Kagayi Ngobi: Prose, verse, and the man

Everyone has their definition of the first time they met poet Peter Kagayi Ngobi. For some, it was through his poetry, others on stage during a recital or the theatrical productions. Then, he still went by his Christian name Peter.

Some people thought Kagayi was theatrical, aggressive and a salesperson. 

Then there are those that met him before they even heard his voice; they learnt about him after reading his poetry, especially after the publication of the first edition of his first anthology, The Headline That Morning.

For those, Kagayi is a teacher, wordsmith, prophet and to this same group, he incites violence.

Kagayi has in the past published three anthologies of political poetry such as The Headline That Morning, Yellow Pupu and For My Negativity, last year, he even released a 2021 edition of The New Headline That Morning. 

But before Kagayi the figure that has influenced resistance poetry or the man behind initiatives such as Verse in Vac, Kitara Nation and all those serialised poetry slums he has helped create in high schools, there is a story.

He cut his teeth while performing with The Lantern Meet of Poets, after he had been invited for one of their performances when he was still a law student at Makerere University.

He says the first time he attended a poetry show was when a friend invited him for a Lantern Meet of Poets event at the National Theatre. Then he had interest in poetry but much of his writing were love poems, but, that night changed his view of poetry.

“My understanding of poetry groups was that it could be about girls discussing flowers. My friend was part of the Lantern Meet of Poets and had been inviting me for shows but I did not go,” he says.

Joining Lantern Meet

It was not until the next semester that he showed up for one,  because Lantern Meet used to have shows at the beginning of every semester  “It was the first time I was hearing of a poetry group, the first time I was hearing of a group of Ugandans that write poetry and now I was hearing of a poetry show, in fact, they called it a recital.”  

Even coming for the recital was his first time at the National Theatre and Kagayi still remembers that day like a pastor knows his word.

“The first thing that blew me away was the fact that it was  full house. I was thinking, there is a community of people who love listening to poetry, so my passion is not really misplaced,” he says, adding that the hospitality had also blown him away, the show was free, on arrival they were offered cake and soda.

Remember, his idea of poetry was about flowers…  

“I walked in and the poetry these guys were reciting had extreme themes. There was a poem about the death of the Kyabazinga, there were philosophical poems, those about culture, politics and they had dramatised it. What I was watching deconstructed  my idea of poetry,” he says.

After the performance, he knew poetry was what he wanted to do, but he was still a Law student, a bored one. At that time, he asked Grace Kamya, the friend that had invited him to the recital in the first place, when they met, and as they say, the rest is history. 

Lantern Meet of Poets

Then, the Lantern Meet of Poets was a movement, influence and a culture shift. A community of writers and thinkers who express their creativity through the writing, performing and reciting of poetry.  At the beginning of the 2010s, the community became a face of Ugandan poetry thanks to a team of ambitious writers and performers such as Raymond Ojakol, Collins Asiimwe, Guy Mambo and Alal B. Sophia.

The community grew and later attracted performers that have continued to leave footprints on Uganda’s poetry scene such as Jason Ntaro, Solomon Manzi, Daniel Nuwamanya, Amooti Wobusobozi, Anne Namuddu, Ibrahim Balunywa and Clare Asiimwe.

“The Lantern Meet played an important role in me choosing to become a poet.  you needed to meet that community to understand what it felt like to be around them and what it felt like to be a writer among peers. We were young, ambitious, arrogant and we dreamt big,” he says.

For Kagayi, however, the dream was personal, he wanted to be a Ugandan writer that reflected the dream his friends had, he wanted to be that Ugandan writer whose life was sustained by their writing. 

“My friends  and I wanted to be those writers but, we noticed that there were no structures. It was important to realise that if this thing was to work, we had to proclaim it and work on it,” he recounts.

When he dropped out of the Law Development Centre (LDC), he was already teaching poetry at Nabisunsa Girl’s School.  Kagayi says he knew sacrifices had to be made, either he continued preaching poetry and professionally continued studying and become a lawyer or become a writer and nurture talents, he noticed it was the only way they could actualise their big dreams.

“I told my parents that I was going to be a writer and at that time they knew there would not be money.  See my father is a writer but he too does not value writing, at that time I noticed they did not know so much about poetry,” he says.

Poetry  over  Law

Thus, when Kagayi chose poetry over law, he knew it was supposed to work, he knew he was supposed to understand things such as intellectual property, literature as a business as well as performing internationally.

Like all artists, his parents were not happy with his decision to take on art, he says they constantly asked him about getting a real job and, it was in 2015 that they actually started understanding him, that is when he released The Headline That Morning.  

The book was a result of his seven years of writing. Some of these poems had even been performed in the different meet-ups of Lantern Meet of Poets. However, by the time this book came out, he had left the poetry community.

“By the time some of us left Lantern Meet, they were onto the process of formalising, they were working on registering it as a professional company. It thrived when it was a movement, a collective of passionate writers. That is the irony,” he says.

He says the separation was probably meant to happen,  and says the movement created a revolution that many of the people that saw a poetry show in the early 2010s at least attended a Lantern Meet one. 

“And if Lantern Meet was a tree, the fruits dried out and the seeds got scattered in different directions. So many poetry initiatives have been started by people that were members of Lantern Meet or those trained by former members of Lantern Meet, when you hear of Kelele at Makerere, Ibua, Kitara Nation, there are a number of initiatives that came from the collective, it did not die, it grew into something different,” he says.

The Headline That Morning

Kagayi’s first poetry book collection and audio CD, The Headline That Morning were released almost a year after he left Lantern Meet. Initially, he was intending to self-publish but talked to Nyana Kakoma hoping he would convince her to edit the book. Then, Nyana used to run the popular blog Sooo Many Stories and she was turning it into a publishing house.

“She told me if I was willing to be patient, she would publish my book,” he says.

The Headline That Morning became Sooo Many Stories’  first publication,  later they would publish Philippa Kabali Kagwa’s Flame and Song. 

He says he was hell-bent on being a published writer because he loved being described as an author as opposed to being described as a writer.   But, he was sure people would buy his book and, was thinking about the business opportunities around poetry such as merchandising.

Majority of the poems in the book are works Kagayi had been performing as a member of the Lantern Meet, he says he believed the people that loved them would still buy the book.                 

Before Kagayi ventured into political poetry however, he wrote much romantic material. However, when Uganda was turning 50 in 2012, as Lantern Meet, the writers wondered how they would talk about Uganda as young writers. They discussed themes around politics, media, governance.

“When I was writing romantic things, I always followed the basics of poetry and the English rules. When I was writing for this project, I wrote the way I speak, which people call the Kagayi voice. In the past I had written for masses and this time  wrote according to how I was feeling and people loved the poems,” he says.

He has since continued writing poetry that is reflective of the current situation, some of his poems have been deliberate, while others were daring. For instance, he talks about a day he went for a poetry meet and the poet recited a poem about Uganda in future.

“You see at such gatherings, people listen to other people’s views but this guy told us to go and write our own and that is how In 2065 came about,” he says.

The critical poem has been performed by different Ugandan poets such as Manzi,  students from schools such as the Nabisunsa Girl’s and Makerere University. Every performance gives the poem a different voice and interpretation, Manzi  performed it in a university red gown and yet Kagayi has twice performed it in a kanzu.  Another time, it was performed as part of the Romeo and Juliet in Kampala play, he did the poem with a group on what seemed like a market day.  Kagayi only started performing the poem when it became part of his theatre poetry production The Audience Must Say Amen. 

Introducing Kitara

Today, Kagayi has spread his wings and veered into more than performance, he created his own poetry company, Kitara Nation and this quickly ventured into publishing. As a publication, Kitara Nation gives most of their young members an opportunity to publish their first collection.

But above all, many authors, some beyond theUgandan borders have been able to publish their poetry collections and anthologies through Kitara Nation.  Kitara Nation was started because of a grant that Kagayi said was going to go to Lantern Meet. However, he was the one interested in working with schools, when Bayimba approached him, they told him he needed to be registered to get the funding.  Kitara Nation has since published 22 books in a space of  two years, while others were published before.

Kagayi has published other books such as For My Negativity and Yellow Pupu poems. 

In 2018, shortly after the release of Yellow Pupu Poems, his would be unveiling show at the National Theatre was called off, “the managers told me why it was dangerous for me to have a show there, they told me of Byron Kawadwa, which I found very unfortunate, them using the memory of Byron to further artistic censorship.” 

In fact, he has never performed any of the poems in Yellow Pupu but believes he will one day.  Even with all hardships the trade comes with, he is happy many poets have started looking at their work as a business.

“The confidence that poets exude in living this as a profession is proof that people are realising this can be a job,” he says.