Arthur Gakwandi is a novelist, short story writer and diplomat.
["Writers are mirrors of society, says Prof Arthur Gakwandi"]
observer.ug. Retrieved December 3, 2014. He wrote "Kosiya Kifefe",
["Kosiya Kifefe (by Arthur Gakwandi)"]
africabookclub.com. Retrieved December 3, 2014. the fifth work of literature written by a Ugandan to feature on the Ugandan syllabus since independence.
allafrica.com. Retrieved December 3, 2014. He is a lecturer in the Literature Department at
Makerere University
Makerere University, Kampala (; Mak) is Uganda's largest and oldest institution of higher learning, first established as a technical school in 1922. It became an independent national university in 1970. Today, Makerere University is composed of n ...
.
["BOOKS THEY READ: Prof Arthur Gakwandi "]
monitor.co.ug.Retrieved December 3, 2014. He was
Commonwealth Writers Prize
Commonwealth Foundation presented a number of prizes between 1987 and 2011. The main award was called the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was composed of two prizes: the Best Book Prize (overall and regional) was awarded from 1987 to 2011; the Best ...
judge for Africa in 2008.
["The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2008 "]
peepaltreepress.com. Retrieved December 3, 2014.
Early life and education
Gakwandi was born in Kajara. He attended
Ntare School
Ntare School is a residential all-boys' secondary school located in Mbarara, Mbarara District, south western Uganda. It was founded in 1956 by a Scottish educator named William Crichton.
Location
The school is approximately , by road, north o ...
in
Mbarara
Mbarara City is a city in the Western Region of Uganda and the second largest city in Uganda after Kampala. The city is divided into 6 boroughs of Kakoba Division, Kamukuzi Division, Nyamitanga Division, Biharwe Division, Kakiika Division, ...
and later
Makerere University
Makerere University, Kampala (; Mak) is Uganda's largest and oldest institution of higher learning, first established as a technical school in 1922. It became an independent national university in 1970. Today, Makerere University is composed of n ...
college where he earned his
BA. He later received an MLit degree from the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
. After years of teaching literature at Makerere, he joined the Ugandan diplomatic service in 1998 and served in various capacities as an ambassador.
Pan-Africanism
Gakwandi theorized a re-imagined African continent, due to his belief that "political restructuring of the continent is a more important priority that needs to be addressed before economic restructuring can bring about the desired results." Moreover, Gakwandi argues that the colonially-inherited borders are the source of the small size of the majority of African states, causing the levels of poverty, dependency, underdevelopment, and ethnic conflict that is currently experienced in the region. Thus, Gakwandi proposed the creation of a new political map of Africa that would eliminate landlocked countries, as a way to mitigate border disputes, reunite African nationalities currently divided by the colonial borders, provide new states with an adequate resource base, ease existing intrastate ethnic tensions, enhance Africa's world standing, and reduce inter-ethnic tensions. With these critical objectives in mind, Gakwandi proposed a new political map of Africa consisting of seven African conglomerate states to represent the critical regions of Africa. These seven new states consisted of the Sahara Republic, Senegambia, Central Africa and Swahili Republic, Ethiopia, Swahili Republic, Mozambia, and Madagascar. The Sahara Republic state would encompass North Africa, Senegambia would encompass West Africa, the Central Africa and Swahili Republic would encompass Central Africa, Ethiopia would encompass modern-day
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
as well as
Eritrea, the Swahili Republic would include East Africa and art of Central Africa, Mozambia would include Southern Africa. In Gakwandi's imagining,
Madagascar
Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...
would remain as it currently stands and would not be incorporated into a new republic.
Published works
Novels
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Commentary
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Literary Criticism
*
References
External links
"We can’t run away from urban literature as part of setbooks "
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gakwandi, Arthur
1943 births
Living people
Ugandan novelists
Male novelists
Ugandan male writers
Makerere University alumni
Ugandan male short story writers
Ugandan short story writers
Academic staff of Makerere University
Kumusha
People educated at Ntare School