Creative Writing as Literary Activism: Decolonial Perspectives on the Writing Workshop

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the concept of literary activism by reflecting on a co-productive creative writing project run by the University of Bristol (United Kingdom) and the Center for African Cultural Excellence (Uganda). It considers how the space of the creative writing workshop opens platforms for decolonial knowledge production.

KEYWORDS:

• literary activism
• creative writing
• Uganda
• workshops
• decoloniality
• Writivism

Notes

1 In 2020, Writivism is, for the first time in its existence, going on hiatus. An announcement can be found at https://www.facebook.com/writivism/posts/2560869300808550

2 Our use of the ‘world’ here is deliberate. Where ‘global’ might be seen as implying a form of restriction or enclosure, we, following Nancy, use ‘world’ to invoke ‘an expanding process throughout the expanse of the world of human beings’ (Nancy 2007 [2002], 28).

3 It is important to note that Writivism joins a longer history of literary activist work in Uganda, including the decades-long work of FEMRITE, the Ugandan Women Writers Association, whose projects include residencies, workshops, weekly readers’ and writers’ club meetings, published anthologies and more, as well as more recent initiatives such as Mawazo Africa Writing Institute and African Writers Trust. Historically, Uganda has been a significant site for literary activism, with the 1962 Conference of African Writers of English Expression held at Kampala’s Makerere University and Transition Magazine based in the city from its founding in 1961 through the arrest of its editor, Rajat Neogy, in 1968 on charges of sedition for what were perceived as criticism of the Obote regime published in its pages. Literary activism in Uganda of course extends beyond that work conducted in English, and Okot p’Bitek’s important writing in Acholi, including Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol, is of critical importance in understanding the development of its literary ecologies.

4 For an analysis of Writivism’s shifts over time to its current formation, see Nangobi Mirembe (forthcoming).

5 Regular opportunities for writers which currently exist on the African continent include Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus writing workshop, regular workshops run by organisations such as Writivism and the Uganda Women Writers Association (FEMRITE), the Mawazo Africa Writing Institute Workshop, workshops run by the African Writers Trust and more. One-off workshops by organisations like Kwani?, Jalada, and Saseni! are also features of the wider literary space. As noted above, the majority of these offer opportunities for established writers to hone their craft, rather than focus on writers without prior experience. Further opportunities for writing training can be found in the university and secondary school spaces, where literature clubs remain an important aspect of extra-curricular activity.

6 For further discussions of literary activism see Krishnan and Wallis (forthcoming) and Krishnan (2018).

7 The term ‘introverted’ is being used here, following Bwesigye Bwa Mwesigire, as a deliberate play on the ‘extroverted African novel’ of dominant critical discourse. We would further argue following the work of spatial theorists such as Massey (2005) that the local and the global, as scales or sites of lived experience, remain intimately and intricately intertwined such that these distinctions are perhaps less useful than they might appear, as we discuss below.

8 Coetzee (2018) has provided a powerful critique of the ethical imperative to break out of the ‘air conditioned’ room as part of our practice as academics and editors. See Carli Coetzee, “Unsettling the Air-conditioned Room: Journal Work as Ethical Labour”, Journal of the African Literature Association, 12.2 (2018), 101–115. Notable responses to this piece have appeared in the African literature blog, Africa in Words. See Fasan (2020) and Bwa Mwesigire (2020).

9 Kahora’s conception of the workshop as a pedagogical and practiced space echoes Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s own reflections on his entry into the community of creative writing during his university years at Makerere, particularly through his involvement with the student literary magazine, Penpoints, and the June 1962 Conference of African Writers of English Expression held at the university. See Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (2016, 128–9).

10 It is worth noting that this participant was one of the individuals who did not complete the mentorship phase of the project.

11 One participant, Kakinda Maria Birungi, went on to be longlisted for the 2018 Writivism Short Story Prize for her subsequent work.

12 The ‘catastrophic’ rhetoric that often accompanies discussions of the African continent in the press and media has been well documented. See, for instance, Krishnan (2014, 7–10).

13 A full discussion of the conflict in Northern Uganda is beyond the scope of this piece. Interested readers may wish to refer to Reid (2017, 53–99).

14 A full discussion of the exhilarating activist work pursued by Nyanzi and others is beyond the scope of this paper. For a fuller account see Eltahawy (2019, 59–67).