In 2007, Guy Mambo, Ojakol Raymond, Alal Sophie, and Collin Asiimwe met in a room in Africa Hall at Makerere University, to share and discuss their poetry. Friends for years with a shared love of writing, especially poetry. That first meeting gave birth to another and another until they found themselves meeting at the National Theatre in one of the huts.
It is about this time that I received an invitation from Jason Ntaro, a member of the circle by then. He had heard through mutual friends that I enjoyed writing poetry. I came to that circle with my handwritten poetry still in my notebook. Each of us got to read our poetry out loud. I heard for the first time Jason Ntaro’s poetry that felt like I was being dangled on a rope into the mouth of a dark cave unsure of my return; Pearl Mugala’s languid depth and insight; Guy Mambo’s light, ethereal-like poems; Ojakol Raymond’s steady and measured tones; Wobusobozi Amooti’s drawing of a world ancient and timeless; Lois Asiimwe’s knife-like use of language; Gilbert Ainomugisha’s and Samantha Kacwinya’s easy romanticism dealing with subjects as diverse as we were. Doctors, lawyers, radiologists, architects, sociologists still in training, steadily pursuing professional careers while expressing such beauty and candor in poetry. This reading ended after dark and as we walked to the Nandos stage together my insides stirred like never before.
The circle became central to my social life. We met every other Sunday. I didn’t know it then but these people would become integral to how I lived my life going forward. The circle was a place for us to discover our voices. As we shared what our hearts and minds were contemplating, as we defended our work from external judgment, we formed an identity, tangible and formidable, as individuals and as a group. Spurred on by the poems, critiques, and discussions the circle produced, I wrote in a frenzy. Though I was working at my first engineering job I spent my free time writing poetry. We all did.
By 2008 the circle had generated enough poetry to fill a box file. The discussions had progressed from simply sharing our writing in the circle to doing so with a wider audience. The Lantern Meet Charter was now in existence, debated as it was, to define the Lantern Meet of Poets (LMOP). The group that was. We petitioned the National theatre and were granted rehearsal and recital space in the CICP room. This would become our home for the next five years. I was chosen to direct the first recital and would go on to direct them until my departure in 2010. However, as with everything we did back then, it was a communal effort. Writers are nothing if not opinionated. Performing writers are more so. While I may have made the final call, it seemed to me that every decision was arrived at after many iterations through the momentum of the group.
We were one and many.
That first recital in August 2008 was magical. At least for me. As amateur as it was, it set a ball rolling that could not be stopped. The room was filled to the brim with friends and family who had much to say about the poetry and quality of production. Some of it hard to hear but all of it inspiring nevertheless. The next year we upped the ante and asked the National theatre for the main auditorium. We convinced them that we would raise the money even though we weren’t charging a gate fee. We invited fellow artists, singers, bands and comedians. We hustled, we wrote, and we performed.
The numbers at the recitals kept growing. The faces in the circle were like the tide, in and out. However, every so often people would identify strongly with our dream and stay, argue, dictate and determine the trajectory of the collective. Outsiders began to take notice. A 2009 recital was recorded for Multichoice’s Studio 53 hosted by Gaetano Kaggwa. Interviews were done for a BBC Africa radio program. Newspaper reviews were written. Our name grew in stature.
In 2010 began the tremors of major change. Membership had grown. Interests had started to collide. Members who felt sidelined or ignored by the leadership began the grumble and dissent in private and public spaces. The circle became difficult for some members to bear. The critiques were brutal and cutting, leaving newbies flailing before them. The loudest voices were taking center stage. We were changing the face of poetry, nay, literature and theatre; we were something. The wonder of it took hold in our hearts and heads. We were dismissive (arrogant even) with others who we felt did not meet our exalted standards. The numbers at the circle began to dwindle as people left and formed their other poetry groups.
Ojakol Raymond was appointed president of the Lantern Meet of Poets. The change that had carried us in 2010 led us solidly to registration in 2012 as a limited by guarantee organization: The Lantern Meet Foundation.
The Lantern Meet Foundation (LMF) was born out of necessity. We had concluded that we wanted to be taken seriously. In the future, we were creating, to partner with others we needed to be recognized legally. We had joined the big league, so it seemed. However, for myself, these events coincided with my other pursuits. I was away studying in Dar-es-salaam in 2010 and returned at the end of 2012. Through this time I continued to participate in recitals whenever I was around and contribute to discussions via email and phone calls.
During that time the mood and tone of the circle turned political and the voices began to agitate that the poet, nay the artist’s responsibility was social reform. The arguments were loud, determined and excited. What was the poet’s role except to speak for others? What was the relevance of the stage we had carved out for ourselves if it did not speak for change in our socio-economic and political spaces? Out of this was born, Broken Voices of a Revolution. The LMOP collective was tasked with writing poetry that showcased Uganda at 50 years. Our first publication, a poetry anthology, and an audio CD were produced alongside the recital. I watched from the sidelines. My personal life had overtaken all other events and activities. Being away from all that was familiar opened up time to write, think and change but the LMF continued to tag at me from the sidelines.
In 2013, The LMF began its school’s project with Nabisunsa Secondary School spearheading this drive. Peter Kagayi as vocal and vibrant as ever was now President of the LMF. It makes us proud to know that the poetry clubs sprouting in schools across the country had their birth in the work we did then. With 2014 came our first funding partner DOEN Stichting, an organization committed to the promotion of the arts in Uganda. The funding was to step up the quality of production and begin publication of our works. However, the speed and enthusiasm with which the LMF had progressed could not deny the structural cracks it had developed.
What was the relationship between the Lantern Meet of Poets and the Lantern Meet Foundation? How did the ethos of the collective work within an organisational framework? The senate elected to steer and guide the business of the LMOP, and LMF by extension, had taken a back seat to the presidency and management teams. Who made the decisions? In practice, the senate and management team overlapped because of the incredible understaffing we experienced. Where was the collective we prided ourselves on? These and other questions ate at the group with different factions pulling in opposing directions. The concept of the collective was great only if the collective participated. We had done an incredible thing by starting poetry recitals and Kampala had changed so much that every corner and day had a poetry recital or related event.
Emails, crisis meetings, phone calls, more strategic meetings continued to happen with headings like ‘Restoring the Lantern Meet.’ All the while we staged show after show as if a marriage putting on a show for its relatives while hiding its breakdown. The rumours of change took hold again when the group took a retreat to rethink the direction of the LMF. The decade of its existence was nearing and it was time to assess and reconfigure. This motley crew had grown in age, no longer young adults; many of us were now entering our thirties. How was one to sustain this artistic life and eat? How was one to set aside writing time and maintain a family? This was no longer simply about the love of poetry or literature or the stage, the necessities of life were knocking louder every day. The numbers began to fall off as more and more of us became involved in the business of surviving life’s calls. We got married, took full-time jobs, had children, and left a small core to hold the dream together. Turning the power of the collective into a wistful dream.
Out of the retreat came the decision to shut down the recitals, stop the school’s project and focus on publishing. A team was tasked with setting up this strategic plan. The recitals it seemed had overtaken every other aspect of our literary dream. We were writers before performers. To see us, who would know? In 2016, the LMOP held its last stage recital to mixed reactions. Neither our audience nor I believed it was the best course of action but the core had decided, “We must focus on publishing not on crowd appeal.” It was a bold statement. Foolish maybe, but we were never anything except all in.
2017 began the publishing plan, and it was in these plans that IBUA was born. It began with an online publishing portal www.lanternmeet.com. The first writers of which I was one were encouraged to complete stories that would be posted, a blog was written monthly and the first writing lab conducted. But the winds of change, however, were not done with the LMF, the cracks in its organization were not easy to patch. The core found itself at loggerheads, the leadership had reverted to a Board consisting of senate members but activities and daily decision making were still left to a few. The numbers that once existed were nowhere to be seen. The rifts lasted, it seemed that the LMF dream was truly gone.
We still dreamed.
I still carry in my heart the feeling from those early years, walking together in the dark reciting poetry, the busyness of creating a larger than life theatrical poetry recital, the everyday ease of friends doing what they love. In the year since I accepted a seat on the Board, I have realized that like myself the Lantern Meet Foundation and by extension, the LMOP has changed. Twelve years have passed, we can no longer function the way we used to for we are no longer what we used to be. However, who we are today is still relevant, capable and wonderful. The LMF will change with the world it lives in.
Since its inauguration, the board has thrown itself fully behind IBUA Publishing. Releasing its first print publication Streetlights at Noon Eclipse a poetry anthology with contributions from members of the LMOP, in 2019. It was a feat that felt like working against the tide. Not everyone we desired to take part did which stung like unrequited love but publishing enthralled like a fireworks display.
In 2019 we run our second creative writing for Short fiction lab. Of the 13 participants that enrolled for it, 7 completed the Lab and work from this will soon be published in the Ibua Journal, our online magazine.
In August of the same year, we launched our rebranded portal www.ibuajournal.com. Readers now have access to various content in the Magazine, Stories, Poetry and Lounge sections.
We also launched the inaugural Pack Light Series themed Memoirs of growing up in Africa. We were delighted to receive entries from 14 African countries. The Longlist for which is announced in this issue of the Ibua Journal.
In partnership with African Studies, we run a monthly Book Market at the Uganda Museum, a place for book enthusiasts to buy and trade in books. On the same day (1st Saturday of each month) we host the Yard, a conversation with influencers on the literary scene. This is live-streamed on our Facebook page: Lantern Meet.
We are working steadily to grow our capacity to achieve our vision. Currently, our day to day activities are run by a team of 6 lead by a Chief Executive Officer.
Our 3rd Short Fiction Lab has just started with an enrollment of 25 participants. The Film Lab will be starting in a few days too.
The poetry circle still happens every Sunday fortnight. While the numbers are not big, the faces are becoming consistent. They are young, fresh and eager, just like we were.
We are grateful for everyone who has held onto the Lantern Meet vision, committing their time, skills and other resources to keep it alive. We thank you all.
Lantern Meet Foundation is committed to changing the way Uganda and Africa read. We are committed to telling stories about ourselves and those who look like us.