‘I have no regrets for embracing literature’

BY ARTHUR GAKWANDI
 
I am deeply touched and feel highly privileged to see such an impressive gathering in honour of Austin [Bukenya] and myself in recognition of our service to Makerere University. As one withdraws from public service and years roll by there is always a risk of being entirely forgotten. So it is very gratifying and indeed reassuring to discover that your younger colleagues keep you in their memory and appreciate what you contributed to their lives. For this reason I salute the leadership of the Department of Literature and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences for this initiative. 

I often read in the Uganda media about people fighting for jobs and undermining each other in fierce competition for positions. But I am proud to report that we never had any such rivalry or antagonism in the Department. We took turns at leading the Department and handed over gracefully to another colleague every time it was time for change. I myself headed the Department three times and, at the end of my tenure, I was relieved to hand over the burdens of administration to another colleague so that I could go back to focus on my calling, which was teaching and writing. I happened to have left the Department three times to go into exile and to work in the diplomatic service, but when I chose to come back I found the doors open and was able to stay until my time for retirement came. 

Forefathers
I salute the leadership of the Literature Department and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences for taking this initiative to honour past contributions to the Faculty. It’s a pity that we, past leaders, never did the same to those who came before us. But we can hide behind the excuse that our situation was much more difficult in terms of resources.

Let me use this opportunity to smuggle in a few words to recognise their contribution. I would single out the late Prof David Cook who led the effort to transform the English Department into a broader discipline that would encompass literary studies from a wide range of cultures. It was through his initiative that I and Laban Erapu were admitted to Edinburgh University where we encountered African Literature for the first time. Our undergraduate studies were exclusively centred on English Literature. I also salute the late Ms Margaret McPherson who, during the ‘70s and ‘80s, kept the candle burning by circumventing the challenges of shortages when there were no books in the bookshops and no new books in the libraries. She set up a project of cutting stencils of all the essential books and cyclostyling them and sharing them among staff and students. It was a very difficult time and what we were doing was an illegal violation of authors’ copyright, but we agreed that this was a case where the end justifies the means.

Role of literature
Unfortunately, time is limited and I can only say a few words about my personal preoccupations after arriving on the eighth floor. The question that bothers me most is whether we are making progress as a country and whether Literature has a role to play in our struggle to create a better life for our citizens. Literature is about human relationships and it inculcates moral values with suggestive subtlety. The myths, the legends, the folk songs and proverbs of a community instruct the community about proper behaviour and social responsibility.

Because society changes constantly the literary models evolve in order to accommodate these changes. During the European Renaissance European artists evolved more elaborate and more sophisticated ways of imparting these values. That’s how novels and theatrical plays evolved. They were not entirely new inventions; a lot was borrowed from the Greeks and the Romans. That shows that many of these values are universal because all human beings have something they share because we are all sojourners on the same terrestrial sphere.

However, the Western Europeans decided to refer to this period of energised creativity as Renaissance, meaning re-birth, so that they would not be forced to admit that they were really utilising other people’s models. They chose to refer to them as their own lost models. Even the religion that they embraced, namely Christianity, was imported from outside Europe, although for centuries they have claimed it as a centrepiece of Western Civilisation.

During the 20th century these literary models were imported to Africa and we have embraced them as a way of enriching our artistic creativity. The best African writers ingeniously found ways of modifying them to accommodate the social interactions of their society. Okot p’Bitek’s “Song of Lawino” is one of those successful creative inventions, as is Jennifer Makumbi’s successful adaptation of the epic model in her novel, “Kintu.” Limitations of time compel me to limit my reference to just those two.

Uniqueness of literature 
The unique power of literature is to enable readers to enter the lives of other people in order to experience their pain, their pleasures, their ambitions, their greed, their fantasies. No other discipline can do that. History can tell you how many people died in the second world war, who were the principal actors and their role in determining the outcome of the war.

Science can tell you the role that technology played in bringing victory to one side and economists can evaluate the impact of the war on the economies of the countries that got involved, and even in the geopolitical economic equation. But none of these can convey the personal anguish of the people who were caught up in the various localities during various phases of the war.

But a novelist can capture the impact on the social and emotional life of individuals and families who were caught in the battle fields and refugee camps and a playwright can project this agony on a theatre stage to be felt by the audience. And when you get emotionally connected to people you stop regarding them as statistics. So it is important to make literature an essential element in our education system and to promote literature as a lifelong source of pleasure that has the ability to connect us.

Need for new models
In our traditional cultures we listened to stories that centred on characters who embodied the qualities of courage, honesty, kindness and generosity as well as characters who embodied the qualities of greed, ambition, selfishness and cruelty. This helped citizens to understand their social responsibility and the consequences of treating these responsibilities with indifference or scorn.
Modern society needs new literary models that can fulfil this role. That is the challenge that writers and teachers of literature need to step up to. I think this is an important role that should be accommodated and promoted in our education system. How does Literature come in all this?
I have no regrets that I spent so many years of my life promoting the values of Literature.

The author is a professor of literature. This is an abridged version of the speech he made during the April 5 celebration lecture at Makerere University