The Ugandan book industry is a conundrum to decipher, for it is filled with potential but little tangibility to exhibit at the African continent and global level. A lot of talk, too much output but we are not heroes or heroines in Uganda, East Africa, Africa and the world. There is a need to burn incense to improve the spiritual and cultural environment in our country.
The spiritual and cultural environment in Uganda is confusing, we are alienated to all things popular but Ugandan. We tend to embrace and love a creative touched and blessed by other peoples, and that is how confusing it is to survive in Uganda as a creative. However, I would not wish to exonerate the creatives especially the writers from this mess – they are equally guilty and clueless.
I have been an observer this previous year, noted down the many events that have occurred. Those including book launches, workshops/symposiums, plays and poetry recitals. Therefore, I will summarize a confusing year of hard work in Uganda with little to show as usual:
1. The Market Vs Popular Ugandan Authors:
The small reading circle of Uganda is a dilemma of its own. The writers are the readers/audience of a fellow writer – this partially hinders proper organic growth of art in Uganda. This is to say, if we are to juxtapose the music industry to the book industry you will realize that the musicians are able to grow organically and garner support allover the country through their talent. However, with the book industry, one must pray first to the gods and spirits to accumulate at least, 100 book sales in a year. A typical crisis that continuously exhibits poor readership or unpopularity of Uganda authors in Uganda.
The twist of this conundrum is deeply embroidered on what is popular by Uganda authors and what not popular. The popularity of some specific work begins with a white man’s curiosity of the style of writing – then yet again, a Ugandan begins taking interest in that particular author. For instance, Jennifer Makumbi Nansubuga continues to shine in Uganda after publishing outside Uganda, same with Okot p’Bitek – whom many scholars including readers in Uganda believe is the father of literature in Uganda – this a typical myopic way of reasoning and saddens. When you closely look at Jennifer and her books, she continues to sell in Uganda and grow in popularity – which is a good thing. However, the point in contestation here is, the market has no avid readers that grow and develop authors locally like other countries like Kenya in the same region.
In Kenya, there is a famous author called John Kiriamiti – a thief turned author. In his famous memoir – My Life in Prison – John narrates his local fame in Kenya – and his story has since grown on the lips of men yonder and yonder – this later finds John able to survive in Kenya with only writing as a professional – he has navigated the storm of East Africa’s readership with very important work like Son of Fate, a novel that has captivated and grown on lips of men. John is a living proof that glory can be attained even in writing in Kenya – an inspiration to all young people in Kenya. However, I am yet to find a local author in Uganda that has grown like John Kiriamiti. In conclusion, even in 2024, the market fails to nurture and develop local authors to stardom. We star-pad what the white man has elevated and fail to make our own heroes. A crisis in the market!
2. Spaces and Associations:
During the making of clothes into finest fashion output – the biggest worry is how the tailor weaves the different fabrics to make a masterpiece that people wear for generations. Methinks the biggest invasion in the fabric industry is the necktie. A necktie has become a fundamental paraphernalia in spaces especially spaces that need formal representations. I would equate spaces and associations to fashion. We all have tastes and preferences with this kind of arrangement. Some choose jeans, pants whilst others would choose trousers. In all this, we all wearing clothes are happy. However, during the formality, many times we all require a necktie to cover-up whilst on formal occasions. This all aligns to the small spaces we belong to of creativity – some choose spaces that align with their writing objectives like protest content, love content, feminist content etc. all this a fashion.
I have sadly observed small promising spaces crumbling, I, too, writing this belonged to one but sadly the silence was quite grave that people begun to quit, leading to a stillbirth. This same fate continues to engulf all prospective spaces that keep coming up over and over again. The pain and sadness keep making progress impossible – for many of these spaces are simply briefcase – that if the pioneer gets a problem, the space fails to progress.
Another alarming situation in this case, is the battle of egos – where different members clash over objectivity of talent. I have witnessed this majorly in the female spaces – sometimes, the troubles of female stem deeply into the object of sexuality, understanding the stand of sexual harassment, how best to defend the victims and punishing the sex pests. The clash happens during the check on principality of a lead feminist. Many times, if the lead feminist has a personal objectivity beyond the horde objective, there will be little or no justice – all querying whether we all understand the feminism in theory and practicability. Spaces are good thing but little has been done to utilize and sustain them.
My biggest consistent space of 2024 has been Kelele Makerere. However, Kelele too faces a serious leadership crisis, its consistence depends on its curators or moderators, Ian and his team must learn the importance of navigating the storm to create sustainability that if Ian wakes up one day to quit, Kelele will continue to survive.
In line with associations, the biggest heart break I witnessed was the death of Poetry Association of Uganda (PAU). It all started as a simple ideological squabble that later turned into a storm that soon extinguished the burning fires of a bright future that people dreamed of. Associations like PAU often die because of many reasons but the commonest denominator is money. The PAU exhibited the secrecy of sharing loot quietly, munching until an outsider comes into the small circle. What befalls such associations is the defensive nature of the guilty and the clashing egos of the outsiders. This later kills the common objective of the associations. The PAU to which I belonged to, crashed so hard that even the association website was sold. This was the biggest blow I witnessed in 2024. During the squabbles, people volunteered to make peace but it seems there was much bigger issues at stake and reconciliation was an offer off table. The character of all cabinet members was divided according to loyalty and feud. The most striking crisis was open exhibition of allegations with sexual harassment of a few members – this further digging a trench of acrimony. The irony of all this is that, even after the bitter quarrel there is a parallel entity that bloomed. 2024 in spaces and association has been a dilemma and vacuum.
In the same footsteps of spaces, I would like to categorically state that 2024 has been a confusing year especially at the amendment of the Copyright and Neighboring Rights Act, No.6 of 2006. I have read the entire act from page to page, cover to cover to understand why there are uneven voices allover. Different entities came on board to suggest changes – which is a good thing. However, the biggest scam of the year was the “Copyright WhatsApp Group”. I was part of this “marvelous” group where we interacted and shared ideas on the progress of creativity in Uganda. However, this group deviated off the course, and one of the curators to whom we bestowed all our faith in, fundamentally failed us all – by promising the impossible – the amendment of the Act. Different meetings since 2023, have been happening but nothing of tangibility has recorded ever since – only promises and continued patience – till date, all laws were accented but the Copyright Act.
I will conclusively say, all these spaces that keep piling people and contacts are scam entities that people use to solicit money from the government and continuously share the loot silently. Creatively are always assertive but the Ugandan lot barks a lot but meek as sheep. These groups are arranged to make a political statement to which one or two shrewd members utilize the ignorance of many to beg on their behalf and eat in silence whilst belching and farting. Creatives must take charge and begin asking the hard questions of importance for we all know there will not be any amendment of the Copyright and Neighboring Rights Act, No.6 of 2006. That is a politic gimmick with cham-cham sweetening of promises.
3. Highlight(s) of the Year 2024:
In all the cosmos of wonders, never did I ever anticipate that one day a man will openly discuss about sexual harassment. The biggest crisis we face in the world right now is the stereotype that a man can never be harassed sexually – until a certain poet came out and allegedly said a certain event promoter sexually harassed him. I will not dig into the entire process; however, I would wish to make this clear that men are silently battling depression because of rape from men and women, we need to stand by them and support their wellbeing. That aside, I witnessed, sadly, people using the Poet’s situation to garner support for their shows, this is truly wrong in all its forms. We should all aim at counselling victims of harassment rather than using their plight for socioeconomic standards. Though amidst all this, I was in a poetry WhatsApp group where people were claiming the Poet was raped but the Poet was very consistent on his argument that he was sexually harassed by a man. Out of curiosity, I offered to inquire what the difference between harassment and rape, I only received a volley of insults from the supporters of the Poet. One even fundamentally saying that rape is rape and it is still rape whether there is penetration or not. That was a changing moment for me. For I learned to unlearn many things even though the dictionary and scholarly definitions were saying otherwise. People rallied for his cause but till date we don’t know whether he received his justice. I still pray the young talented man has been able to receive counselling and the help he needs to transform his life and move forward – we need safe space for us all – including men and boys.
The other highlight was Ber Anena the author of A Nation in Labor: A Poetry Collection landing a beautiful deal that might have shaped her literary career – this whole begun when she got a literary agent – the lesson learned is that, for all Ugandan writers to succeed in this discipline of writing, you must leave Uganda first and exhibit your skill where it will be appreciated – Anena joins the long list of people thriving after leaving Uganda.
Conclusively, pondering on the year 2024, I witnessed no progress in our industry. The biggest heartbreak is that our scholars have refused to progress passed Okot p’Bitek. Almost all conferences this year had no new author that can be discussed by panelists but Okot. This same crisis is what fails even our government. After receiving our Independence in 1962, 62 years later Uganda has failed to construct her own new Capital City – we are still stuck with the untidy Kampala with broken sewers that gush shit in the streets as we inhale the progress of steady socioeconomical transformation. Our lecturers at all institutions have failed to make their own heroes but continuously crown a Whiteman promotion every year and think they are scholars and thinkers. A total embarrassment to the progress of the book industry.
In the same spirit, even this year we have had a small number of fictions on our bookshelves, we are only witnessing (auto)biographies everywhere but no fiction. This is something that needs to be addressed. Yes, we need the nonfictional content but we also need the beautiful fiction to balance the ship. An imagination is something profound to witness – something glorious to glare at – a heavenly sight that is majestic and aesthetic. For our society to progress, we need fiction too on our bookshelves – quality fiction that navigates and tells our society the way it is. We must prepare our society for posterity, and fiction has proven time and again to be a good medication that teaches and entertains. The status quo must be checked. Also, the endemic of every person writing memoirs must be inoculated. We are witnessing basic lifestyles, soulless content that has no pitch and transformation but an endemic of peer pressure engulfing the middle-class of Uganda.
How shall we save this book industry? For it has potential unfulfilled.
Img Src; Mahiri Books
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Great insights there in… Food for thought to the poets, writers and creatives at large.
Thanks for this!
Impressive review worth attention. Thanks Ziwa
This is elaborate enough. Thank you Zziwa for the insight. We have to move on from our past scholarly stance and start building our own heroes. We also have to produce more fiction. A lot has to be done, sad people use literary platforms to enrich themselves.