UGX20,000
“No speaking Vernacular was beautifully performed; humourous, witty, revealing. I thought the play clearly brought out the shortcomings of an education system that wholly demonizes the use of native languages in schools. No Speaking Vernacular pits Mr. Full stop, the John Speke High School Headteacher against Dambya, (Nsubuga Muhammad) a renegade vernacular speaker. Dambya’s sin is using the Luganda word ‘gwe’ which Mr Full stop considers an unforgivable breach of Article 23 of the school Regulations.
In punishment, Dambya suffers the minimum punishment prescribed by the regulations. He is caned. He is forced to wear old sisal sackcloth, a bone around his neck, and a placard bearing the words: “I am stupid. I speak Vernacular.”
– Herbert Okello Andrew, Lawyer, teacher.
Aha! It’s you Dambya
Today I have caught you!
Today you are not escaping me!
Dambya, I have heard you
Today I have heard you
With my own ears
You have said GWE
Get out, get out,
Get out of dorm!
Come outside here
You let him pass;
Come, come; come!
Every day, every single day,
They report to me
That you use vernacular
And every time I ask you
You deny, you say they lie,
And you can deny, Dambya-
You are so good at denying
But today I have caught you
With my own ears
Full Stop! Full?
I have heard you
Speaking vernacular.
Today, no denying!
Today no?
Kagayi Ngobi is a Ugandan performance poet and a Team Leader at Kitara Nation, a poetry company. He is also the author of THE (NEW) HEADLINE THAT MORNING, PUPU POEMS (2018, Kitara Nation) and FOR MY NEGATIVITY (2019, Kitara Nation). His works have featured in a number of theatre productions and have also appeared in a number of poetry anthologies. Kagayi enjoys performing poetry and plays and he lives in Kampala.
ISBN: 9-798654-861160
Format: Paperback & Kindle
Language: English
Number Of Pages: 44
Published: 2020
Publisher: Kitara Nation
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“I think of Rusho’s LIGHT as an act of taking the veil off the world; of the man he is, and that of the people around him. I am deliberate about calling it an act because it’s memory in motion. Each poem dances below a bulb at its own tempo and intent. Some of them seek it, the spot, while others avoid it so that the pains and injustices in their bodies aren’t seen. But a lot is on display still, even during moments of darkness. Questions about gender and the human body, loss, relationships, the country, self, and so on. I admire the bravery by which he writes about himself. What drives a man to speak about himself with such honesty? The only way to find out is by diving into the poems he presents as a mirror.
-Lule ssebo Lule, author of OGENDA WA?
This book, the first anthology of its kind, encompasses poems collected from 3 different national High School poetry programs. It could perhaps be the only book of this kind in East Africa.
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