Notes Introduction 1. Yvonne Owuor received the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2003; Monica Arac de Nyeko received the same prize in 2007. Margaret Ogola and Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye were awarded the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature in 1995 and 2006, respectively. Other FEMRITE and Kwani Trust members have been shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writ- ing. For a complete list of literary awards received by FEMRITE members, see the organization’s website (<http://www.femriteug.org/?view=7/>). 2. The recent collaborations between Kenyan and Ugandan writers, and especially the contributions of Ugandan writers to the activities of Kwani Trust, revive historically earlier models, which, in the 1960s and 1970s, united East African universities, publishers, and literary magazines as part of the East African Community (Gikandi, “Introduction” 15). Of course, Gikandi and Mwangi’s encyclopedic survey of East African literature in English also emphasizes the regional character of Kenyan, Tanzanian, Ugandan, and, in this case, Somalian and Ethiopian, literatures. Given the concern of Ugandan and Kenyan women writers with historical events in Rwanda and the Congo, and especially the displacement of local popula- tions as a result of civil war and genocide, the geographical focus of my study further expands into the Great Lakes region of East-Central Africa. As I will explain in greater detail elsewhere in this introduction, the liter- ary journals of Kwani Trust and FEMRITE devote sustained attention to events in the Great Lakes region. A conference in October 2009 at the University of Witwatersrand on “Eastern African Literary and Intellec- tual Landscapes” also employed a comprehensive definition of the region when including papers on Somalia and Rwanda. As general introductions to Kenyan and Ugandan literature, see also Breitinger, Bukenya, “Intro- duction to Ugandan Literature,” and Kurtz, Urban Obsessions, Urban Fears. 3. See my discussion of language use in Kwani? as well as the FEMRITE publication Today You will Understand, which includes testimonials in English, Acholi, and Langi. 4. Beyond the scope of the current study are also the English-language publications of Tanzanian women writers as well as the fictional and 214 Notes nonfictional accounts of events in the Great Lakes region by other African women writers. The work of Elieshi Lema from Tanzania and Veronique Tadjo’s The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the Heart of Rwanda especially warrant further attention. 5. See Rutagonya. 6. As Strauhs explains in her study of new literary networks in Kenya and Uganda, the Dutch nongovernmental organization Hivos (Human- ist Institute for Development Cooperation) “strives for the long- term improvement of the circumstances of poor and marginalized peoples in Africa, Asia and Latin America and for the empower- ment of women in particular” (11). According to her research, Hivos provided FEMRITE with significant funding (34,800 to 52,700 U.S. dollars) between 1996 and April 2007. See also her forthcoming dissertation in 2011. 7. The FEMRITE executive committee consists of a chairperson, treasurer, general secretary, and two additional committee members. A coordina- tor and an accounts officer are responsible for the organization’s daily operations. During my fieldwork in Kampala in 2002, it was apparent that FEMRITE offices served as a support network for aspiring young writ- ers such as Monica Arac de Nyeko, Jackie Batanda, Beverley Nambozo, Beatrice Lamwaka, Mildred Kiconco Barya, and Glaydah Namukasa. In conversations, they frequently emphasized that their professional develop- ment had benefited from a physical space to meet and the mentorship of experienced writers. 8. Ebila 162. 9. See, for example, Bukenya’s response to Taban lo Liyong in the report on FEMRITE’s Week of Literary Activities in 2001 (Bukenya, “Bukenya’s Response to Taban”). 10. FEMRITE, 3 Dec. 2009. <http://www.femriteug.org/?view=3>. 11. See works cited for a complete list of FEMRITE publications as well as some of the major works of Kenyan and Ugandan women writers. 12. In addition to In Their Own Words, edited by Violet Barungi, see also the interviews with Monica Arac de Nyeko (31 Jul. 2007) and Hilda Rutago- nya (6 Mar. 2009) available at <http://www.ug.pulse.com/>. 13. Keshubi, “New Era is One Year Old” 5. 14. See Ebila. Some FEMRITE members (Winnie Munyarugerero, Marga- ret Ntakalimaze) are also active members of the women’s organization Acfode (Action for Development). 15. See, for example, Kabira and Wasamba, eds. 16. See, for example, Kabira; Muthoni; Masinjila; Waita; Somjee. 17. Kiguli, “Femrite and the Woman Writer’s Position in Uganda” 174; Ebila 166. For a more critical reading of Museveni’s reason for promoting gen- der parity, see Tripp, The Women’s Movement in Uganda. Notes 215 18. Kiguli, “Femrite and the Woman Writer’s Position in Uganda” 179; Kyo- muhendo, “To be an African Woman Writer” 192. See also Mugo on the silencing of the African woman writer. 19. In addition to Ebila and Kiguli, “Femrite and the Woman Writer’s Posi- tion in Uganda,” see the organization’s website. 20. The most recent initiatives, known as “Reading Tents,” took place at pri- mary schools in Kabale, Isingiro, Busia, and Mawokota. Furthermore, FEMRITE members visited secondary schools in the Western Uganda districts of Mbarara and Bushenyi in 2002 (FEMRITE, 3 Dec. 2009, <http://www.femriteug.org/?view=12>). 21. In addition to Ebila, see also FEMRITE’s strategic plan for 2009 through 2013, which emphasizes that “[a]ll programmes are especially designed to meet the needs of women writers in Uganda to enable them make a substantial contribution to national development through their writings” (FEMRITE, 3 Dec. 2009 <http://www.femriteug .org/?view=3>). 22. FEMRITE, 3 Dec. 2009 <http://www.femriteug.org/?view=22>. 23. Tindyebwa, “Is FEMRITE a Literary Activist Organisation?” 4–5. See also FEMRITE’s website: “FEMRITE continues to live up to its name and like a wildfire, is starting up a literary revolution in the country. With the support of the National Book Trust of Uganda, FEMRITE is using the culture of Reading Tents to instill the value of literature and reading, amongst children and students in various parts of the country” (FEMRITE, 2 Jan. 2010 <http://www.femriteug .org/?view=12>). 24. Kwani Trust, 22 Dec. 2009. <www.kwani.org/>. 25. See Tujane. 26. Billy Kahora, editor of Kwani? in an interview with Kristin Palitza. Kwani Trust 22, Dec. 2009 <http://www.kwani.org/main/category/ inside-kwani/kwani-in-the-media/>. 27. Quoted in Njogu, “Introduction,” Cultural Production and Social Change in Kenya 4. 28. Kahora, interview. 29. For an analysis of some of these features in Kwani? 1, see Ligaga. 30. In addition to Kahora’s and Wainaina’s editorials in Kwani? 1, 3, and 4, see also Njogu, “Introduction,” Culture, Performance and Identity ix. 31. On the literary models that have influenced Kwani? see Ligaga. 32. 24 Nairobi, 22 Dec. 2009 <http://www.24nairobi.com/>. 33. W. Mwangi, “Speaking in Images.” 34. Kiongozi is Kiswahili for “leader.” On the other Kenyan linguistic variet- ies, see Abdulaziz and Osinde. 35. See Kahora, “Editorial,” Kwani? 5.1 (2008): 10. 36. Njogu, “Introduction,” Culture, Performance and Identity ix. 37. Kahora, “Editorial,” Kwani? 5.1 (2008): 12. 38. See Kantai. 216 Notes 39. The Concerned Kenyan Writers Group was established in January 2008 in response to the postelection violence. Their reports intended to balance Western media coverage of the events and were made available to the Waki Commission, which is investigating the violence. 40. Kahora, “Editorial,” Kwani? 5.2 (2008): 9–10. 41. Wainaina, “Middle Ground” 16. 42. See Tujane’s interview with Garland (“Storymoja”) and Palitza’s inter- view with Kahora (Kwani?). 43. Barungi, Cassandra; Wangusa; Kaberuka, Silent Patience; Kyomuhendo, The First Daughter; Ogot, The Other Women, The Islands of Tears, and The Graduate; Odaga, Between the Years, Riana, and Endless Road; Ngurukie, Businessman’s Wife and Tough Choices; Ogola, The River and the Source and I Swear by Apollo; Gitau, Beyond the Cultural Barrier, Together We’ll Start a New Life, Three Instead of One, My Mother’s Confession, and Pain- ful Tears; Mbaya. 44. Kahora, “Editorial,” Kwani? 5.1 (2008): 12. 45. “Dear Kwani” 20. 46. Likimani, Passbook Number F.47927; Owuor, “Weight of Whispers”; Odaga, Secrets; Macgoye, Coming to Birth, The Present Moment, Street Life, Homing In, and A Farm Called Kishinev; Adalla; Ngurukie, I Will be Your Substitute and Soldier’s Wife. 47. Kyomuhendo, Secrets No More and Waiting; Kiguli, The African Saga; Oryema-Lalobo; Barungi, ed., Words from a Granary; Gifts of Harvest, and Farming Ashes; Today You Will Understand. 48. Genga-Idowu, Lady in Chains and My Heart on Trial; Patel; Macgoye, Chira; Njau, Ripples in the Pool and The Sacred Seed; Odaga and Shi- loli, eds., Moving to the Centre and The Survivors; Kabira, Karega, and Nzioki, eds., Our Secret Lives and They’ve Destroyed the Temple; Tagoe and Muthoni. 49. Okurut, The Invisible Weevil and The Official Wife; Keshubi, To a Young Woman; Baingana; Tindyebwa, Recipe for Disaster; Namukasa, Voice of A Dream ; Barungi, ed., Words from a Granary; Barungi and Kiguli, eds.. 50. Wainaina, “Middle Ground” 17; Kahora, interview. 51. Ogude. 52. On the emergence of gendered modernities within and across national borders, see also Felski 9. 53. Appiah 107; Gikandi, “Reason, Modernity and the African Crisis.” 54. Deutsch, Probst, and Schmidt, eds.; Knauft; Meyer and Olver; Shaka; Tomaselli; Attwell; Geschiere, Meyer, and Pels. In addition, see Bhabha, “‘Race,’ Time and the Revision of Modernity”; Gilroy; Appiah; Houn- tondji; Gyekye; Mudimbe, The Invention of Africa and The Idea of Africa; Gikandi, Maps of Englishness, “African Literature and Modernity,” and “Reason, Modernity and the African Crisis”; Wiredu. 55. Trouillot, “The Otherwise Modern.” 56.