Under the theme, ‘Celebrating literary legends: Bukenya and Gakwandi@80’, the lively event with a fully packed venue entailed four artistic performances based on the literary works of the two guests; speeches from their respective families; a keynote address by Prof Abas Kiyimba; speeches by the two celebrants; gift-giving and cutting of two birthday cakes, among others.
Prof Arthur Gakwandi was born in December 1943, while Prof Austin Bukenya was born on February 10, 1944. Both went into exile because of a political climate that treated literature as subversive, but they both opted to come back and work at Makerere.
Each of them served at Makerere University more than once. Besides being writers and teachers, the duo were celebrated for their overriding passion to challenge, mentor and nurture their charges and neighbours alike.
HUMANITY ABOVE ZOMBIE MATERIALISM
Though the two guests were offered little time to speak because of a congested programme, they spared no time to criticize the ongoing devaluation of humanness in preference for unlimited technological might and obsessive individualistic accumulation of wealth.
Gakwandi narrated how he sadly listens to or watches mainstream and social media overcrowded with conflicts over jobs and property, especially spearheaded by the so-called middle-class.
“As I reflect on Ugandan society, I keep wondering whether or what type of progress we are making. Nobody talks of what kind of middle-class we are creating. People driving Landcruisers and throwing bottles on the road. I see people claiming to have a lot of money heavily in conspiracy theories, exchanging insults. Is that the middle-class that we want?” he queried.
He observed that people in science disciplines have been given a number of incentives, but insisted that the humanities are the oil that lubricates relations between people in society.
“I see people are dealing with money, not with fellow humans! I see walls being built around each house, and people [in a neighbourhood] don’t know each other; they don’t interact. The middle-class is supposed to balance the rich’s self-indulgencies and lack of concern by the privileged with those at the bottom that have no voice. If the middle-class we have does not play that role, then it is not serving society.”
He argued that literature helps one enter people’s lives to share their fantasies, sorrows and experiences. It helps one connect with others emotionally, and thereby you cease considering people as mere statistics and connect with them emotionally as fellow human beings.
Bukenya, on his part, noted that the humanities have been systematically and consistently derogated and underfunded. He called on his audience to counter that dehumanizing trend by making the humanities visible, acceptable and respectable. He categorized majority of Uganda’s current middle-class as ‘shenzi’ (savage or uncivilized) because it lacks humanness.
“We need a society of human beings, not a collection of zombies and robots. The humanities and the performing arts can create employment and wealth; it’s a lie to claim that they can’t,” Bukenya argued.
GAKWANDI THE CONSCIENTIOUS DIPLOMAT
Besides being a creative writer and academic, Gakwandi is a diplomat that represented Uganda as an ambassador at more than one station and an expert in human rights, having engaged in drafting and promoting a number of continental and global human rights documents.
His novel Kosiya Kifefe was the first book by a Ugandan to be included on the A-level literature reading lists.
His literary critique titled, The Novel and Contemporary Experience in Africa, published in 1977, is still an authoritative reference today. He also taught in Nigeria and USA.
Gakwandi, born in Ntungamo district, is also well remembered for his pan-Africanist ideas, especially the proposal to redraw the borders of Africa into seven confederal republics.
Kiyimba and other speakers narrated how, as students in secondary school and at university, they held Gakwandi in exceptional high regard, but only to be shocked when they interacted with him to discover a self-effacing gentleman. His daughter said as a family, they admire and try to emulate Gakwandi’s conscientiousness, resilience, humility, concealed soft power, confidence, friendship and guardianship of immense wisdom.
BUKENYA THE JOVIAL EMBODIMENT OF EAST AFRICAN SPIRIT
All former students of Bukenya described him as a friendly teacher and mentor, ever smiling and laughing.
“His teaching approach is friendliness; with this, he attracts respect and trust of his students,” one panelist said. His passion at whatever he engages in was testified to by many. And he complemented that by saying he is always guided by the philosophy of Ubuntu (humanness), time management, self-respect with humility, belief in God and faith in people, which he credits for his many achievements.
Bukenya also taught in Tanzania and in many universities in Kenya. Though born in Masaka of Ugsandan parents, Bukenya is often described as the true embodiment of the East African Community citizenship, with each nation claiming him as their own! He is well known for teaching and promoting Kiswahili at policy and implementation levels, although he never attended a formal class of Kiswahili. He speaks 20 languages, seven of them fluently and authoritatively.
Some of Bukenya’s popular creative works include the novel The People’s Bachelor and three plays The Bride, The Secret, and A Hole in the Sky, which remain staples on the literature landscape of East Africa. He runs a weekly column in Saturday Nation titled, ‘Reflections of a Scholar’.
BUKENYA THE PROUD MALE FEMINIST
A few days before, on April 1, some writers gathered at the Uganda Women Writers’ Association (FEMRITE) offices for a belated celebration of Bukenya’s 80th birthday and a candid conversation, treating him as a beloved one of them and a senior icon. See, Bukenya played a critical role in the founding of FEMRITE in 1995, which is the only women literature-focused organisation in the region.
At FEMRITE, Bukenya urged writers to take literature, whether original or translated, to the grassroots.
“Although I have written in many languages, I am especially proud of my literature in Kiswahili. Literature should be taken to the grassroots. It is not enough to teach; go and promote literature in local languages too; Luo, Luganda, Acholi, Lusoga, Runyoro, Kiswahili, etc. There should be more literary festivals and book fairs with due publicity to promote a reading culture. The only way to be a good writer is through reading.”
“While in Nairobi for 20 years, I concentrated on feminism. I am still a feminist because it doesn’t mean being a woman. To be a feminist is a lifestyle, not attending a three-year course in feminism,” Bukenya told the audience at Makerere University.
In recent years, the department of Literature organized similar celebratory appreciations for some of its legends such as Ngugi wa Thiong’o (twice), David Rubadiri, Okot p’Bitek and Timothy Wangusa.
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