On the 6 November 2018, Ugandan novelist and short story writer Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi was welcomed (back) by the Department of English and Creative Writing at Lancaster University. Makumbi, who obtained her PhD in Creative Writing from the department, was the first visiting writer to be hosted for the academic year. The talk was enlightening, very engaging, and imbued with the author’s great sense of humour.
Makumbi opened her talk by reading an excerpt from her short story “Let’s Tell This Story Properly” which was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2014. The depth and humour of the story and its captivating closing line has stirred the curiosity of the audience, most of whom are PGs and academics from Lancaster University. Makumbi was asked about her choice of the short story genre to write about the experience of Ugandan immigrants. She expressed the ways the short story genre has a clear writing structure and is thus less time-consuming, more dense, and “intellectually speaking, ” as she stated, reflects the fragmented experience of immigration.
The author then read an extract from the prologue to her internationally acclaimed Kintu, her doctoral novel, upon which the Guardian acclaim that “she does for Ugandan literature what Chinua Achebe did for Nigerian writing” (Nneka Arimah, 26 Jan 2018). The novel, set in the 1700s, explores a historical context of Africa that is marginalized, if not absent, from most of the celebrated corpus of African literature in English. The author expressed her discontent with the continuous association of African literature with colonial history, often categorised as being either pre-colonial, colonial, or postcolonial. She expressed her strict refusal to label her work as pre-colonial. Instead, she stated that her book can be described as a Ugandan historical novel. She also responded to questions from the attendees of the talk regarding the target audience, readership, the publication process, and the reception of her work across the world. Makumbi also announced that a short story collection and a second novel, which she describes as feminist, are forthcoming.
By Huyem Cheurfa
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