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.

Weganda Precis: From the Archives

by Rucumu Gift
“The results of the South African election have left the ANC weaker than it has ever been. Gone are the days when the ANC’s chosen leader was almost certainly destined to become the next president of South Africa. But [ Jacob] Zuma is in a stronger position because he has shown that he has a huge personal following that doesn’t depend on his membership of the ANC. [President Cyril] Ramaphosa, on the other hand, can’t claim such authority; he has been utterly humiliated as the ANC leader on whose watch the party of Madiba lost its governing majority. Zuma’s supporters mock Ramaphosa as “Mr. 40 percent,” a reference to the ANC’s failure to hit the 50 percent mark it needed to stay firmly in control of South Africa’s government. Zuma’s MK had said one condition of joining hands with the ANC would have been the ouster of Ramaphosa as president, a clear indicator that, even though Ramaphosa has kept his post, he is vulnerable and instability is not far away.”
by Risdel Kasasira
“[Salim] Saleh, whose real name is Caleb Akandwanaho, has come a long way. In nearly four decades he has outgrown a perception of him as the president’s rascally brother to emerge as the most influential power broker, bar none, in a government that now finds itself trying to figure out how to retain power when [President Yoweri] Museveni inevitably goes … In fact, as some have suggested, Saleh’s deep and well-built network within the NRM government runs parallel to – but works closely with – the state, reinforcing NRM rule but also placing Saleh in a position of such authority that some analysts see him as a co-president while others see him as a consigliere looming in the background.”
by Kwezi Tabaro
“In death Nyerere’s halo has continued to grow, and there have been no damaging revelations about him … His Chama Cha Mapinduzi party remains on the same course he set for it: the smooth transition of power within the ruling party, for as long as possible, so that even when John Magufuli died unexpectedly in office, his deputy Samia Suluhu was inaugurated without incident in 2021 as Tanzania’s first female president. Thus, in a narrow political sense, Nyerere has had enough followers to cement his legacy at home. What’s in doubt is his relevance for Africans elsewhere, among leaders like Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni who may praise Nyerere while having little use for Nyerereism.”
by Gerald Bareebe
“Inevitably, as was the case under [Idi] Amin and even Milton Obote, Ugandans are increasingly concerned by what they consider a slide toward full-blown military authoritarianism, by a palpable fear of what happens next. The scale of abuses has intensified with the rise of Bobi Wine. Some of his supporters have been picked from their homes at night by security agents who shove their victims into vans that Ugandans have described, terrifyingly, as “drones,” apparently because of the speed with which they are driven away from crime scenes. Some of those released from detention tell harrowing stories: fingernails torn out, bodies burned with hot metal, and other abuses too violent to mention here … [T]hese cruel acts of torture reveal current truths about the Museveni regime, show the government as it is. These are the political remains of the NRM, as raw and bitter as a poisonous plant.”
by Charles Onyango-Obbo
“On the drive to and from Agoro, it’s striking how there are no visible scars of these war horrors either on the faces of the people or the towns and settlements in which they live. There is thriving trade in the towns. There are many new buildings rising up. All along the highway there are passable primary schools, with some elegant private ones. These are fertile lands, as they have always been, and they were spotted with lush fields. The disfigurement and pain are below the surface. A local council leader from the area we met, later in Gulu, told us that Acholiland is battling an epidemic of deadly domestic violence. Men beating women. Women beating men. Alcoholism is rampant.”