Writivism: Helping young writers find their footing

Zimbabwean author NoViolet Bulawayo (L) hands over an award to the 2014 Short Story Prize Winner, Saaleha Idrees Bamjee during last year’s Writivism festival at Uganda National Cultural Centre. Courtesy Photo.

What you need to know:

Creating writers. Since its inception three years ago, the programme has seen many aspiring writers fulfill their dreams or at least come closer to them.

Three years ago, two young Ugandan Law students, Bwesigye bwa Mwesigire and Ateenyi Kyomuhendo, who also happened to be creative writers, reached a consensus that there was a missing link on the local arts sphere. They decided to make the effort to establish the missing link. They set up an organisation that could provide local artists with support to further nurture their energies, so as to strengthen the role of arts in shaping society.

Courtesy of their idea, Bwesigye was accepted into the Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance, a programme that supports the social and business ventures of promising African youth educated from top-rated universities around the world. While at the HarambeeBretton Woods Symposium in the USA, the Ugandans met Naseemah Mohamed, a Zimbabwean educationalist and writer, who shared his dream. Bwesigye asked Naseemah to join him and Kyomuhendo to form the organisation they would call Centre for African Cultural Excellence (CACE).
The team of three then drew an initial vision and workplan, agreeing to start with a project that would focus on enhancing the production and consumption of African Literature on the continent. To pilot their project in Uganda, they soon acquired a $2,500 (about Shs7.3m) grant from Global Changemakers (another initiative that supports the social initiatives of promising future leaders).

Writivism is born
The project the three founders of CACE agreed to pilot in Uganda was one to support increased connection of African literature to African reality, basing on the understanding that writing is inherently activist, and so they called it “Writivism”. The goal was to be achieved through such activities as connecting readers to writers, running a mentoring programme for aspiring writers, running writers’ and readers’ workshops, running an annual literature festival, school tours, writing competitions, among others.
“We rolled Writivism out with a short-story writing competition, where only Ugandan writers aged between 15-25, were eligible,” Bwesigye says. “We received 50 entries and had one winner and runners-up, who each walked away with prizes and encouragement.”
Bwesigye adds that the following year, the writing contest was run and onto it was added an annual literary festival, as well as school tours.

“We realised growing enthusiasm for the competition, while at the same time the project was beginning to garner interest and popularity even beyond the borders of Uganda,” Bwesigye says. “So last year, we opened the short story competition to writers from anywhere in Africa.”
However, Kyomuhendo says after one year of running the short story contest, they realised the quality of work from the original emerging writers was lacking, and so a mentorship programme was introduced so Writivism would be about more than just the short story competition and the literary festival.

“We introduced it in 2013 and made it a permanent aspect of the programme last year,” Kyomuhendo explains. “It is about identifying talented and passionate aspiring writers, then connecting them to experienced and successful writers out there such that they can be helped to improve the quality of their work.”
He adds that since its introduction, the mentorship programme has seen selected aspiring writers paired with established ones in five African cities (Nairobi, Kampala, Abuja, Harare and Cape Town) so as to be guided in the process of producing quality work. The aspiring writers attend workshops, then collaborate with assigned mentors so as to produce quality work under guidance.

Bwesigye says he is already overwhelmed by what Writivism has been able to achieve in its so far short life, adding that when they started in 2012, they did not know that shortly, they would see results beyond their imagination.
“The friendships, networks, opportunities and other things that have happened are unbelievable for us as the people who began the effort!” he exclaims. “Some writers have met their editors through the programme. Some have secured writing programme sponsorships, and others just gain confidence to pursue writing by associating with those who are pursuing the craft.”

Looking around Uganda’s writing scene today, indeed many of the most promising writers are names that have been part of Writivism in its short history. Lillian Aujo Akampurira, the 26-year-old who won the inaugural Jalada-Africa Short story Award last month, perhaps comes foremost in this regard. She underwent the Writivism mentorship programme last year, where she was paired with South African writer Barbara Mhangami, and even her Jalada-winning short story is collaboration with the mentor. But she is not alone, with names such as Hassan Higenyi and Lydia Kasese also being part of writers to have somehow been part of Writivism’s mentorship programme.

Efforts applauded
Arts critic Collins Hinamundi lauds Writivism for “trying to boost creative writing, a sector Ugandans long seemed to have given up on.” For Hinamundi, if writivism keeps on track, it could help bring about a time when Ugandan literature is very popular among Ugandans, and maybe when Ugandan writers can actually live off their work.
Perhaps acclaimed Zimbabwean writer NoViolet Bulawayo (who was a guest at last year’s Writivism Festival) best captures the commendable efforts of Writivism with her comment last year: “What I loved about the festival was their dedication to nurturing the next generation of African writers. I appreciated that, for a change, I was at a festival where I was not there primarily to talk about myself or my book, but to work, hold hands and be part of a nurturing and road-building effort.”

Writivism 2015
About the event
Date: June 17- 21.
Venue: Makerere University and National Theatre, Kampala.
Theme: “Engaging the Makerere Literary Tradition: Conversations across generations of African writers.”
Activities: Keynote addresses on the theme, panel discussions, conversations on sub-themes related to the over-arching theme, writing master classes, stage plays and book launches, announcing winner of Short Story Competition, who walks away with about Shs1,173,600 ($400) prize.

Short Story Contest Shortlist

• Being a Man by Adeola Opeyemi (Nigeria).
• Caterer, Caterer by PemiAguda (Nigeria).
• Devil’s Village by Dayo Adewunmi Ntwari (Rwanda).
• Dream by SaalehaBhamjee (South Africa).
• Social Studies by Nnedinma Jane Kalu (Nigeria).