John and Edmond, lessons from a decade in software engineering
“This month is the month of Edmond,” Jackie Ochola, the big big boss, the Uganda country director, announced at my first Andela town hall as a freshly minted muzungu intern in Kampala.
Edmond is a future Obama scholar, one of only thirty individuals from across the world selected for a Masters degree at Columbia University. A certain African pride permeated the room. I turned around, attracted to Edmond’s beaming and charismatic smile. Weeks later, after many many rolexes, and an overnight bus ride to Nairobi, I mustered the courage to ask Edmond to share his story in a podcast style interview.
But Edmond’s story is incomplete without John Kagga. John is a senior software engineer from one of the first cohorts of Andela Uganda. He’s generous, kind-spirited, and mentors many younger developers. Most don’t know this, but John and Edmond go far back from meeting in high school to becoming startup co-founders.
“We had this synergy that just worked, and has until today” — Edmond Atto
In the following interview, we hear incredible moments from a decade long friendship, and the most valuable lessons learned from their remarkable careers in software engineering. I hope you leave feeling inspired as I have.
Thanks for reading! Two years after my amazing summer with Andela, I’m now a journalist with the BBC Africa desk. If you’re interested in reading more of my work, I also write a weekly newsletter Brackets on technology, data science, and journalism.
