Susan Kiguli, who first appeared in Poetry Africa in 2000, is a Ugandan poet and academic. She holds a PhD in English from The University of Leeds under the prestigious Commonwealth Scholarship Scheme. Her research interests fall mainly in the area of Oral Poetry, Popular Song and Performance Theory. She is a lecturer in the Department of Literature, Makerere University, Uganda, and has served as the chairperson of FEMRITE, the Ugandan Women Writers' Association.   Kiguli started writing poetry while in high school, and has since published widely in national and international anthologies and journals. She has read her poetry at international book fairs, literature festivals and conferences. It was, however, the publication of her first volume of poetry, The African Saga (1998) that situated her among the most exciting poets from Eastern and Southern Africa. The volume won the National Book Trust of Uganda Poetry Award (1999) and made literary history in Uganda by selling out in less than a year. A critic of poetry herself, she has written on Ugandan poetry, oral performance and the position of women writers in African literature.  

Kiguli has also served on the panel of judges for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize (African Region, 1999). She was also one of the regional coordinators for the Women Writing Africa Project (Eastern region, 1999-2000) and was on the Board of Advisors for Beyond Borders: A Festival of Contemporary African Writing, Uganda. She was also a special participant in the Yorkshire Professional Development for Writers of African and Asian Descent-INSCRIBE (2005-2006) Project initiated by Arts Council England, Yorkshire in partnership with Peepal Tree Press in Leeds.   Kiguli was a Commonwealth Researcher in residence at the University of Natal from September 2001 to February 2002. She was also a Poet in Residence at the Siftung Kunst: Raum Sylt Quelle, Germany between October and November 2008.  

My Mother In Three Photographs

Her face looks out

flawless

her sexuality electric

in a mini dress and sheer satin stockings

the girls of the 1960s

beautiful beyond belief.

She is looking through the camera

like her space is here and beyond

enchanting and enchanted

by the times when dreams of freedom were young

the fortunes of Uganda

hot and sizzling.

My mother in the 1970s

More sombre but her skin

Still flawless

The abrasive years gentle on her youth.

Her body wrapped in a long nylon dress

stopping her ankles and

full sleeves touching her wrists

hooded sorrow in her posture

the flowing dress

is not because

she is a widow (which is by government action)

but it is a government decree.

Her magnificence and elegance

Seems to support the given name of the dress

Amin nvaako.*

My mother in the 1990s

neat short hair

luring in its intricate curls.

She wears a busuuti

a sign of the times

a return home, a finding of

uncertain peace

a maturing of a woman and nation

an endorsement of a recognition of the troubles

she has weathered

a sitting down to count her losses and blessings

and a hand over of the future.

*Amin Nvaako means Amin let me be or Amin leave me alone.