A hub of the written word
Nigeria’s Pemi Aguda reacts after being announced winner of the short story competition for her story Caterer, Caterer!. Photo by Michael Kakumirizi
Just four years from its birth, the Writivism Festival has become one of the most prominent events on Uganda’s annual literary calendar. From the angle of international repute and the attraction of international literary figures alone, it could even be argued that Writivism has already become the country’s flagship literary event.
The fourth edition of the festival took place last week, starting on Wednesday, June 17, and rolling for five days until Sunday June 21, and perhaps it is only fair to say the festival was largely a big success.
Writivism 2015 saw more than 50 international writers converge in our own Kampala to discuss writing on the continent, specifically flashing a torch at the past, present and future.
To many, it surely must have called to mind the legendary Kampala Literature festival of 1962, which has been widely credited as having united, encouraged and strengthened the generation of writers now considered the fathers of the continent’s literary scene.
The festival was hosted at three venues: Makerere University, Maisha Gardens and Uganda National Cultural Centre, formerly National Theatre –where panel discussions, lectures, and even random informal conversations took place on the different salient issues facing the African writing scene. Master classes were also given with the intention of refining the craft of participants in editing, blogging, poetry, among others.
Tsitsi Dangarembga discussed whether Africa’s writing scene is today dominated by women, shocked many as she gave the opinion that it is the Western publishers who are making it appear so by choosing to only promote young, photogenic women writers at the expense of men and older women.
Our own Jeniffer Makumbi impressed with her take on what makes a great African novel –especially staying true to the concerns and traditions of the African people. John Nagenda discussed the place of writing in politics, while Mukoma wa Ngugi |(son of Ngugi wa Thiongo’o) campaigned for more writing in indigenous African languages.
The festival also saw the launch of two books –Harriet Anena’s poetry collection A Nation in Labour and a collection of essays from youthful Ugandan women on what it means to be a Ugandan woman today, titled Crossroads.
There was also a session of book-signing by the legion of authors at the festival, and Botswana national David Molosi thrilled with his globally-acclaimed one-man play about the experience of our own HIV/Aids hero, Philly Bongoley Lutaatya.
The festival closed with the announcing of the winner of this year’s Writivism short story competition, which was won by 25-year old Nigerian Pemi Aguda for the story, Caterer, Caterer! She took home a $400 (about Shs1.2m) prize.
