Female writers in Uganda face plenty of challenges in bid to break glass ceiling

The Uganda Women Writers’ Association, commonly known as Femrite, last  year celebrated 20 years of creative writing amid a host of bottlenecks like a poor reading culture, low literacy rates, low purchasing power, lack of funding, an industry skewed towards the text book and pamphlet market, and challenges that come with juggling motherhood, writing and other careers.

According to Femrite’s executive director, Hilda Twongyeirwe, the major challenge that the Ugandan publishing industry faces is a poor book reading culture.

“Not many people invest in books,” says Ms Twongyeirwe. “You can actually count people off the hand who buy books and stock home libraries or book shelves in their homes. People are always looking to borrow books instead of buying. That means that writers cannot live off writing.”

“The other major challenge is that there are not many structures that support writing development. Writers do not give enough time to writing because they are involved in other activities to earn a living.

“As a result when we call for manuscripts, we hardly get publishable stories and the writers again do not get time to revise their writings and to work with editors.”

Femrite member, Victoria Abigail Atukunda says: “In Uganda, although the number of women engaged in writing is still small; several female writers have come up, the majority being realised in the last 20 years.

“Of the writings by Ugandan women, the biggest number is scholarly, leading to attainment of PhDs or other forms of awards, also short stories, essays and poetry. Fewer women in Uganda are engaged in purely commercial literature, a culture which in critical and commercial terms is largely dominated by men.”

Another author and Femrite member, Peace Twine Kyamureku, also observes in her paper ‘Contribution of women writers in the development of Uganda’ that she presented on July 28, 2016, at the Femrite 20th anniversary international conference that it is general knowledge that self-help books are selling in the market place.

Kyamureku says: “One needs to go to the streets of towns or cities to find books, which are not originally published but photo copied.

“There is great demand for self-help books because we all want to succeed in life, avoid mistakes that complicate lives. Are women in this kind of writing? Why do not many of us write about the everyday things we do to raise awareness on them? Cooking has been taken up by men partly because there are cook books.

“Can we write about more areas like pregnancy, cleaning homes, growing vegetables and others to help each other?”

Atukunda says many bookshops are skeptical about selling Ugandan books. “They say writings are too academic or boring and do not sell. They claim that according to their market trends, buyers prefer outside books which are lighter of language, more fun, tell stories of hope and the print quality is good.” 

Atukunda concludes in her paper ‘Defining writing: Woman’s space on the market place – situation, experiences and way forward,” that as women make it abroad and elsewhere in Africa, the time is now to reshape the ground for Ugandan literature, especially works by women.

“As women juggle family life, career and writing, it is important that every effort is rewarded; that the family is well cared for, that careers are growing and, also importantly, that writings are paying off.

“It is time to work together as women to make sure there is a voice for our literally works, therefore, there must be concerted efforts to redi

rect our focus on writing relevant material, and create a market for it,” Atukunda says.

Femrite, a not for profit organization was founded on May 1, 1996 by Mary Karooro Okurut and nine other female writers in Kampala.

The Femrite 20th anniversary international conference that was held under the theme “Rethinking African Literature” run from July 28 to 30, 2016 at the School of Women and Gender Studies, Makerere University in Kampala.

The series of events at the conference included book launches, poetry performances, panel discussions on various topics like women writing, feminism, African sexuality and copyright, and book exhibitions.

Twongyeirwe listed the major achievements of the association’s two decades of existence: It has influenced, through literary activism, the teaching of Ugandan literature in Ugandan schools although it is not yet at the desired level; trained over 200 writers in creative writing skills who have now become the writers for the publishing industry in Uganda.

It has published over 40 publications. In Uganda currently, Femrite has published the highest number of fiction and creative nonfiction materials for ordinary readers; and published over 50 writers most of whom have been new writers.

According to Twongyeirwe, Femrite’s strength has been more in writing-development training than in publishing. Femrite has trained writers who have written award-winning works with other publishing houses; such as Glaydah Namukasa, Doreen Baingana, Monica Arac, Jackee Batanda, Aujo Lillian and Violet Barungi.

Femrite has also carried out writing-development activities in schools with over 1,000 students, which has resulted into the establishment of writing clubs in schools; and developed the first Regional Writers Residency for women writers.

On Femrite celebrating 20 years of existence, Twongyeirwe, says: “This is commendable especially because there are not many development partners who invest in this sector.”