Many books come from trauma – Kampala Writes LitFest Day Two
The theme of this year's festival is 'Where Do Stories Come From?' but there was no need to ask that here. The story came from what happened to Amony and thousands of other young girls who were abducted and turned into sex slaves by the rebels.
Evelyn Amomny, one of rebel leader Joseph Kiny's 'wives'. With the book she wrote from her experiences, at the Kampala Writes LitFest, National Theatre, on Saturday. Right is Beatrice Lamwka. (Photos by Kalungi Kabuye)
________________
It was difficult to ask Evelyn Amony questions during Day Two of the 2026 Kampala Writes LitFest at the National Theatre. And it was not because, having stopped formal education in Primary Four, her English was sketchy. She had an interpreter to help with that.
Amony lives with the unwanted reality that for 11 years she was one of Joseph Kony's 'wives'. The leader of the Lord's Resistance Army abducted her from her home when she was eleven. She gave birth to her first child at 14, and went on to have two more, although she has not seen her third child for 20 years.
She eventually escaped and has put her experiences in a book, I Am Evelyn Amony. Published after years of difficult soul-searching, the book was the subject of a discussion on Saturday afternoon, moderated by Beatrice Lamwaka.
Trauma was also the source of another book, Born at the End of the World, by Ethiopian writer Donica Merhazion. The book is based on what the writer's parents went through during Ethiopia's Red Terror from 1976 to 1978 — a period of state-sponsored mass murder, torture and political repression by the military junta led by Mengistu Haile Mariam.
Merhazion was joined by Ugandan-American poet Tramaine Suubi for the late-afternoon BookTalk, moderated by Philip Matoogo.
Ama Dadson, Chika Unigwe, and Mirrianne Mahn, at the Kampala Writes LitFest, National Theatre, on Saturday. Right is Beatrice Lamwka
Those two BookTalks capped what was a fiery and at times explosive second day of the festival. The morning featured a panel on 'Beyond Literary Recognition', where award-winning authors Joshua Lubwama (Commonwealth Short Story Prize, Africa region), Yvonne Kusiima (finalist, Caine Prize for African Writing) and Zabu Wamara (joint winner, Island Prize 2025) discussed how winning awards had changed their writing and their lives.
But it was the all-female panel during the discussion on 'The Imagination Gap: Who Gets to Imagine the Future?' that caused sparks to fly. Kenyan writer Wanjiru Koinange moderated the panel, which included Nigerian creative writing professor Chika Unigwe, Ugandan writer Edna Ninsiima, Ghanaian publisher Ama Dadson, and Cameroonian-German writer Mirrianne Mahn.
Just before that, Dr Gladys Kalema-Zikusooka, Uganda's first wildlife veterinarian, read excerpts from her book, Walking with Gorillas. She was joined by Deborah Tendo — Kenyan with a Ugandan father — whose book, Rough Silk, is about father-daughter relationships.
The festival continues today, Sunday, at the National Theatre.