Nambozo's new bold poetry anthology takes on her past past life
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Loading... - Irene Komba
- 07 Mar 2022
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Ugandan poet Beverley Nambozo's second poetry anthology Dress Me in Disobedience is deeply personal and tackles issues like romantic love, travel, sexual and emotional abuse and church hypocrisy.
The anthology, published by her company Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation in 2022, is based on the poet’s experiences in three decades as a Christian, and is proof of her boldness and courage in taking on matters mostly discussed behind closed doors.
Nambozo, who has a Master’s of Fine Art in Creative Writing from Lancaster University in the UK, says in the Poet’s Note that the writing the collection was both a nightmare and a fulfilling pleasure.
In an e-mail interview with The EastAfrican, she said, “The poems comprise scars from 30 years of misguided faith. I take responsibility for being so gullible and taking people’s word at face value. My lack of discernment from 30 years ago led me into many pits, most of them as a result of an insatiable need for validation.
“I was hurled into fellowships; I gave out money, and time, not realising that God was the answer, and not humans. In this poetry collection, I cry out, laugh out, sing, dance and weep at the things I lost, because I lacked prudence."
She says the collection took her two years to compile and that she was grateful for the past few years because, from 2020, she was able to reassess her past 30 years and reclaim her rightful place. Her story is captured in the poem My Story Changed at 3am, in which she laments waking up at 3am from a self-induced comatose of 30 years of one scarring decision after another, one misleading friend after another.
The poem "Dress Me in Disobedience", which lends the collection its title, states in part;
Dress me in disobedience
allow the fabric of ides
draw its curtain over my eyes
so that I can no longer see you.
The 55-page collection has 41 poems divided into three parts.
In the third part, Nambozo takes the reader to places she has been to: St. Margaret’s School in Hampstead, London, Lake Nalubaale (Lake Victoria), Butare-Rwanda, Bujumbura and the Nyali Beach in Mombasa. Read More…
