Writing without tears through 90 book titles, 1,000 radio plays

Magoba, one of the leading Luganda authors, says he started writing while in Senior Four in 1967.
He says of his 90 titles, 60 are for adults and young adults, while 30 are children’s storybooks, with five of his works for adults examinable at Ordinary, Advanced, and university levels of education in Uganda.

His first novel, written in 1976 and titled Mbayiwa, rotates around an ambitious and very lowly-paid junior civil servant, Mbayiwa, who falls in love with a high class girl. In order to stay afloat and impress her, he fleeces his illiterate mother. 

But with time, he runs short of money and absconds from his girlfriend. 
At the time Mbayiwa was swimming in money, his efficiency at work was adversely compromised and was soon dismissed from his job. He tries his hands at casual labour and joins a gang of robbers. On his first attempt on robbery, he narrowly escapes death. Seeing a very dark future ahead, he commits suicide. 

Kirimulu is a novel about very corrupt friends, who are never satisfied with what they have and are more than ever ready to fight tooth and nail to get more.
His other novels and novellas include Kaku n’emmotoka (2012), and Beti omuzira (2013). He is currently writing his third English-Luganda novella.

Talantina (2014) is a short bilingual novella about a 12-year-old girl, Talantina, who avoids sexual advances from her male schoolmates, teachers and the public. It is a didactic story that encourages youngsters to stay in school, take pride in themselves and their education.

His other children’s books are Wakoze Susu Ku Bulili, Kintu ne Nambi, Seka nga bw’oyiga, Musanyusa (two volumes), Entandikwa y’Oluganda, Lumu mu nsi y’amazike, and Tobbanga, among others.

His 1977 philosophical play, Zonna Mpayipayi, published by Marianum Press in 2001, discusses the source of true human happiness. Is it money, sex, power, drugs, or social status? An illiterate brother of a sophisticated disillusioned medical doctor has a very simple solution for him: a constant and sincere search for inner peace.

Among his other plays are The Dance of Ogres (1980), and Namulanda (2013), Semitego Omuyizzi Kungwa is a translation of a play in English titled Semitego the Great Hunter by Mercy Mirembe Ntangaare. 
His poetry collections are Nyumirwa engero mu bitontome (2016), and Wakayima atontoma (2017).

Since 1999, Magoba has hosted a weekly programme, Ekyoto on CBS FM, one of the most popular Luganda language radio stations in Kampala. The cultural show includes excerpts of plays, poems, songs or well-known Kiganda stories. During this period, he says he has written 1,040 radio plays. 

His literature focuses on Ganda culture and language, the genealogy of Buganda’s clan system, kings and rulers, customs and rites, proverbs, love, marriage, and social life, among others.
Magoba singles out a poor reading culture, parents who view reading vernacular books as demeaning, lack of Luganda teachers at the primary school level, a poor book distribution network, and poverty as the main challenges facing the [Luganda] book industry. 

“I cannot claim to have won the battle yet. It is just the beginning of an uphill crusade to establish a permanent love for reading among the Luganda-speaking people. It must be recalled that most adults are not avid readers. They cannot, therefore, be champions of a reading culture for their children,” the prolific writer tells Saturday Monitor.  

“So sales of Luganda children’s books are still a nightmare. Starting with the rural areas where the majority of Luganda-speaking children live. The following factors militate against brisk sales. Poverty makes buying a book for a child an obvious luxury,” the self-published author adds.  
“Then the majority of urban and elite parents who could afford a copy before Covid-19 struck used to see reading a Luganda book as a demeaning exercise for their children.”

“To make matters worse, Luganda is not an examinable subject in the Primary Leaving Examinations, and many head teachers in very many urban schools view the language as a time wasting subject. Moreover, there are hardly any trained teachers to teach the language at primary school level. Of course, I cannot overlook the cosmopolitan composition of urban schools where teaching Luganda is seen as a very questionable decision.

“Effective book distribution in Uganda is a big challenge, bookshops are located only in major cities and municipalities, and they survive mainly on selling text books. Books written for sheer intellectual pleasure make very miserable sales upcountry.  I mainly depend on the good will of teachers and parents to market my children’s works,” he says. 

Magoba says he decided to write mainly in Luganda, his mother tongue, to carter for those who do not speak English. 
“First of all, the greatest majority of Luganda-speaking people do not know English yet they have a right to enjoy quality literature in the only language they use in their day-to-day life,” he says. 

“Secondly, most of my target group lives in rural areas and are grappling with ignorance and poverty. Some of my literary works are intended to empower them in order to improve their social and economic predicament. With financial and moral assistance from Buganda Kingdom’s Radio Station CBS FM, I established the only Luganda magazine Entanda ya Buganda, which I edited for 10 years.”
  
Magoba, who is also a businessman, says he decided to concentrate on children’s literature 27 years ago as an avenue to inculcate a culture of reading among the young people. 

“It was not until 1994 when I realised I was making a very grave mistake to concentrate on adults’ works, which I likened to building a house starting from the roof by neglecting the children, who are the foundation. So I started writing for them in order to instil in them a permanent love for reading.” 
“My children’s books range from folktales retold and original creative works designed to pass to them core human values such as consideration for others, loyalty, charity, truth, forgiveness, among others,” he adds.
“Besides writing to inform, entertain, and empower my readers, I write in order to enrich my language with more works of different genres and age groups,” he says.  
Magoba says he welcomes whoever wants to translate his books into any language. 
“I am delighted that we are getting more people writing, especially in English,” he says. 

“I am confident that with time, the reading culture in Uganda will improve,” he adds.
Magoba says from 2014 until 2020, he organised children’s literature and literacy festivals in different primary schools to gauge the levels of appreciation and comprehension of his works among his target group. 

Between 2014 and 2016, Magoba established a children’s bilingual newsletter in English/Luganda titled Diamond/Daimanda, which he suspended for logistical reasons. He moved around schools collecting stories written by children themselves and picking out the best to be published in the newsletter. He says his aim was to groom the children to learn both languages and empower them through literature.

Asked if he has plans to retire from the gruelling process of writing, Magoba replies: “No, I’m not planning to retire because writing is part of me.” 
As to how he unwinds after a hard day’s work, Magoba, says: “I wind my day with jogging, after which I listen to music or view a telenovela with my wife Annet while sipping a cup of black coffee with groundnuts or roast maize.”

Volongoto  
Volongoto is a Luganda children’s novella advocating respect for other people’s cultures. Atim, an Acholi girl, is sent by her father to study in a primary school in Buganda. She is mistreated by her classmates on account of her tribe and Acholi-English accent. Atim and her close friend perform the Acholi royal Bwola dance and emerges the best cultural item at a festival.  All her classmates publicly apologise to her for being unfair to her. She forgives them and they live happily thereafter.

Background 
Magoba was born in Kamuli, Kakiri in Wakiso District in central Uganda on December 20, 1946. He launched his journalism career at Radio Uganda in 1968, where he worked up to 1978. While at Radio Uganda, he penned 944 short stories, 87 poems and 986 radio plays. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Administration from Makerere University. He lives in Kampala and Kamuli with his family. 

Awards and works
Magoba won the third prize in the 2021 National Cultural Heritage Awards for his efforts in promoting and preserving the Kiganda culture through literature. He received the prize in the Intangible Cultural Heritage category during the fourth National Cultural Heritage Awards ceremony organised by the Cross-Cultural Foundation of Uganda (CCFU) held at the Uganda National Museum in Kampala on May 24. 

CCFU recognised Magoba for authoring books documenting traditional Kiganda culture and are used to teach children about their traditional values, beliefs, customs, as well as history. For about 20 years, Magoba has been the brains behind the Ekyoto radio programme on CBS through which traditional values and customs, including stories and proverbs, are transmitted to young people.
 
In 1977, the Uganda Cultural Centre recognised Magoba with the Best Script Award for his philosophical play Zonna Mpayippayi, and a Special Award for his children’s multilingual opera titled The Dance of Ogres in 1980.
In 2017, Magoba received the Native Book Authors, Publishers and Book Sellers’ Lifetime Achievement Award.

From 2003 – 2014, Magoba was chief editor of the CBS magazine Entanda ya Buganda that concentrates on culture, economic and social development in Buganda. 
Form 1967 to 2003 he was a columnist for eight local newspapers: Munno, The Voice of Uganda, Focus, Omukulembeze, Ngabo and Bukedde.

Nasobola Ekitasoboka is Magoba’s autobiography and recounts how he has kept his literary flame burning for half a century in a country the South Sudanese author Prof Taban lo Liyong terms a literary desert. 
Magabo has proved that it is possible to establish a literary oasis in a local language.

He is a member of Akademe Ya Luganda, a local academy that seeks to elevate Luganda to a level where it would be capable of decoding and disseminating every branch of human knowledge from the international languages into Luganda for the benefit of those who are literate in Luganda only. 

Magabo is also a member of the International Literacy Association – a USA-based body that promotes children’s and youth’s literacy around the world. 
Magoba has attended and presented papers at several local and international conferences.

In 2016, he joined hands with Crossroads Africa Multimedia Ltd to write scripts in Luganda to animate Buganda’s clans and coin new proverbs and sayings in Luganda.

Radio
On air
Since 1999, Magoba has hosted a weekly programme, Ekyoto on CBS FM, one of the most popular Luganda language radio stations in Kampala. The cultural show includes excerpts of plays, poems, songs or well-known Kiganda stories. During this period, he says he has written 1,040 radio plays.