Introduction Kenya and Uganda in the Limelight

Abstract

“Those in the know are buzzing about an African literary renaissance… The African revolution is on your doorstep,” noted the American literary critics Elizabeth Schappell and Rob Spillman in 2007 about the literary dynamics in East Africa. 1 The African literary renaissance, or indeed revolution, that has caused this buzz of excitement, as reflected in the quotation, I argue in this book, is in fact nothing less than the recent flowering of African literatures written in English. This literary blossoming is well represented in the contemporary English- language works and activities by Kwani Trust and FEMRITE, and it is in particular with these organizations as well as their associated writers producing and promoting this writing that this book engages. Since the early 2000s, prizewinning authors have visibly emerged on the Anglophone literary scenes of Kenya and Uganda and thus have brought back the transnational spotlight to the Anglophone literature of the region. In 2002, the Kenyan Binyavanga Wainaina was awarded the Caine Prize for African Literature for his short story “Discovering Home.” In 2003, Yvonne Owuor, also a Kenyan, triumphed in the Caine Prize Competition with her short story “Weight of Whispers.” In 2004, Parselelo Kantai, yet another Kenyan, was short-listed for the Caine Prize with his short story “Comrade Lemma and the Black Jerusalem Boy Band.” From Uganda, Jackee B. Batanda appeared as Africa’s regional winner of the 2003 Commonwealth Short Story Competition with her short story “Remember Atita.”