{"id":6123,"date":"2022-07-03T16:21:31","date_gmt":"2022-07-03T16:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ugandaupdatenews.com\/?p=6123"},"modified":"2022-07-03T16:21:37","modified_gmt":"2022-07-03T16:21:37","slug":"literature-music-and-fashion-cosmopolitan-kampala-in-the-1960s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/literature-music-and-fashion-cosmopolitan-kampala-in-the-1960s\/","title":{"rendered":"Literature, Music and Fashion: Cosmopolitan Kampala in the 1960s"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/td>By Anna Adima

Asian-Ugandan-hosted literary salon; South African-owned nightclub; glittering social scene \u2013 for Uganda\u2019s multiracial elite in the 1960s, Kampala offered ample opportunities for socialising and entertainment.

Unlike Nairobi, the capital city of neighbouring Kenya where Britain had established a settler colony and an accompanying apartheid system, Kampala was touted as a liberal city with \u201ca great deal of mixing going on all over the place\u201d between constructed racial groups, as Ugandan author Barbara Kimenye later wrote in her unpublished memoirs.[1]Kampala was home to Makerere University, which was arguably the best university in Africa in the 1950s and 60s.

The famous Makerere Hill, with its recognisable white and blue \u2018ivory tower\u2019, attracted academics from all over the world, both African and largely non-African, who contributed to Kampala\u2019s intellectual life. The university\u2019s Literature Department trained some of the best writers from across the continent, and Kampala\u2019s literary scene at the time was unparalleled across Africa \u2013 rivalled perhaps only by that of Ibadan, Nigeria.

The fact that the African Writers Conference was held at Makerere in 1962 is testament to the university\u2019s vibrant academic culture. Attended by some of the greatest names of African literature \u2013 such as Chinua Achebe, a young James Ngugi, Ezekiel Mphahlele, Grace Ogot and Rebeka Njau \u2013 the conference initiated debates around African literature that were to determine the field\u2019s direction for decades to come.

Kicking up one\u2019s heels in the bars and clubs of Kampala in the evenings was as much an integral part of the conference as discussions on literary theory, as Ng\u0169g\u0129 wa Thiong\u2019o later recalls in his memoirs, Birth of a Dreamweaver: \u201cSome of the writers from abroad did create social havoc in Kampala; they attracted groupies, women \u2013 white, black, Asian, married or not \u2013 who swooned at their company.

[They] left a trail of broken hearts and also a few broken homes.\u201d[2]The intellectual scene of Kampala was also effortlessly combined with its nightlife by the renowned Rajat Neogy, journalist and founder of Transition magazine, \u201cthe most daring and important literary and political journal of Africa\u2019s 1960s\u201d, which published writers from all over Africa.[3] His literary salons were a highlight of Kampala\u2019s social scene, and they attracted writers and artists of all races and backgrounds, reflecting a new and changing Uganda.

The circles were small, and familiar names in African history attended these salons: it was at one such party, for instance, that Ng\u0169g\u0129 wa Thiong\u2019o met, and was immediately captivated by, Barbara Kimenye, East Africa\u2019s most renowned children\u2019s book author.[4]Observing Barbara Kimenye\u2019s social life also gives us insight into the vibrancy of Kampala\u2019s social scene. A prominent social figure in Kampala, she was part of the entourage surrounding Kabaka Mutesa, the then King of Buganda, and was a regular at palace parties and other events around the city.

She met and interacted with Ugandan royalty of different ethnic groups, danced with the King of Burundi when he visited the Kabaka, and modelled in a fashion show. She had tea with South African writer Noni Jabavu and the latter\u2019s husband, Michael Cadbury-Crossfield, while the couple were living in Uganda, and a chance meeting with Kenyan politician Tom Mboya in a nightclub changed Barbara Kimenye\u2019s career direction.

Kampala in the 1960s was a city that celebrated diversity in creativity, entrepreneurship and culture, and the cosmopolitan figures that were drawn to its social scene can be seen as the predecessors of the modern \u2018Afropolitan\u2019.

Of course, it must be emphasised that these circles were the reserve of the socio-economic and intellectual elite, and would have been alien to the majority of Ugandans at the time. Socialising and interacting across racial barriers would have largely taken place along class lines, with expatriates mingling with elite Ugandans, and, presumably, rarely with working class Ugandans. In a time of increasing political repression, violent events formed a juxtaposed backdrop to the decadent whirl of Kampala high society\u2019s sundowners and parties, such as the Ugandan lost counties referendum of 1964, or the Nakulabye Massacre in the same year, in which state police slaughtered civilians in the Kampala suburb.

When Idi Amin seized power in 1971, Kampala\u2019s cultural life largely collapsed, and many intellectuals and creatives fled Uganda. Those who remained either refrained from any form of knowledge or art production entirely, or continued to do so at the cost of their lives.

However, memories of Kampala\u2019s past during Africa\u2019s decade of independence remained alive \u2013 a time during which it attracted thinkers and glitterati from all over the world. A multicultural and dynamic metropolis, Kampala truly was a global city.

Author\u2019s Bio:<\/strong> Anna Adima is a Leverhulme Trust Doctoral Scholar at the University of York, where she is researching the history of women\u2019s writing after independence in Uganda and Kenya. Anna is currently a visiting research student at the University of Edinburgh. Her PhD is part of the broader Leverhulme-funded project, \u2018Another World? East Africa and the Global 1960s\u2018.

Suggested further readings Selected biographies of East African figures who lived global lives (open access):\u00a0https:\/\/www.globaleastafrica.org\/<\/a>B. K. Kasozi, The Social Origins of Violence in Uganda, 1964-1985 (Montreal: McGill-Queen\u2019s University Press, 1994).Aili Mari Tripp and Joy C. Kwesiga (eds.)

The Women\u2019s Movement in Uganda: History, Challenges, and Prospects (Kampala: Fountain Publishers, 2002).Edgar Curtis Taylor, \u201cAffective registers of postcolonial crisis: the Kampala Tank Hill party\u201d, Africa: The Journal of the International African Institute, 89:3 (2019), pp. 541-561.Ng\u0169g\u0129 wa Thiong\u2019o, Birth of a Dream Weaver: A Writer\u2019s Awakening (New York The New Press, 2016).Richard J. Reid, A History of Modern Uganda (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017).Endnotes[1] Barbara Kimenye, \u201cArriving to a new life in Uganda\u201d,\u00a0https:\/\/www.monitor.co.ug\/News\/National\/-Arriving-to-a-new-life-in-Uganda\/-\/688334\/2885436\/-\/gyx0w8z\/-\/index.html<\/a>.[2] Ng\u0169g\u0129 wa Thiong\u2019o, Birth of a Dream Weaver: A Writer\u2019s Awakening (New York The New Press, 2016), p. 126-31.[3] Gerard McCann, \u201cRajat Neogy\u201d,\u00a0https:\/\/www.globaleastafrica.org\/global-lives\/rajat-neogy<\/a>.[4] Ng\u0169g\u0129 wa Thiong\u2019o, Birth of a Dream Weaver, p. 124.[5] Barbara Kimenye, \u201cBoat Cruise with Mutesa, Birth of Another Prince\u201d,\u00a0https:\/\/www.monitor.co.ug\/News\/National\/Boat-cruise-with-Mutesa\u2013birth-of-another-prince\/688334-2905988-yb9774\/index.html<\/a>; Barbara Kimenye, \u201cMutesa, Prince Mutebi survive, angry elephants\u201d,\u00a0https:\/\/www.monitor.co.ug\/Magazines\/PeoplePower\/Working-and-partying-at-Mengo-with-Kabaka-Mutesa\/689844-2908056-lpkqgq\/index.html<\/a>; Barbara Kimenye, \u201cFlu keeps Mutesa Home, Dance with Burundi King\u201d,\u00a0https:\/\/www.monitor.co.ug\/SpecialReports\/688342-2918224-ut0eq2\/index.html<\/a>; Elizabeth Oldfield, Transgressing Boundaries: Gender, Identity, Culture, and the \u2018Other\u2019 in Postcolonial Women\u2019s Narratives in East Africa (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2013), p. xvi.[6] See Taiye Selasie, \u201cBye-bye Babar\u201d, The Lip Magazine, 3 March 2005,\u00a0http:\/\/thelip.robertsharp.co.uk\/?p=76<\/a>.[7] See: Derek Peterson, \u201cViolence and Political Advocacy in the Lost Counties, Western Uganda, 1930-64.\u201d, The International Journal of African Historical Studies, 48:1 (2015), pp. 51-72; A. B. K. Kasozi, The Social Origins of Violence in Uganda, 1964-1985 (Montreal: McGill-Queen\u2019s University Press, 1994).<\/a><\/td>		<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Anna Adima Asian-Ugandan-hosted literary salon; South African-owned nightclub; glittering social scene \u2013 for Uganda\u2019s multiracial elite in the 1960s,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[65,200],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news","category-literature"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/pics-255.webp","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1526,"url":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/prof-mamdani-appointed-kiu-chancellor-as-his-son-wins-new-york-council-election\/","url_meta":{"origin":6123,"position":0},"title":"PROF MAMDANI APPOINTED KIU CHANCELLOR AS HIS SON WINS NEW YORK COUNCIL ELECTION","author":"UgandaUpdate","date":"July 25, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Ugandan celebrated academic Prof. Mahmood Mamdani has been appointed the new \u00a0 Chancellor of Kampala international University. 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