Writing dictatorship and misrule in Uganda: Susan N. Kiguli’s The African Saga

This article explores the portrayal of one aspect of the theme of dictatorship and misrule in Susan Nalugwa Kiguli’s first collection of poems, The African Saga, that is, the cruel leadership that is blind to the humanity of the ruled. I argue that Kiguli’s writing of post-independence leadership in Uganda is unique in its use of vivid images that help the reader to visualise how rulers like Idi Amin and Milton Apollo Obote brutalised their compatriots, turning the country into what Henry Kyemba calls, in his memoir of the same title, “a state of blood” and Moses Isegawa, in his novel of the same title, a “snakepit.” Closely reading some of her poems of protest, I demonstrate that Kiguli’s poetry is deeply political in its exploration of both the private domain of the family and the public area of political office.