I’m 
... on I think people don’t like it when I turn their comments into posts, but I fear that comments get lost in the tiny itty bitty little bottom section of the post as I keep blogging, so this comment by Baz gets its own post. It’s in response to my article Ugandan Women Writers Shine But Where Are the Men? Hope you don’t mind Baz.
Your article started off suspicious. You said my friend Monica was “the first Ugandan to receive such prestigious international literary recognition of late”. But just a couple of years ago Doreen Baingana received a Commonwealth prize. Your article therefore started off sounding as if you either did not really know your material, or were willing to shoehorn facts into spaces they didn’t fit just so that you can make your agenda.
I hold by my statement. The Caine prize is a MUCH bigger deal than the Commonwealth Prize. Also, it was some years ago that Baingana won the award, so this is factually true, in my opinion, on two accounts.
After reading the article, I am still not sure which of the two it is. Are you ignorant, or unscrupulous?
I’d like to think I’m neither. And I’m sorry my article made you so angry, but is name calling really necessary?
Because you seem to be working hard to make the word “writers” exclude men.
Jackee (isn’t that how she spells her name?) speaks of Ugandan stories that need telling, and mentions Uganda’s literary voice. How do you make this sound as if this quote excludes all the guys who she used to write with here before she left Kampala?
I don’t believe that that is what she said, because she was right here with us – men and women – all writing, a voice in unison, without discrimination.
I don’t make it sound as if Jackee (and yes, I did get the ee’s wrong – I admit when I’m wrong) said that she’s excluding men. QUOTE JACKEE: (not in the article, in my notes), “Men aren’t writing.”
“For once the women are at the head of the pack and the men are limping behind” is a patently ludicrous statement. It implies that for a long time all the piles of books that were written in Uganda were authored by men, and that even though women tried to break into this strict and rigid club, they were not been permitted to. Perhaps by institutionalised sexism.This is just not true. Uganda has never been a literary powerhouse, male-dominated or otherwise. And don’t cite the Okot P’Bitek days. The authors from those days can be counted off one hand. That doesn’t count as a pack.
Okay, but the authors you counted on the one hand – which would probably be a pack in that they probably worked together and knew each other – were all men.
If we have a rising number of Ugandans writing literary fiction today, it is not a renaissance. It is a beginning. This is not an old pack changing leadership. It is a new pack.
Agree with you there.
And it is not even an all-female pack. Who told you that women are the only ones writing? Ejiet? Ejiet is talking through his ass. There are scores and scores of young male writers who spend whole nights at keyboards if they can, and, if they can’t, they stay awake scratching on notebooks with ballpens. These men are as sincere, keen and driven as Ms Batanda and Ms Arac De Nyeko (Not “Ms Arac” by the way) ever were. I know this because I know them.
Okay, maybe they are writing, but they aren’t winning prizes, they aren’t getting international recognition, they aren’t up there the way the women are – they aren’t even getting published. (Which leads us to your next point…)
The reason you have not heard of them is probably because they have not been published by Femrite. The reason they have not been published by Femrite is they are not women.But what other avenues do they have? Fountain? Fountain is a business, not a charity. It doesn’t get grants to publish books that don’t have a market. You spoke to Alex, and he told you.
You have more published literary work by women because the people who publish literary work publish women, not because men don’t write. You can draw out the logic and see: Femrite doesn’t prove your argument, it destroys it.
So, to be more correct, maybe I should have said, the men are writing, but they aren’t getting the acclaim that women are getting because Fountain isn’t publishing them and Femrite isn’t pushing them. But then it would certainly have sounded like a Femrite puff piece, wouldn’t have it?
Femrite, bless them, are just trying to do what they think is right. It is their company and they can publish who they want. And reject whichever gender they don’t want. But for all the stuff they have published (some of it good, some of it crap) the fact remains that every Ugandan author who has achieved significant recognition over the past several years has published outside Uganda.
Baingana and Moses Isegawa are the best examples, Arac De Nyeko also illustrates this.
But even if you use international literary recognition” as the measure of whether one gender is writing or not, you still have a problem: Over the past few years we have had our Baingana and our De Nyeko. But you also have Moses Isegawa
Yes, you have Isegawa, but he doesn’t even live in or venture to Uganda. And he’s one Ugandan male author, and Baingana and De Nyeko are two women. So two against one. And there are other women too – Goretti is published outside Uganda, but I can’t think of another man…
Everyone keeps picking up on the one quote by Ejiet, but there was a whole damn article I wrote that no one seems to pay that much attention to the rest of. I’m sorry Ejiet said the thing about politics, bars, and money, and I’m even more sorry Monitor used it as a pull quote, but I wonder if there’s some truth in it.
Okay, that’s enough for now.
***PS: I wrote a longer version of this article which Monitor cut, but I’m submitting it to Poets and Writers Magazine in the States (so I can’t post it here until I hear back from them) which does mention Isegawa.
Iwaya says:
Let me get this right…Moses Isegawa who was on best sellar lists all over the world is small deal compared to Monica Arac de Nyeko? And for your information, Isegawa often is in Uganda, he comes in quietly but he often visits the country. if you must insist ugandan writers in uganda…neither is Miss de Nyeko based in Uganda.
And how come Moses Ocwino is not mentioned if you must insist we name check male writers against the number of women writers?
And Mahmood Mamdani? Does he not count? He is active, and in the country alot.
The Caine Prize is a much bigger deal than the Commonswealth Prize, really? I do not believe that. Google for your facts. It is too laughable to even begin arguing over this one.
Doreen won her prize in 2004, that is a long time ago? Neither is she always in the country but you can certainly read her work every month in the African Woman so do not even suggest that she is forgotten in Uganda.
About the older authors and their supposed packs…why do you forget to mention the women who published at the same time with the men, worked with the men? women like rose mbowa, barbara kimenye who is still writing? just the tip of the iceberg and you suggest that women have only begun to write now in Uganda? Miss, you do not know your ugandan literary history!
and while you are at trumpheting the supposed success of women in recent publishing history…what is the quality of the work you are touting? Do any of the recent publications even begin to compare to Austin Bukenya’s The People’s Bachelor? Oh, you have never heard of him either? why are we even arguing then?!
[Reply]
— August 10, 2007 @ 9:09 am
Iwaya says:
**Julius** not Moses.
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— August 10, 2007 @ 9:14 am
Iwaya says:
Julius Ocwino, Fate of the Banished, look up that title.
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— August 10, 2007 @ 9:21 am
Iwaya says:
In regard to Ejiet’s comment, did you even for a moment stop to consider it’s true implications? Did it occur to you that yes while many talented men who are writers are often consumed with chasing the buck, they do so because they are the heads of their families? They have responsibilities they will not abandon, cannot abandon and that while they may not get immediate recognition, are perhaps struggling against as great odds as the women? Did you even bother to ask Mr. Ejiet for a copy of his short stories that was recently published? Did you ask him why he had to wait over 20 years to be able to publish that copy and whether he had to use his own money? Or at least sink some of it in it?
Will you acknowledge for example that the fact of the matter is that in the literary world, a woman’s work is more easily welcomed than a man’s? That women esp in Uganda are considered a persecuted group and foreign publishing houses are more open to their entries, never mind the quality, than men’s work?
Writers in Uganda are working against greater odds than you can ever imagine. Your kind of inflamatory pieces that try to create breaches in a fragile community do not help in the least.
[Reply]
— August 10, 2007 @ 9:37 am
The 27th Comrade says:
Just imagine for a moment that it was guys getting the praise, and not the women.
)
No, just saying. I have no horse in this here race. But I also don’t think Baz was name-calling. Those are … intentions/states about which he is asking, from the way I see it.
Plus, I thought we had dealt that you would tell Dave to write something … :-\
[Reply]
— August 10, 2007 @ 11:03 pm
cb says:
I read Glenna’s article and it left me with a lopsided smile. First, I found it ironical that Ejiet could trash Ugandan male authors (yet he plays in the same league) the way he did. Secondly, I got this prickly feeling that Glenna was writing mainly for a foreign audience yet as a ‘Daily Monitor’ reporter she owes her allegiance to local readers first. I say this because it is clear in her writing that she concentrated her energies on a few female Ugandan writers who have pocketed a little recognition on the international field. Even then, she omitted really important material. For example she said nothing about the British Council programs that have for years been nurturing writing talent here. Talk for instance of the radio phonics program on Radio Sanyu months back which brought to our ears some of the best short stories ever written by Ugandan authors, who, as would like to know where dominated by male writers. We had respected writers and journalists such as Prof. Timothy Wangusa, Joachim Buwembo, Lilliane Barenzi, Ernest Bazanye join host Ben Mwine and the authors in the Sanyu Fm studios to critic those short stories. Some of them, I have heard, have been published. How about the beyond borders festival for writers? Does Glenna know that that program motivated so many Ugandan authors to write, including our own David Tumusiime who’s only waiting to get a sponsor before his short stories rock the global market? How about Ernest Bazanye’s ‘Worst Idea’ book and from the ‘Bad Idea’ column which is popular nationally?
I’m in an internet café and have to run for now. But I, certainly will be back!
[Reply]
— August 11, 2007 @ 9:33 am
ruypster says:
Nothing to declare… just saying hello from Spain!
ruypster – Blog
Là où je passe, je laisse ma trace.
[Reply]
— August 12, 2007 @ 12:07 pm
Baz says:
So we agree. Uganda’s writing isn’t being dominated by any one gender. Men and women are writing together. One group has a harder time getting published.
[Reply]
— August 13, 2007 @ 3:37 am
dave says:
At the risk of seeming…I don’t know, partisan, perhaps…I’d like to merely note that the article in question was probably intended neither as a recapitulation of Uganda’s literary history nor as a catalogue of any and all Ugandan writers worthy of attention or who have received such in the form of awards, sales, or whatever other criteria are considered significant.
People sometimes say things which contain truth but do not tell the whole story, so to speak, and it is a reporter’s job to accurately reproduce the thoughts and opinions of whoever they speak to for their stories, insofar as those sentiments are relevant. Sometimes the capacity of the whole story to be told is inhibited by considerations of space and time, like so many other worthwhile endeavors (e.g., convenient and reliable interstellar travel).
[Reply]
— August 13, 2007 @ 4:20 am
Iwaya says:
Dave,
did you read the article? The title itself screams, “Ugandan women writers shine, but where are the men?” what does that title say to you? that there no ugandan male writers so to speak, or at least are so obscure and perhaps no good.
In her intro…Lion goes ahead to say…”My article from yesterday’s Daily Monitor, about a nice trend (for once!).” Oh yes, that old crook of shit again…no good news to report from Uganda…blah, blah, you know the rest of the cliches.
In her first paragraph she says Monica Arac de Nyeko…”she was the first Ugandan to receive such prestigious international literary recognition of late.” Doreen’s 2004 Commonwealth prize does not matter. Lion went on to argue that the commonwealth does not matter as much as the Caine prize. are you trying to tell me that she could not even include that little truth?
I could go on all day in regard to how misleading this article was. But it seems to me you have not really read it.
As for constraints of space and what-not, i will reveal that a good journalist will prioritize what must make it into the article before she/he begins, and Lion did not it seem consider doing her research that would have saved her from writing such a lop-sided article. I think it was just a pitch she used to sell the idea to the editor, and she was flat out lying and being superficial. Time she faced up to that.
[Reply]
— August 13, 2007 @ 5:23 am
Anonymous says:
The bottom line is that Uganda should be proud of having produced good writers. Gender is irrelevant and what counts is the excellence in writing – both content and style. The following should be added to the list of outstanding Ugandan writers with an international appeal: Milton Allimadi, Okello Oculi, Robert Bwire and Jameela Siddiqi. There works are phenomenonal.
[Reply]
— August 24, 2007 @ 10:51 am
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— June 18, 2009 @ 5:53 pm