Once unknown in Rwanda, book industry now growing
-
Loading... - Abel Ingabire
- 14 Mar 2023
- 52 Views
- 0 Like
- 0 Comment
Barbara Umuhoza who published her first book titled 'SHAPED' last year. Photo by Olivier Mugwiza
Fifteen years ago, my friends in FEMRITE, an organisation of women writers in Uganda, asked me to identify a budding woman writer from Rwanda to take part in a women writers workshop in Kampala. It was a pleasant assignment and I thought it was going to be easy.
I looked around, and asked people, but could not find any. Not that there weren’t any Rwandan women writers. But they were already established and FEMRITE wanted those beginning to develop their craft. In any case, nearly all of them lived outside the country.
There was another limitation. I was looking for writers of imaginative works and in English.
But I think even if I had been asked to identify men writing in that genre and language, I would still have had difficulties finding them.
That was then, 2008. Many years later, there is a burst in literary activity. Many Rwandan writers, women among them, are writing and publishing their works. Hardly a month passes without the launch of a new book. I am not exaggerating. Read More….
