Woman Writing Nation:
Uganda, FEMRITE, and "Holding on to the Memories"

Kathryn Tobin

Literature in contemporary Uganda, particularly of the past fifteen years, has been invigorated by and primarily made up of the productions and publications of FEMRITE, the Uganda Women Writers' Association. FEMRITE's writer-members, the most prolific and important literary figures of present-day Uganda, have presided over a vital and revolutionary rebirthing of Ugandan literature. Through their writing and publishing, this Kampala-based collective has promoted and achieved its mission of creating and redefining Ugandan literature. Simultaneously, the organization has addressed and redressed the historic absence of women from literary production by prioritizing women as writers, advocating and supporting a reading culture, and continually emphasizing a national setting and focus.

FEMRITE's literature, reflecting and progressing toward these goals, articulates multiple objectives of women's social and political participation, independence, education, and professional achievement. The authors' portrayals of the nation represent Uganda as both male and female, Southern and Northern,[1] and home to stories not only of conflict, poverty, violence, and AIDS but also of love, family, friendship, and peace. Through this inclusive literary characterization of Uganda, FEMRITE pioneers the reformulation of both the gender dimensions and the national parameters of Ugandan identity.

Jackee Budesta Batanda's "Holding on to the Memories" exemplifies the achievements of FEMRITE in spearheading Ugandan literary production and redefining the national imaginary. This short story also serves as a brilliant example of the commitment and skill that have won Batanda numerous awards.[2] Her increasing international acclaim (and that of her FEMRITE colleagues) points to conversations within a broader context of literatures of Africa and the African diaspora, with this particular story helping to usher in Uganda's participation in this global forum.

An insightful and profound illustration of the effects of political violence, "Holding on to the Memories" centers on Naboro, a fiercely independent young woman of contemporary Kampala who struggles to reconcile the release of her father from prison. Implicitly highlighting the terror and confusion of the government of dictator General Idi Amin (1971-1979), Batanda's story addresses corruption, state-sanctioned terror, and political imprisonment, while maintaining an understated and individual lens. She indicates, through the fictional family of Zahara, Nasser, and Naboro, the subtle and emotional effects of Amin's extravagant and violent dictatorship, and the ongoing struggles of everyday Ugandans to understand and process this difficult history.

While continually emphasizing Naboro's personal experience, Batanda places her narrative in a frame both Ugandan and African. She juxtaposes matter-of-fact reference to political corruption in Uganda against an insightful and tangible depiction of a family intrinsically affected by it, explicitly relating Naboro's story to national and global concerns of community and collective memory. Batanda begins her story with an account of Nelson Mandela's procession through Kampala: "[W]e were lined along the streets under the bottlebrush trees along the International Conference Centre, like bouquets on display, to welcome him." This initial moment of collective pride and anticipation shifts abruptly with the return of Naboro's father. Unable to welcome Nasser with the celebration given to Mandela, Naboro must come to terms with his participation in Amin's repressive regime, with her own sense of sharing in his guilt, and with the realities of post-Amin Uganda. After initially rebelling against her father's presence, Naboro refigures her identity in relation to her family, her community, and her country.

Like her colleagues and contemporaries among the new wave of writers in Uganda and beyond, Batanda inscribes into collective consciousness essential issues of identity, self-assertion, familial relationships, and reconciliation with an uncomfortable and difficult past. Like Naboro, Batanda carves out a personal and shared space, holding on to memories through her protagonist and her writing itself.

Endnotes

1. Due to a history of conflict and imbalance that predates Uganda's independence, a split between North and South exists in terms of politics, relative levels of infrastructure and development, and identity. See Uganda Rising (2006) or Lomo and Hovil (2004). [Return to text]

2. Batanda's short story "Dance with Me" won the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association Short Story Competition, Africa Region; some of her other stories have been shortlisted for the MacMillan Writers Prize for Africa and highly commended for the Caine Prize. [Return to text]

Bibliography/Further Reading

Barungi, Violet, ed. Gifts of Harvest. Kampala: FEMRITE Publications, 2006.

Boehmer, Elleke. Stories of Women: Gender and Narrative in the Postcolonial Nation. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2005.

FEMRITE. 2006. Uganda Women Writers' Association. www.femriteug.org.

Lihamba, Amandina, Fulata L. Moyo, M.M. Mukolozi, Naomi L. Shitemi, and Saida Yahya-Othman, eds. Women Writing Africa: The Eastern Region. New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2007.

Lomo, Zachary, and Lucy Hovil. Behind the Violence: The War in Northern Uganda. ISS Monogram Series No. 9. Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies, 2004.

Mamdani, Mahmood. Imperialism and Fascism in Uganda. Trenton: Africa World Press, 1984.

Mutibwa, Phares. Uganda Since Independence: A Story of Unfulfilled Hopes. Kampala: Fountain Publishers, and London: C. Hurst & Co., 1992.

Ofcansky, Thomas P. Uganda: Tarnished Pearl of Africa. Boulder: Westview Press, 1996.

Uganda Rising. Dir. Pete McCormack, Jesse James Miller. Mindset Media, 2006.