Kagayi Ngobi
2023 might be the year poets in Uganda finally reveal how publishing their works has become a significant aspect of the urban performance poetry culture.
Away from the 2020-2021 Kitara Nation Poetry Series that sneezed what seemed then a scanty effort of just selected few poets to publish their works, 2 years on the wider performance poetry community has caught the cold and embraced the print of letters, growing the canon of Ugandan literature.
More stalwarts in the (performance poetry) game have rolled up their sleeves to contribute to the poetry book industry and believe it or not, these are great strides for the Ugandan urban poetry culture today.
To name just a few whose works are now available;
- Ssebo Lule (Ebitontome Ebitasesa),
- Philip Matogo (A Licence to Phil),
- Caroline Afroetry (Married To Society),
- Devis the Poet (The Artist) and
- Mark Gordon (Laces drops next week).
But it does not stop there; as the Basoga say that “Gwolekera abato n’ogunhuma“, (the game you leave for the children is the one which interesting), this year also sees our great poetry ancestor Okot p’Bitek‘s famous Song of Lawino now amongst us in Lumasaaba print by the spirit and hand of Lucy Lunyolo.
Rumor has it that Iga Zinunula is at the moment hiding somewhere in Nigeria to also gestate a poetry book.
And who knows what the next 7 months of 2023 hold for Ugandan poetry?
Overall the confidence and quality of work has tremendously improved from what performance poets have produced in the past years.
Soon I shall be sharing my thoughts on these particular texts as I interrogate what they reveal of us.
This generation of Ugandan poets is making sure that what uncle Taban Lo Liyong decried as East Africa‘s literary desert turns into East Africa‘s literary oasis.
Keep working poets! The world is ready to read us through you!
This post was created with our nice and easy submission form. Create your post!
