Where we are, Where we are going
Mubanga Kalimamukwento | Editor-in-chief
Mutu umodzi susenza denga
One head cannot carry a roof.
Chewa Proverb.
*Image by Kalenga Nkonge
Dear Ubwali reader,
A year ago, the idea of this magazine started to morph from a long-time private haunting to a public manifestation that you now know as Ubwali Literary Magazine. To keep myself accountable for the execution, I told as many people as was necessary about it––the writers we would publish in our first issue, the editors who would mentor me in the process, friends who had probably grown weary of my talking about this future magazine. Along with that desire for accountability, though, lingered in the back of my mind, a frightening whispering that if the people I shared this idea with were not as enthusiastic about the project, then the absence of their backing, collective or individual, would justify further delay in pulling this long-time dream out of the realm of fantasy. To my surprise, every person I asked to come along for the ride was on board. The writers brought their best work, were patient as we navigated our growing pains and accepted our editorial suggestions graciously. As much as my editorial team and I wanted to support the authors, to help them grow as artists, they too were helping us grow––teaching us through their actions how to run the magazine, how to develop it, and sustain it. Now that we are at a year’s milestone since Ubwali Literary Magazine, the legal entity, was born and are publishing our third and final issue of 2024, I feel called to do some reflection.
Firstly, although each issue has posed unique challenges, seeing the number of good submissions we receive skyrocket, but, due to a limited budget, cannot publish continues to ground me and is a regular reminder of the necessity of this work. I am still stunned by how far that initial support for this idea has fuelled the magazine in directions I couldn’t have fathomed at its inception. We now have a regular team of readers who make the editorial job easier by carefully screening the slush pile and significantly paring down our workload. I am so grateful for their role in our process. Since our first issue in February 2024, we developed the Ubwali Hope Prize Mentorship (UHPM) program, possible because of the mentorship of the incomparable Adedayo Agarau. One of my visions for the magazine was that, while it provides a soft landing to Zambian and other African authors, it would also be a stepping stone to greater heights. Anna Zgambo, our debut protégé under the UHPM, epitomised this in so many ways, one of which was starting her PhD in Literature at the University of Zambia, where she is researching Poetics of Lyric Figures: Tension, Fantasy, and Sensation in Contemporary Poetry Collections. We also established the Ubwali Masterclass, which we held successfully this past August, receiving some much-needed funding from Frances Ogamba. Her Frances Ogamba Scholarship for African Writers supported five of our fifteen scholars this year. The masterclass also gave our writers, who come from Zambia, Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria, the opportunity to work with world-renowned writers like Cheswayo Mphanza, Kiprop Kimutai, and Sheila O’Connor. In collaboration with Shenandoah, we successfully held our inaugural Hope Prize, which saw essayist Mukandi Siame emerge as the winner. We announced our first Best of the Net Nominations and with the help of our generous donors, we have remained and hope to continue being a paying market. Our editorial team also grew by two, adding to our initial composition: Kenyan Editorial Assistant (now Interviews Editor), Akal Mohan and Zambian Visual Arts Editor, Namukolo Siyumbwa. Amid all this growth, our amazing editors still had time to expand themselves as writers and editors: Our CNF editor, Fiske Nyirongo, attended the prestigious African Women’s Editorial Workshop by Cassava Republic Press at the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study and through her editorial organization, Tushimo Literary Services, our fiction editor, Mbozi Haimbe, held the Literacy Day Short Story Competition. We could barely keep track of Akal Mohan’s publications; most recently, his essay, Where Reasons End, was published in Doek! Literary Magazine and our Visual Arts Editor, Namukolo Siyumbwa, exhibited her stunning photography at the inaugural Zamstock Photos Group Photo Festival Exhibition.
This issue comes to you on the 60th anniversary of Zambia’s independence from British colonial rule. Now, as I ruminate on our collective and individual feats over the past year, I spot relationality between these stories of triumph and this year’s Independence Day theme, “60 years strong: honouring our heritage, embracing our future” for two reasons. Firstly, through their words and photographs, the artists in this issue, Austin Kaluba, Caesar Lungu, Chona Mwemba, Gideon Lukupwa, Isaac Kanyinji, Joe Nyirenda, Kalenga Nkonge, Lakish’a, Luse Kabinda, Musonda Mukuka, Muuka Gwaba, Mwanabibi Sikamo, Mwenya Chikwa, Mwila Agatha Zaza, Mwinji Siame, Natasha Devalia, Richard Phiri and Sindwa Kanyimba honour Zambia’s kaleidoscopic heritage, and embrace our literary future through their linguistic and artistic risks. For those creating in Zambia, I do not take it for granted that they produce under the strain of very limited access to electricity, some as little as two hours a day. That they were able to create at all, not to speak of the high quality of their work, is nothing short of spectacular––evidencing their strength and resilience. With the knowledge of this difficulty imposed on them, I ambivalently wish my fellow Zambians a happy Independence Day.
May we continue to thrive through the challenges, to repossess the language imposed on us and wield stories of our own creation and recollection, and together, may we forge a literary future we craved when we were beginning, in the dark, unaccompanied. As we re-open for submissions in January 2025, Ubwali is optimistic about the year ahead and is keen to see all of our projects going on with your continued support.
Till next time, happy reading.
