The writer of the story Inga Gaile
Do you know that Stella Nyanzi (Stella Nyanzi, 1974), a poet from Uganda, on the platform Facebook arrested and sentenced to 18 months in prison for published poems? Her 2018 poems satirized President Yoweri Museveni, who has been Uganda’s president for 37 years and has removed all democratic restrictions that would prevent him from continuing as president. Museveni is a dictator who aggressively targets the opposition, arresting, torturing and killing them.
Stella Njanzi attacked him in a poem written in the style of radical vulgarity, drawing public attention to the corruption, dictatorship and tyranny that has gripped Uganda under Museveni. Even Stella’s supporters criticized her for being excessively vulgar and for mentioning the president’s mother in the second poem.
Stella Nyanzi’s poems are sensual, direct, and angry. Stella has also said that the government and the president did not pay attention to what she said, as long as it was said politely and calmly, but when she wrote a poem in the style of radical rudeness, attention was immediately paid to it. Of course, Stella personally suffered a lot from her actions. In prison, she lost her unborn child as a result of the violent treatment of the guards.
Thanks to her bold step, what is happening in Uganda received more attention from the international community. Society drew attention to the inhumane legislation directed against homosexuals. Testimony from more than 200 people accusing senior Ugandan officials, including the president and his son, of torture, murder and other crimes against humanity was submitted to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
In her poem “Mango”, which was sung in Latvian by Ilmārs Šlāpins, Stella says:
The institution of the presidency is rotten through and through,
Worms of corruption, violence and lawlessness,
The Cabinet of Ministers only catalyzes the rotting process.
They are traitors to the common people.
The decaying judicial system serves the fat cats.
Themis is sold to the highest bidder.
Parliament deteriorates faster than sour milk.
Legislators can be bribed for thirty pieces of silver.
Those who cannot be bribed are beaten, tortured, broken and buried in a grave.
Armed forces shoot at unarmed people.
Mass media muzzled –
Set free, they only praise the dictator.
Our national institutions are a sweet-smelling, rotten mango.
From the court – the fish starts to rot from the head.
While Stella Nyanzi was in prison, PEN – the International Writers’ Organization for Freedom of Expression – campaigned for her release.
Currently, Stella Njanzi lives in exile in Berlin with her three children and fights for Uganda’s freedom from the physical safety of exile. “Valodu māja” publishing house is preparing Stella Njanzi’s collection of poems “Mēle trimdiniece” in Latvian for publication. It will be the second book in a series of contemporary translated poetry that focuses on poets from different countries and languages who write about social issues.
In the poem “Exile: A Poem of Hope”, Stella Nyanzi writes:
Fleeing political persecution,
Running away, taking only the essentials with you
and taking children in carts.
A son on each shoulder
and the daughter in the middle, on the back.
Running away from killers
fleeing from torturers
fleeing from those who kidnap women and men
simply because we have different views.
Exile – a place to breathe – yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
without fear of death
without fear of arrest.
Exile – a place to dream and dream again about freedom.
Exile – a place to tell stories about our home.
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2023-09-25 21:03:19
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