Ugandan History
Uganda has seen one of the most protracted internal conflicts in post-independence Africa.
Political turmoil characterized the country in the late 1960s and 1970s. Some writers spoke out against President Idi Amin Dada, but many fled the country. Uganda, in particular, and East Africa, in general, were behind the literary production of North, West, Central, and South Africa. |
The first literary output was in Penpoint, a journal produced by the English Department at Makerere University College.
The poem “Song of Lawino” by Okot p’Bitek was a turning point. It launched anglophone Ugandan literature to a receptive worldwide readership. In part, it called Ugandans to find the beauty within their culture instead of echoing European values. Unfortunately, nowhere in the poem do we hear Lawino articulate her sense of self.
Women weren’t on the scene when the literary traditions were being made, mostly because there were very few educated women during this time period. Many were not allowed in the public sphere. They were kept in the traditional enclaves that allowed them to be priestesses or oral performers.
From 1962 to the 1970s, the years immediately following Uganda’s independence from Britain, Uganda was regarded as the literary pride of Africa.
Women are 51% of Uganda’s population but when it comes to publishing, it is a different story. 30 out of the 150 published writers are women. The illiteracy rate in Africa is much higher for woman than men.
Whispers from Vera provides a portrait of life in Uganda during the turn of the century (1999-2000). It is set in the city.
The date the novel is set is the early 2000s: “This kind of tyrannical parenting cannot be entertained in the 2000s” (11);
“there is a big party at Eric’s office on the eve of the millennium” (55); “The new millennium seems to have the magic to make things happen” (58). Also references to cell phones helps date the work.
The poem “Song of Lawino” by Okot p’Bitek was a turning point. It launched anglophone Ugandan literature to a receptive worldwide readership. In part, it called Ugandans to find the beauty within their culture instead of echoing European values. Unfortunately, nowhere in the poem do we hear Lawino articulate her sense of self.
Women weren’t on the scene when the literary traditions were being made, mostly because there were very few educated women during this time period. Many were not allowed in the public sphere. They were kept in the traditional enclaves that allowed them to be priestesses or oral performers.
From 1962 to the 1970s, the years immediately following Uganda’s independence from Britain, Uganda was regarded as the literary pride of Africa.
Women are 51% of Uganda’s population but when it comes to publishing, it is a different story. 30 out of the 150 published writers are women. The illiteracy rate in Africa is much higher for woman than men.
Whispers from Vera provides a portrait of life in Uganda during the turn of the century (1999-2000). It is set in the city.
The date the novel is set is the early 2000s: “This kind of tyrannical parenting cannot be entertained in the 2000s” (11);
“there is a big party at Eric’s office on the eve of the millennium” (55); “The new millennium seems to have the magic to make things happen” (58). Also references to cell phones helps date the work.
1894
1945 1962 1966 1971 1979 1986 1996 2002 |
Uganda is colonized by the British By 1945, many Ugandan women protest the education they receive, which is steeped in domesticity Uganda gains independence from the British Civil War begins in Uganda Political strain with the ruling group in Uganda explodes with President Milton Obote ousted by Idi Amin, his army chief of staff. Amin’s regime, which was generally hostile to women’s rights, as well as the regimes that followed, failed to resolve Uganda’s political and economic problems, instead exacerbating conflicts as different political cliques vied for power. The impact of these conflicts was felt outside of Uganda, as hundreds of thousands of women and men took refuge in others countries of the region. Tanzanian forces join with Ugandan exiles overthrowing Amin and reinstalling Obote Another coup installed Uganda’s current president, Yoweir Museveni, ushering in a new and brutal period of civil war in the northern provinces of Uganda. Resistance against the Museveni government in the north was greatly influenced by a woman named Alice Auma, often called Alice Lakwena because, as a spirit medium, she was believed to be representing the spirit Lakwena. During the 1980s, she employed her spiritual and ritual resources to mobilize one of the most enduring and controversial resistance movements in the post-independence period. The fighting continued even more viciously after Auma went into exile and a new leadership emerged in the form of the Lord’s Resistance Army, led by Joseph Kony, who also proclaimed himself a spirit medium. Only 5% of women own land in Uganda Whispers from Vera is published |