Book Review by Natasha Sebunya
Title: AS I STOOD DEAD BEFORE THE WORLD (2018)
Editors: DANSON KAHYANA, BOB.G.KISIKI & BEATRICE LAMWAKA
Publisher: PEN Uganda
ISBN: 978- 9970- 618-01-9
Price: Ug. Shs. 30,000
These white walls seem to talk
They speak words white as chalk
Spitting fumes and spilling beans
Brimming streams and howling genres
Joseph Kevin Wenwa, The White Walls of Luzira
‘As I stood Dead before The World’ is the end product of a PEN initiated creative workshop. Motivated by a strong belief in the written word, the therapeutic and emancipatory practice of the process and the connection between readers and writers, PEN sought out some writers and editors to sit with some inmates at Luzira and create this collection. The book has three sections: Poetry, Short Fiction and Drama.
“turning our inmates into wonderful poets, short story writers and playwrights.”- Elizabeth Nanfuka. Commissioner of Prisons, Social Rehabilitation and Re-Integration, Uganda Prison Service.
Come on Peace
I’m going to fetch that little calf
Standing by her mother
As the sun shines bright
Here in the favored land
I will look for you in daylight
I will look for you in the moonlight
I will look for you all day long
Though hell shall bar the way
I will hold you in my hand
And take you within
Where we will belong
I will hold you by the hand
And take you within
Where we will belong!
Emmanuel Lomokol.
There are two places we grew up knowing as the ends of our imagination in Kampala: Butabika and Luzira. They are rock bottom. To read a collection of poets and authors and playwrights and a rather good one is a conversation starter about how we forget about the people that find themselves in these places.
I need a friend.
I got a lot of problems
But no one to offer solutions
A lot of fights
But no one to tangle with
I really need a friend
A friend indeed
I got a lot of dreams
But no one to nurture them
I really need a friend
A friend indeed.
Rachel Pearl Orishaba, I need a Friend
LONELINESS
There are many themes in this book, but a predominant one is loneliness. In A Special Christmas Gift: Frances tales of an inmate waiting on a Christmas visit.
Visitation days in prison are on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:30 in the morning to 3:30 in the afternoon. These hours may seem long but when you are expecting someone, they become very short as you worry that the person may be locked out before seeing you. I was looking forward to eating cake. Mom said she had bought it from Shoprite on the eve of Christmas last year. She said there were lots of people queueing for it…
Much as we forget, the outside world remains a constant on the minds of the inmates.
Crowded with them in the cell
Seeping sanity out of me
Keeping vigil over their unsettled sleep
Fearing for when danger may arrive
Regretting the sane days gone by
Praying for a free, open world
Grace Layer, Lonesome.
INJUSTICE
Anyone who has come face to face with the ugly side of the justice system knows that it’s possible that some inmates have landed in there falsely, and some are victims of circumstance if not most. One inmate eloquently portrays how the pursuit of money is the big issue nowadays. In the fiction stories, two inmates look at false accusations; one at being framed by a friend and another about simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time and not receiving a fair trial. In Sebuuma Gadafi’s Twenty-two Years. A poet that believes himself to be serving a wrong sentence cries out to his mother, believing himself to be abandoned. In the short prose, another mother is relieved to watch from behind her bars to find her daughter has grown into a fine citizen without her.
Second Chance
I need a second chance
Like a felled tree
It was fruitful
As I was
It sheltered many as I did
A felled tree
A chopped stump
Is how I feel
Useless and hopeless
Helpful to no one
But I will rise
And sprout like the felled tree
That has smelt water
I will smell the Spirit
Of the living God
I will sprout again
My spirit will stay hopeful
I will bear fruit again
And shelter many in my shade
I will have a second chance.
Elizabeth Kyomuhangi
Others accept that they did commit the crime and in prison have found some form of rehabilitation. As Elizabeth calls it in another poem of hers, Luzira is a university of understanding. Seeking God or imagining alternative choices for their mistakes. Such as one who writes about a woman making the right decision in leaving an abusive husband, some are seeking to move on.
Pretty Kristy
Oh Kristy! Pretty Kristy
Towering tall
Standing elegant
Eyes sparkling diamonds
There is no one like you!
When you smile, you don’t smile;
You beam
When you walk, you don’t walk:
You mince
Confident: majestic- a rarity!
There’s no other like you!
When you speak, you don’t speak;
You sing
An eternal music
An enduring melody
Your breath is minty
You laugh a lover’s whisper
Oh Kristy! Pretty Kristy!
There will never be one like you!
Annette Mutoni
More like Annette have moved beyond the confinement of prison, writing about love, others in prose joining in contemporary debates about gender roles, or fairytales about Ankole princes.
If you want to know more why you should buy this book, I leave you the words of Professor Arthur Gakwandi:
“This book has punctured the popular view of prisoners as undesirables against whom society needs to protect itself. It has brought out the wealth of talents, the creativity and above all, the shared humanity of those who have, for one reason or another, found themselves behind bars. The stories and poems in this volume not only convey to us the degrading experience and defeated aspirations of prisoners but also quite often, the deep remorse felt about the past as well as the yearning to be reabsorbed in mainstream society”
[Copies of AS I STOOD DEAD BEFORE THE WORLD are available at Ug. Shs. 30,000. For deliveries call 0750-873818.]