The Weganda Review’s sixth issue (Sept. – Dec. 2024) has been published in print and online, with essays on the scandal swirling around Uganda’s parliamentary speaker, the ideal of islandhood, the state of orphanhood, the disorienting failure of youth-led protests in Kenya, and the legacy of the Ugandan expressionist painter George William Kyeyune. This issue includes the diary of a female askari in Kampala. Featured poetry is by Eniola Arowolo, Michelle Ivy Alwedo, and Praise Osawaru. There’s fiction by Nana Nyarko Boateng. Art portfolios belong to Godfrey Banadda, a Ugandan surrealist painter, and Manzi Leon, a painter in Rwanda whose remarkable work graces the cover of this issue. The Quote of the Quarter is extracted from Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather. This is not a themed issue, but it happens to be dominated by the love of art.
The Weganda Review’s fifth issue (July – Sept. 2024) has been published in print and online, with essays on Rwanda three decades after the genocide, Jacob Zuma, personal guilt, food as resistance, and the politics of conservation in Uganda. This issue includes the diary of a young waitress who works in a café just outside Kampala. Featured poetry is by Yarri Kamara, Michael Imossan, Musiime Michelle Tumwesigye, and Lillian Akampurira Aujo. There’s fiction by Sanni Omodolapo. Art portfolios belong to the painter Leonard Kateete and the ceramist Bruno Sserunkuuma. The Quote of the Quarter is extracted from All for Nothing by Walter Kempowski. This is not a themed issue; the general drift is second chances.