It’s been several weeks since “lockdown” became part of our normal. Here in Uganda, we are settling into the third extension of the same. And as a large portion of the world’s population has adapted to mandatory stay home orders the discussion on mental health wellness has been brought to the fore once again. For many, cut off from the relationships and activities that stay their triggers, this is taking its toll. We hope you can find sanity even as we wait this out. Collectively, we can slow the spread of COVID-19 and curb its death toll. We can do this and we must.
Our current issue of the Ibua Journal started to take shape pre-lockdown. Our focus then was on how Literature influences Society, speaking to why we continue to need Literature. We hoped the broad theme would encapsulate how literature affects our daily and why we should protect the integrity of its creation. As the initial 14-day lockdown became 35 days and now we are faced with an additional 14-days, most of us are returning to literary works. In the month that followed we had marked International Women’s Day by running our activities under the theme Celebrating Women in Literature during which we had conversations with and about the women; creators, promoters, and characters that have influenced us in the Literature we have gravitated to. It is to these two themes this issue attends.
In Storytelling, Power and The African Story, I make a case for how Stories communicate power and establish structures that become the frames with which we view self, other and the world while Amooti Wobusoboozi takes a trip through his memories recalling the first book he owned, the lessons he learned from this and the other female authors he encountered in his journey to becoming a literature enthusiast. All this and more in A memory of Reading his celebration of the women who influenced his love for literature.
In How Literature written by Africans shapes Africa, Wacha Angwech, shows the richness of African Literature for the millennial reader even as Martha Navuuga, a long time avid reader shares her encounter with reading. In African literature, she has been able to see herself in a way Literature from other places hadn’t allowed her to in A book about me. Representation, a recurring theme in both these features would appear a central purpose for Literature in our societies.
Literature in the time of COVID-19 and Ten books to read while you self-isolate provide recommended reads for you to dig into as books and the stories they contain are giving us all a way to navigate the mental and emotional strain of the mandatory stay home orders; the sense of lost productivity, and even the scarier sense of alienation from our neighbors and the rest of the world. They are sources of connection reminding us we are seen and we belong even as we live through social distancing.
Stay Safe. Sane. Strong.