Poets From Uganda

"As a feminist I understand the necessity and beauty of women’s struggle for autonomy and choice, and the need to transform society for the benefit of all people. And I am re-born as a feminist every time I see a woman or girl resist social limitations and master the art of spreading her wings."

"It is because of this reality that for every Amílcar Cabral and Thomas Sankara, you also have a Freedom Nyamubaya. There have always been women who have really shaped ideology and who were also brave in shaping their praxis. It is really about patriarchal memory."

"I also think about how important it is for people who have children and are around children for us to expand on our radical politics with our children because that is what framed us. If we want that legacy of radical politics to continue, it is really vital that we keep working on it with the next generation. It is important if we are going to build this movement. We have to start with the babies"

"It is interesting because African women are at the heart of radical movement building, particularly African feminists who have been core allies in all the struggles that shaped the past couple of decades. African women were central to liberation movements but it is about who writes those histories and who is interested in those stories. Some African women were spectacularly erased because they were vocal and public. There is erasure because of neoliberalism and economic status because women are the most marginalized in these structures. African women are actually the majority food producers of the continent but it is in smallholder farming and it is not protected. The reason why African women are not centered is because of patriarchy and it is a preference for thinking or presuming that men are the shapers of history. When things are documented, they are not documented in the way that tells that story. I spent a lot of time in African feminist space trying to uncover those histories. I have been quite obsessed in regards to documentation and getting those names out there."

"There is also language. So much happens in English. I think we need to put more intention in language and support translation and engaging each other and reaching out across the language divide. I do understand that sometimes one’s local struggles are so big that it prevents one from being able to reach out beyond one’s local space. However, I also think it is inspiring to get a sense of how different people have done different things. Heritage-wise, we come from so many different places and we have migrated from so many different areas. It is important we learn from each other across the oceans of Black existence. We are linked"

"Some of the things we see now that are a part of the methodology of feminist care, African women were already doing. They also imagined care in ways that were accessible because a lot of well-being discourse is really elite and it requires access to services that most people don’t have or cannot afford. It is important to look at those models of collective care, which are really about community and tapping into resources that are available to us"

"We came to the realization that what traumatizes us is not an individual experience of exposure to one violent act: it is living in environments that deny you your basic dignity."

"A radical approach is a willingness to stay learning because you really have to be humble. You really have to commit to going to the root. You also have to stand up and be counted when it matters"

"The pumpkin in the old homestead. Must not be uprooted."

"I don't know how to dance the rumba or samba, as my mother taught me the traditional dances of the Acoli people. I haven't learned the dances of the white people. I won't deceive you; you once saw me participate in the Orak dance, the dance for youths, the dance of our people."

"When the drums beat, and the black youths kick up dust, they dance with energy and vigor. They dance with a healthy spirit, naughtily with pride, and full of life. It's a dance filled with competition, provocation, and challenges, showcasing their youthful exuberance and cultural pride."

"Each man, though not necessarily with his wife, dances inside a dark house. They shamelessly hold each other tightly, so tightly that it feels as if they can barely breathe."

"You kiss her on the cheek, as white people do. You kiss her lips, even if they have open sores, as white people do. You exchange slimy saliva from each other's mouths, just like white people do."

"My husband says he no longer desires a woman with a gap in her teeth. He has fallen in love with a woman whose teeth completely fill her mouth, like those of war captives and slaves."

"He says that I look extremely ugly when I am fully adorned for the dance, and that I make his bed-sheets dirty and his bed smelly."

"I am proud of the hair with which I was born and as no white woman wishes to do her hair like mine, because she is proud of the hair with which she was born."

"When the beautiful one with whom I share my husband returns from cooking her hair, she resembles a chicken that has fallen into a pond; her hair looks like the python's discarded skin."

"I have no wish. To look like a white woman."

"He says Black people are primitive. And their ways are utterly harmful. Their dances are mortal sins. They are ignorant, poor and diseased!"

"Ocol says black people's foods are primitive, but what is backward about them? He says black people's foods are dirty: he means, some clumsy and dirty black women prepare food clumsily and put them in dirty containers"

"Look, straight before you is the central pole, that shiny stool... At the foot of the pole is my father's revered stool. Further on, the rows of pots placed one on top of the other are stores and cupboards. Millet flour, dried carcasses of various animals, beans, peas, fish, dried cucumber..."

"I really hate the charcoal stove! Your hand is always charcoal-dirty and anything you touch is blackened; and your finger nails resemble those of a poison woman."

"I am terribly afraid of the electric stove, I do not like using it because you stand up when you cook."

"The electric fire kills people: they say it is lightning..."

"I do not know how to cook like white women; I do not enjoy white men's foods; and how they eat, how could I know? And why should I know it?"

"I do not complain that you eat white men's foods. If you enjoy them, go ahead. Shall we just agree to have freedom to eat what one likes?"

"I confess, I do not deny! I do not know how to cook like a white woman."

"In the wisdom of the Acoli, time is not stupidly split up into seconds and minutes. It does not flow like beer in a pot that is sucked until it is finished."

"Ocol, in his arrogance, does not know how to welcome visitors. When they appear at his door, he tries to get rid of them quickly with the question: 'What can I do for you?"

"No leopard would change into a hyena, and the crested crane would hate to be changed into the bold-headed. Dung-eating vulture, The long-necked and graceful giraffe. Cannot become a monkey. Let no one. Uproot the pumkin."

"My husband abuses me together with my parents. He says terrible things about my mother. And I am so ashamed! ..."

"Ocol is no longer in love with; The old type; He is in love with a modern girl; The name of the beautiful one; Is Clementine; Brother, when you see Clementine! The beautiful one aspires; To look like a white woman; Her lips are red-hot; Like glowing charcoal; She resembles the wild cat; That has dipped its mouth in blood; Her mouth is like raw yaws; Tina dusts powder on her face; And it looks so pale ;..."

"The smell of carbolic soap; Makes me sick; And the smell of powder; Provokes the ghosts in my head; It is then necessary to fetch a goat; From my mother's brother; The sacrifice over; The ghost -dance drum must sound; The ghost be laid; And my peace restored."

"Perhaps she has aborted many children, or maybe she has even thrown her twins into the pit latrine!"

"Forgive me, brother, for I am not insulting the woman with whom I share my husband. Do not think that my words are sharpened by jealousy. It is the sight of Tina that stirs sympathy in my heart."

"I admit that I am a little jealous; there's no use denying it, as we all suffer from jealousy at times. It sneaks up on you like ghosts bringing fevers and surprises you like earth tremors. However, when you see the beautiful woman with whom I share my husband, you can't help but feel a little pity for her."

"I may not fully understand the ways of foreigners, but I do not despise their customs."