Susan Kiguli the Woman's Voice from Africa

Uganda: Dr. Kiguli to Recite Poems at Literature Festival in Berlin
New Vision (Kampala)
Sept 14, 2008
Harriette OnyallaKampala
UGANDAN poet and writer Dr. Susan Kiguli is set to recite 12 poems at the International Literature festival in Berlin, Germany, later this month. The festival, which attracted over 34,000 literary enthusiasts in 2007, is focusing on Africa this year.
In a press statement, the event organisers, the Berliner Festspiele in conjunction with the Peter Weiss Foundation for Art and Politics, said Kiguli will recite 12 poems during three sessions of the festival which opens on September 24 and ends on October 5.
"She is regarded as one of the most interesting and promising young African poets who compose their poems in the form of oral tradition. The four sections of her African Saga, namely Poems of Protest, Relational Poems, Poems of Nature and Existential Poems perfectly illustrate the range of her themes," the statement said.
African Saga propelled Kiguli into the ranks of the most exciting recent African poets when it made literary history in Uganda by selling out in less than a year.
The collection of poems also won the National Book Trust of Uganda Poetry Award the year after its publication.
Kiguli, a lecturer at the Literature Department, Makerere University, said she will have at least 20 minutes in each session to recite poems off her African Saga collection written in 1998 and some poems from the Anthropology of poems she is soon to publish.
She told The New Vision on Wednesday that Back Home a poem which was distinguished by the Stan Journal of Leeds University, UK, is among those she will recite.
The festival will also feature Lebogang Mashile, whose approach to issues like diversity and unity in South Africa; the status of women; violence and the fragility of individuals with a sense of urgency; humour and sometimes sadness has placed her among the Rainbow Nations most popular artists.
Zimbabwean poet Chirikure Chirikure - a critic of the political elite and advocate for the disadvantaged people of Zimbabwe, will also recite a series of poems.
Kiguli and Grada Kilomba will share their experience as members of the African Feminist Movements in which Kiguli has long been known to hold strong sentiments.
Kilomba is a writer, researcher and psychologist from the West African Islands of Sao Tome e' Principe who is now teaching at the Free University of Berlin.
Because of Kiguli's literary achievements, she has been labelled a 'woman poet'.
"Why do you have to emphasise that a writer is a woman when she can ably find her place among her male counterparts," says Kiguli, who is also the chairperson of FEMRITE, Uganda Women Writers' Association.
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The festival will also include a panel discussion on African writers and their public responsibility to cause change on the continent. Kiguli has recited her poetry at international book fairs, literature festivals and
conferences.