Mexico, 2013: Mexico City, a Metropolis of Exile

Norma López Suárez’ War Stories So we’ve taken the plane back to Mexico City. As the plane descends – this time in daylight –, it makes it through this brownish-yellowish-orangey dome of smog that extends over the city. In the distance, the mountains; one of them is the Popocatepetl which supposedly has the shape of… Continue reading Mexico, 2013: Mexico City, a Metropolis of Exile

Reading Uganda

This is the last day of the ‘Reading Uganda’ festival and starts with a free day. I visit some old haunts, walking all the way from Makerere to the National Theatre via the Ban Café and the Masala Chaat resturant on Dewington Road. It’s pretty hot with a clear sky and the city is incredibly… Continue reading Reading Uganda

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Reading Uganda

The day starts with a power cut on Makerere campus. Then into the museum with Hilda to set up the poetry workshop – 20 students, most of them also attending the Tuesday session. The atmosphere is much more relaxed this time and we work through a range of individual and collaborative exercises exploring metaphor, image… Continue reading Reading Uganda

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Reading Uganda

Today I attend a debate on the presence of Ugandan Literature in the secondary school curriculum (they still have the old ‘O’ and ‘A’ level system here). A spokesperson for the National Curriculum Development Council delivered a spirited defense of the current policy, where very few Ugandan writers are featured. She cites a number of… Continue reading Reading Uganda

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Reading Uganda

Hilda picks me up at 8.00am and takes me through the manic Wandegaya traffic to the Museum of Uganda on Kiira road – a dim hangar-like space, though there are cotton tablecloths on the solid mahogany tables. It’s a slow start to my prose workshop, starting with a shy group of 16 that slowly swells… Continue reading Reading Uganda

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Reading Uganda

I rise at five-thirty, try some fruit juice and get the airport shuttle. Men in spotless white headdresses and robes guide us into the airport. The flight to Entebbe is on time and after touching down in Addis, we’re flying over the khaki uplands of Kenya and then the deeper more luscious green of Uganda.… Continue reading Reading Uganda

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Reading Uganda

I set out late afternoon as they were baling hay in meadows along the Lune Valley, a beautiful day with hot sunshine and Ugandan clouds pushed up by thermals into fantastically billowing horizons. A buzzard appears over the motorway, wings and tail fanned in an almost perfect circle of lit plumage. Then the airport and… Continue reading Reading Uganda

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