Footsteps of the Kakalabanda: The poetry of fables, love and more
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Loading... - Afiya Agaba
- 15 Mar 2023
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The literary offering “Footsteps of the Kakalabanda” by Ronald K Ssekajja is a book of haunting poetry, which has little to do with ghouls and ghosts.
It is actually themed on love, betrayal, pain, politics and Africanism with the word “Kakalabanda” being used as a metaphor for the author’s rendering of these themes.
The anthology’s poetic proceedings begin with the poem; I am going to smoke a joint:
“I will today smoke something!
To feel nice; walk on the solid clouds just below heaven sip on the cup of life that is non-existent, and while I am high.
I will at least forget the bad economy, the bad roads, and the bad governance of this country…”
The persona’s diction runs on a subversive momentum as each word stumbles to the next with the confidence of a dope-addled mind.
As with all inebriety, it starts off light-heartedly. Then the poem takes on a different, less playful and more serious tone.
The image of weed and the persona’s longing to get “high” becomes subject to a complex combination of innocence and insightful twists of mind.
What we thought was possibly parody (of the persona) now leads to short, staccato condemnations of the socio-political and economic realities in Uganda. Read More…
