Mothers

Abstract

A key site for debates about African literature since the famous Makerere conference of 1962, Uganda has more recently become a notable site of feminist literary activism. This chapter elaborates how poets in twenty-first-century Uganda confront the patriarchal imaginaries of family and nation that crystallize around figures of motherhood in particular. Revisiting the Mother Africa and cognate Mother Uganda trope, it examines anthologies and collections published by initiatives such as the Uganda Women Writers Association (FEMRITE), the Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation, and the Center for African Cultural Excellence. Such print activism positions poets associated with FEMRITE and Babishai Niwe, such as Susan N. Kiguli and Lillian Akampurira Aujo, and individual activists, such as Stella Nyanzi, as social thinkers about gender. Contemporary poetry from Uganda reveals the continued potency of motherhood as a trope.