Imaging the urban in Uganda’s written poetry anthologies 1960 – 2020

Abstract

This thesis interrogates the notion of urbanity as depicted in Uganda’s written poetry anthologies published between the 1960s and 2020. The aim of the study is to examine how poetry responds to critical nuances of Ugandan urbanity and how it contributes to the larger debate on urban literary and cultural discourse. The thesis proceeds from the presumption that while Uganda is promoting urbanity, for example, as seen in the creation of new cities, there is a need for an engaged and critical debate of the peculiar nuances of urbanity. The study focuses on the ways in which poets envisage the dynamics within the urban space in reference to contexts and people’s identities, notions of self and community, rural urban interactions, and how Ugandan urbanity has changed over the years. This is a qualitative study and it employs textual analysis to read 70 poems selected from the different anthologies. These poems are read within the framework of planetary theory that sees the urban as a fabric that stretches to envelope everywhere. The study also anchors on new historicism literary theory that encourages the reading of a literary text beyond the words on the page, and Augustine Nwoye’s ideas of the African self. The readings reveal several patterns in the construction of urbanity. In terms of the dynamics and people’s identities within the context of street, market and taxi parks, the poetic voice focuses on the fluid nature of everyday encounters depicting the urban as dominated by ambivalence and the quest for survival. The study further reveals that people’s identities are inherently defined by power discourses. Besides, the study shows that self and community within the urban space are unstable and ever shifting often based on the prevailing conditions and circumstances. I conclude that the urban can be perceived as fluid and the poets depict it as a complex space that handles both individualism and community life as multi-faceted and composite. Furthermore, the rural urban interaction revealed a paradoxical relationship because of the whole notion of the two spaces being distinct yet having asymmetrical and unconfined relationships. Finally, the readings suggest that poetic constructions of the Ugandan urban align with the actual development experienced in Uganda from the 1960s to 2020. On the whole, poets adopt both nostalgic and ironic tones to reflect on the past and offer critical nuances of the contemporary urban Uganda. Based on the selected poems, the study concludes that Ugandan poetry offers emblematic and monumental images of urbanity.