay queen, Elizabeth Christobel Edith Bagaaya Akiiki

Traditionally speaking, Bagaya is the Batebe (Princess Royal) of the Kingdom of Toro.

She is also a lawyer, politician, author, actress, diplomat, a pan-Africanist and former model.

Bagaya is truly a lady of many firsts

She was the first East African woman to be admitted to the English Bar.

Striking a pose Pulse Live Uganda

As the first Ugandan woman to be accepted into Girton College, Cambridge University, she would also be the third African woman to be enrolled in the institution's history.

In 1962, she graduated from Cambridge with a law degree and three years later, she was the first woman from East Africa to be admitted to the English Bar.

An intellectual princess Pulse Live Uganda

Beyond that, what makes her Uganda’s original slay queen?

1. Her beauty

Bagaya is blessed with otherworldly features. Her piercing brown eyes, exquisitely smoothed out skin and confident manner cultivate a look all her own.

She never needed the weaves and penciled-in brows of today’s slay queens to become a successful model. Her earthiness led her to grace the front cover of the American Vogue Magazine in 1968, and before then Harper’s Bazaar magazine.

During the late 1960s, the renowned Ford Modelling Agency in New York asked her to pose nude for a substantial sum of money. Bagaya refused, telling the agency that she only wore Prada, never nada (or words to that effect).

The top flight model Pulse Live Uganda

2. Her brains

She was sent to Gayaza High School, a Ugandan school created for queens and princesses who have a lot of grey matter.

At school, she used all her 169 cm height to excel at basketball. She also excelled at singing, adding symphony to the musicality of her fine looks.

Bagaya in her element Pulse Live Uganda

Originally, in William Shakespeare’s plays, there were no actresses, female actors did not appear on stage until the mid-1600's and so many in Shakespeare's day would be shocked to find that Bagaya played Julius Caesar while at school!

She graced several fashion magazines Pulse Live Uganda

3. Her friends

“Show me your friends and I'll show you your future,” they say. Well, Bagaya’s friend was Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, the younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth and the only sibling of Queen Elizabeth II.

She also knew Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, wife to the 35th President of the United States John F. Kennedy and Aristotle Socrates Onassis, a Greek shipping magnate who amassed the world's largest privately-owned shipping fleet and was one of the world's richest and most famous men.

At Cambridge, Bagaya was buddies with broadcast journalist Sir David Frost; Australian author, journalist and feminist Germaine Greer; Leon Brittan, home secretary in Margaret Thatcher’s government in Britain.

The wonderfully talented Doreen Nabbanja Pulse Live Uganda

4. Her creativity

In 1984, Elizabeth played the part of Shaman in the Columbia Pictures film “Sheena: Queen of the Jungle”.

Then she wrote the book, “Elizabeth of Toro: The Odyssey of an African Princess” on August 1, 1989. The 287-page book recounts her extraordinary life.

The incomparable Pamela Keryeko Pulse Live Uganda

5. Her legacy

When plans to make a biopic of Bagaya's life was announced, some of the listed actresses considered to play her were Nabbanja Doreen, Pamela Keryeko, Kankindi Tania Shakirah, Rehema Nanfuka, Malaika Laika Tenshi, Princess Kalema, Nodryn Evanci and Aganza Kisaka.

This list comprises Uganda’s most beautiful, talented and glamorous actresses and they all want to play Bagaya. Now, how’s that for a legacy?