Doreen Baingana

Doreen Baingana (born 1966) is a Ugandan writer. Her short story collection, Tropical Fish, won the Grace Paley Award for Short Fiction in 2003 and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for best first book, Africa Region in 2006. Stories in it were finalists for the Caine Prize in 2004 and 2005. She was a Caine Prize finalist for the third time in 2021 and has received many other awards listed below.

Quotes

• I want to potray Africa as it is.
• I also wanted to explore how girls become women. It's a whole journey. From little innocent girls who are not yet gendered, suddenly they have to begin seeing themselves as a woman. The process of this transformation through lived experiences is very interesting.
• The beauty of storytelling or fiction is that all these things can be analysed within it. They say God is in the details. For that, you have to go down to the senses. What did I smell, hear, touch? By writing this down, we can make the reader also sense the same and experience the story from the inside out. The language that we use also adds another dimension to the story.
• Unfortunately, my grandparents became Christians really early so I didn't have that traditional upbringing of having stories told to me by my ancestors. But the kind of education that I had, many of the oral stories were taught to us as history. I was always aware of our oral tradition. So when writing I always think about what I can bring in from oral tradition. When I write a draft, I read it out loud to hear how it sounds. Because of my education, I write in English. But I believe we are still too influenced by Western literary traditions. Hence, I try to add vernacular words to bring the flavor of that particular place.
• I think the awareness of that difficulty is the first step. I am not just going to mimic Western writing. I am always aware of my voice, I feel it in my bones and I can try to tap into that. There is a space of mystery from a blank page to a written one. There is much that you know and much that you don't. That creates your unique voice.
• There was a time in the '60s when most of the African writers were men. They were also largely political as they were involved in the struggle for independence. Women are always considered as the carrier of culture, the representation of culture.
• I have done it for so long, especially when I lived in the US that it became the way I operate as a writer. I have to keep explaining who I am and where I come from. In one sense, it's good because it makes things clearer. I have to think through things. In another sense, I try to subvert it, if I can, by not instilling the expectations. When I am on my continent, I am home, but everywhere else, I am alien.

• I'm glad that plurality was the theme of this festival. It encompasses so many things, it is plural. But it is a way of seeing how we can be many diverse things and yet come together as one to discuss ideas from so many different perspectives. People come in with varied experiences, and cultures to form a web that is interconnected and exploring those connections is truly exciting.

• I do believe that this is an extra burden that is placed upon us that the white world does not have to worry about. We don't just have to explain our writing but our culture too.

• Oh my goodness! These are questions that appear to be so simple but they are not. There is this thing called speed reading. I think what I was doing was different. There is always reading which is cramming for class. But reading where you engage your imagination through stories, poems, creative nonfiction, that is what I call reading with a capital R where you are engaged as the author in the content you are reading.

• Oh my goodness! These are questions that appear to be so simple but they are not. There is this thing called speed reading. I think what I was doing was different. There is always reading which is cramming for class. But reading where you engage your imagination through stories, poems, creative nonfiction, that is what I call reading with a capital R where you are engaged as the author in the content you are reading.

• Yes. you’re actively engaged and you are doing as much work as the author. For example when you’re in a movie, they create the sound, the light, the atmosphere, you do all that with a novel in your own head.

• I think many people can relate especially if you are a family that respects education. Education outside the school setting. Education happens all the time. We had books all over the place. Our parents read. We had a library at Lake Victoria Primary School, Entebbe. We had horrible TV. That helped a lot.

• I thought that words on a page took me to different places, different ages for example imagining Gipir and Labong or Kintu and Nambi, I don’t know how many centuries that was. The maumau rebellion. Reading all these stories and seeing them become alive. This is when I was struck by the power of these words. I think through the descriptions and narrative flow, the imagery, poetic language makes books come alive.

• I used to think initially that what’s on the page is not our everyday life. It was more like writing about something else. And I think that’s part of our mission as writers to show our lives on page. I think it is getting better now. But we want more children’s books on lives that they identify with. Our everyday lives. Stories with traditional folktales.
• I completely understand you. We have this woeful habit where once a book is borrowed is never returned. They think it is a gift. I don’t know where this culture comes from. On the one hand if one is an avid reader and they want to read and keep your book, I think that it is a plus. But on the other hand, it is just our lack of respect for people’s valued personal property.
• Uhhhm! People would say, why don’t you do this as a hobby. Which was perfectly logical. At the end of the day, I had to put food on the table and I had the degree. But then I had this thing which appeared to be a dream, people gave me a lot of pragmatic advice; do it on the side, do it at night… but I am rather stubborn or rather if I do something I don’t’ like, I don’t put in 100%.

Luckily, I was very far from the people who cared and gave me advice. So it was a lot easier not to follow the advice. On the other side where I was, there was a whole world that showed me the value of a literary life. It was really stimulating. It was much more reliable and viable than when you’re here.

• I think what a story does that is different from other forms of communication is that you engage with what the other person is saying not only with the mind but with the heart and the senses. And that is the power of storytelling. It is easy to say “stealing is bad but if you have a story that conveys how bad stealing is, then the reader will understand it without feeling being lectured to. They will say it like it was from them.
• We are always telling stories to ourselves and to others in terms of what we do and why we do it. It’s all a story. The first thing to think about is your audience you are telling the story to. Even us fiction writers are not always writing to ourselves. If you are exploring a particular idea, in what ways can you explore that idea to your audience.
• Our population is very young. Where the youth congregate and have a bigger audience are schools. That’s the best place for them to get to interact with reading and writing. That’s one place to start. Make writing clubs as exciting.

• I love law but it was just not creative enough for me, although other lawyers would say there is creativity there, but my kind of creativity has to do with imagination, storytelling, and a different way of thinking; so I prefer to write. I imagine situations and issues and then create something out of them.

• I think there are still those expectations. The world still look at Africa in the negative light, but in Lagos, for example, there are skyscrapers, flyover bridges, etc; this is a functional modern African city and can be compared to other modern cities in the world.

• First of all, I always like that when a story goes out into the world, it is open to interpretation. The story keeps coming alive, as each person who reads it also recreates it. My intentions are secondary to your impressions as a reader, and I believe that every impression is valid.

• There is something weird in our human psyche, maybe it’s a survival mechanism, to find laughter in the tragic. They say you have to laugh to stop yourself from crying.

• Mzee’ is a Kiswahili title used to show respect for an old man; it’s not his actual name. (Our president, Yoweri Museveni, is also referred to as ‘Mzee’.) The old man represents old values that supposedly should be respected, but unfortunately his values are suspect, as evidenced by the lack of respect the boy’s mother has for him.

• My passion for writing has always been intertwined with sharing what I learn along the way with novice writers. Perhaps this is because I began writing by taking lots of workshops back when I lived in the United States, and enjoyed the discussions and exchange. Also, while doing my MFA, I enjoyed teaching undergraduates and have continued teaching in many varied venues since then.

• Teaching helps you clarify your own ideas and make meaning out of what you do. In the classroom, you are able to delve into the mystery of the creative act, to articulate it, and as a result, see students’ work get better, which is exciting. It’s fun to work through the technicalities of writing with those who are passionate about it. Also, writing can be quite isolating; sitting alone in your room with your computer. Teaching is one way to stay in touch with a writing community.