Poetry as a Means of Defending Human Rights in Uganda

Justice Matters

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Mathias Risse speaks with Danson Kahyana, a fellow at the Carr Center and Associate Professor in the Department of Literature at Makerere University in Uganda. His recent work includes an examination of the effects of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023 on artistic freedom; exploring the representations of the right to healthcare in Ugandan literary and other cultural productions and investigating the right to dignity among the elderly citizens as depicted in selected East African fiction. Mathias and Danson discuss these research areas as well as the current political situation in Uganda, his work using poetry to teach his students to articulate issues they face in society, the backlash he has faced to his work including the circumstances that led to being violently attacked in April 2022, his 2018 publication of a book of creative writing from inmates inside a Ugandan prison, his own poetry, as well as his current position as a Scholar at Risk at the Carr Center and how he finds courage to continue his work in the face of hardship.