She attended school at Makerere University in Uganda, earning her BA and MA there and went on to receive a doctorate at the University of Wisconsin, with a scholarship from Rockefeller Foundation.
[1] She was then a professor at Wheaton College and then Wayne State University,[1][2] later becoming involved in activities with HIV/AIDS,[2] gender, and policy issues.
[3] Later, she focuses on investigating both social and cultural impacts of African HIV/AIDS crisis as she is interested in examining the links between economic system and sex-gender dynamic in Uganda and how it could slow the spread of HIV in Uganda socially.
[5] She had contributed her expertise in many areas, including but not limited to participating in various UN-sponsored conferences to highlight the social issues of HIV/AIDS in Uganda to the international community, as well as writing for CODESRIA (Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa) publication.
[1] In 1975 Obbo married anthropologist Aidan Southall who passed away in 2009 at their home in France.