Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyumva and BNP Poetry: Inspiring Poetry in Africa

 A Morning of Poetry

Recently we were lucky to be part of a morning of love poetry organized by Beverly Nambozo in Kampala. Under a shade, with vrooms of distant boda bodas in the distance, we set off on a magical morning journey of poetry. A number of poets read their poetry about the theme of  'love romance nebigenderako' which in luganda could be loosely translated as ' love romance and the extras that go with it'. The poetry book A Thousand Voices Rising was on sale and i got myself a copy.
Good choice i made.  I have been able to read it between traffic jams, before going to sleep and when in line for the many things i chase down Kampala's busy streets.  The book is full of poetry from all over Africa and the diaspora. Beautiful, engaging, fresh. Like a rose in full bloom.

A Blossoming Rose.

 I was captivated by the new and not so new poetic voices coming out of Africa that were featured in there.  Poetry has been a bit of underground for so long in most of East Africa. but so have books in general. This is hopefully changing before our very eyes.  Publishers in East Africa have been accused of being more focused on textbooks as a Kenyan writer said recently.  The now vibrant scene of poetry in Uganda was given a big prod by the Lantern Meet of Poets, a group of young poets in Uganda but generally the scene has been  quite laying a little low. The publishing of poetry especially has not been as alive as in some Latin American and Persian speaking countries.   Though the tradition of oral poetry can be found among most ethnic groups in Uganda eg the baGanda, baSoga, baHima, banyaRwanda and baKiga ethic groups, a lot of this great poetry has not been widely distributed in the written word.

BNP Poetry and Beverly Nambozo ( Vice Versa)

Beverly Nambozo's push therefore to encourage the submission of poetry and the publication of poetry such as in the A Thousand Voices Rising book of which she is the editor,  is really admirable. She s an inpiration and  encouragement to many aspiring  and established poets. For this particular poetry morning,  she brought together poets, singers and spoken word artists that made that morning memorable and beautiful for all who were there. Her coordination and wonderful set up of this meeting for a mid morning reading of poetry about ' love, romance nebigenderako' was brilliant. She is also organizing a poetry award for unpublished poetry, the BNP Poetry Award competition running up to May 2015. Her  dedication and work is a gift to the many poets in Uganda and a  bright hope for the future of poetry in Uganda and Africa.