Twongyeirwe’s two decades of shaping Ugandan literature 29

This year, Twongeirwe received The National Medal for contribution to Uganda’s literary Heritage and Women Emancipation programmes from President Museveni.

What you need to know:

  • Literary champion. For more than two decades, Hilda Twongyeirwe has been at the forefront of giving homegrown stories a home. She recounts the small beginnings that resulted into a powerful literary movement, writes Tony Mushoborozi.

This year, Uganda Women Writers’ Association (Femrite) celebrated its 20 years of existence. For those years, Hilda Twongyeirwe, has been the mainstay and the face of the publishing house. She traces her involvement with Femrite back to 1994, when her then literature lecturer Mary Karoro Okurut interested her in starting an association of women writers. Karoro’s aim, according to Twongyeirwe was to get women to come together so they could help each other write and start a new tradition of writing down their stories. She recalls that the inaugural brainstorming meetings were attended by published writers of the time such as Austin Bukenya, Susan Kiguli and Goretti Kyomuhendo. Twongeirwe, who was then in her second year at Makerere University pursuing a degree in Arts, was selected because of her abundant passion for literature.

Fanning the embers
Growing up, Twongyeirwe loved reading. “I read Runyankole Rukiga story books mainly. I remember; Shutama Nkutekyerereze (Sit and I tell you stories), Mutebya (I tell stories), Otebwa orurimi rwawe (Do not forget your mother tongue) and Ishe Katabazi (The father of Katabazi) which was a hilarious comedy. I wanted more but could not get them. Kacerere Primary School only had a few books which changed hands quite often,” she says.
While she read, Twongyeirwe often wondered, whether she could write stories of her own. These thoughts sparked a little fire in young Twongyeirwe’s heart. That passion kept glowing in her spirit like embers buried deep in ashes until it was the right time to burst into flames. That happened at Kakoba.
In 1989, Twongyeirwe joined National Teachers Training College (NTC) in Nkozi. At Nkozi, she met seasoned writers such as Otim Rugambwa and Hope Keshubi who were her tutors. Otim wrote poetry while Keshubi had several novel manuscripts.

The genesis of the success story
From Nkozi NTC, Twongeirwe was admitted to Makerere University in 1992, for a bachelor’s degree in Literature and Social Administration. She was now at the cusp of living her dream as a writer, and her teacher could smell it. In a class of 100 literature students, Twongyeirwe stood out enough to be invited by her lecturer to be part of one of the greatest literary movements to ever happen to the Ugandan story.
In 1995, the adhoc committee for the yet-to-be-formed association gave her the task of talking about the initiative as publicity secretary. Her task was to recruit members. Twongyeirwe’s job was to make sure that the baby was born safely and was received by as many members of the literary community as possible. And that she did. At that moment, she had joined the ranks of movers and shakers not just in Uganda but in the region.
“During those pre-Femrite meetings, my lecturer Mary Karoro Okurut relayed her conviction to us that since the story telling tradition in our society was majorly the preserve of our mothers, it was important for the women of Uganda to be encouraged to write. It was a misnomer that the greatest storytellers in our land were writing the least number of books. We all felt that something needed to change,” says Twongyeirwe.
And so, on May 3, 1996, after hundreds of meetings, Femrite was born. By the time of the formalisation, the association had 16 members, including household names such as Goretti Kyomuhendo, Susan Kiguli, Austin Bukenya, Okot Benge, Sr Dominic Dipio and of course Hilda Twongyeirwe. The inaugural conference took place at the National Theatre. This was like the culmination of several months’ workshops Twongyeirwe had spent training aspiring writers.
“In those early days, the working philosophy was, ‘bring whatever you have written, and let us help each other write’. That helped a lot of us to come out of our shells and believe in ourselves,” Twongyeirwe says.
The two years prior to the first batch of publications, the young initiative focused on doing a lot of networking, writing proposals, attending conferences and book fairs all around the world. Twongyeirwe would attend other writers’ conferences to hear what other women were doing and how they were doing it. She would bring back lessons and apply them to Femrite. “Those lessons were later instrumental in publishing the first four books namely, Invisible Weavil by Mary Karoro Okurut, Memoirs of a Mother by Ayeta Wangusa, African Saga by Susan Kiguli, and A Woman’s Voice, an anthology of short stories less than two years after the birth of Femrite,” Twongyeirwe notes. In addition to being on the editorial board that worked on those four works of literature, she was also one of the writers.
Those four powerful publications sent ripples in the publishing industry in Uganda. They effectively become very fertile soils for a healthy growth of the association. As Femrite grew, Twongyeirwe grew with it. Having held a few positions in Femrite while climbing through the ranks, Twongyeirwe reached the top in 2007 taking over as Executive Director from Goretti Kyomuhendo. Kyomuhendo who was leaving for other ventures after 11 years of considerable achievements.

Challenges
Twongyeirwe has been at Femrite since its inception 24 years ago and although it has achieved unprecedented success, the journey has not been without its challenges. “We always struggle with finances and so we are always applying for this and that grant. Sometimes with no hope at all and that is fine. There is this one time when we applied for a grant and went through all the stages successfully. There seemed to be no obstacle at all. Then an email came in at the last stage telling us we were not getting the grant. When you have no hope it is okay. But when you have hope and nothing happens, the story is different,” she says.
Twongyeirwe has been actively involved in all the publications. Over the years, Femrite has published nine novels, 20 short story anthologies, six poetry anthologies, seven nonfiction books and five medical writings. She is credited for having increased Femrite’s visibility by starting collaborative publications with European publishers.
And after all these years, her passion for literature is still burning bright. Her commitment to Femrite gets stronger with each passing year. “Femrite is a labour of love. What keeps me here is my sincere commitment to the woman’s voice, to the woman’s story. My joy comes from each and every story we churn out. Each and every new voice we discover. My commitment comes from the women and men who have supported the whole journey of Femrite,” she says.

Advice to aspiring writers
Twongyeirwe believes that for women who want to grow in the literature space to achieve that goal, they need other women to support them. She says, “Those who want to grow should join writing groups, exchange their creative output for comments and critiquing and be fearless in defending their voices.” Over the years, Femrite have given birth to other important literary initiatives. For instance, when Goretti Kyomuhendo left Femrite in 2007, where she was programs coordinator since inception, she founded African Writers’ Trust in 2009 which is fundamental in furthering the writing tradition in East Africa.
Nyana Kakoma, the founder of Sooo Many Stories, was first a member of Femrite (still is) before she was inspired to start her online literary platform that has made a considerable impact on the culture. Other initiatives that were started by members of Femrite include Pen Uganda, Deyu African and Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation among others.
“Femrite’s role has been largely to inspire people. If we were to publish all the works that have their roots in Femrite, we’d not have room enough to keep the publications. Most members publish elsewhere, which is okay with us. We came to start a culture, and that we have done,” says Twongyeirwe.