Tag Archives | Freedom

Abandonment or Freedom—the Shoes of Life

Since my arrival in Portland a few days ago, I’ve been struck by the number of shoes—pairs or singles—          left abandoned on sidewalks, parks or roadside. Mostly men’s, they vary in size, color, shape, and state of disrepair. Some are coated with dirt and mud, others spring clean, almost new. Only […]

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On Liberty, Freedom and Independence

I was an undergraduate at Makerere University, Kampala, when I first heard these words of Patrick Henry, “Give me liberty or give me death,” in a song by Carman, one of the funky gospel singers I loved to listen and dance to. That same tape had Larry Norman’s, “Why should the devil have all the […]

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Skipping with Jack Mapanje

Continuing with exile, writing, language, fight for freedom and human rights, it’s not sufficient to mention what an Eastern European poet like Paul Celan has in common with African writing; for instance,  Jack Mapanje. The consolation we find in language, however “foreign,” the haunting quality and the brokenness that language and rhythm carry to convey […]

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