A critique of governance in Ugandan poetry: a study of selected poems of Henry Barlow, Timothy Wangusa and Susan Kiguli

Abstract

This study analyzed the portrayal of governance in the selected poems of Henry Barlow, Timothy Wangusa and Susan Kiguli. The study used qualitative research methods and involved critical reading of the selected poems, compilation and analysis of relevant literature. Using the new criticism theory, the study analyzed the poets' use of figures of speech, linguistic, structure and graphological features to portray the subject of governance. The study's findings reveal that Ugandan poetry is majorly a discourse on Uganda's state of governance. The three poets effectively pmiray bad governance characterized by political instability, dictatorship, corruption, pove1iy, injustice, neglect of duty by public servants, wanton loss of human life and excessive involvement of the security agents in politics. The figures of speech through which this state of affair is portrayed include: irony, personification, rhetorical questions, allusion, imagery, symbolism and juxtaposition in the portrayal of governance in Ugandan poetry. The study reveals that these features enable the poets not only to highlight evils of bad governance but also to underscore the fact that bad governance is due to bad leaders. The study establishes that figures of speech are used to criticize patiicular individuals and public institutions responsible for bad governance. The study also analyses neologism, lexical sets, different languages and dialect, diction and register as linguistic features which the poets deliberately use to emphasize the subject of bad governance. Finally, the study reveals that the poets describe the subject of bad governance using graphological deviation, parallelism, external graphology and meter. Through these features, the poets emphasize the bad governance in post-independence Uganda.