Prof. Pumla Dineo Gqola will give the keynote address at the annual Femrite Week of Literary Activities to be held in Kampala, Uganda, from June 6 – 11, 2025.
Femrite is the Uganda Women Writers’ Association, which was founded in 1996 to encourage Ugandan women to contribute to national development through creative writing and to publish the works of Ugandan women writers. It has been at the forefront of platforming Ugandan women writers through workshops, mentoring, publishing, and submitting them to literary awards, which has led to their success in Uganda and internationally. These women include Doreen Baingana, Monica Arac de Nyeko, Beatrice Lamwaka, Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva, Lillian Aujo Akampurira, Glaydah Namukasa, Hilda Twongyeirwe, Harriet Anena (Ber Anena), and many others.
Since 2000, the organisation has hosted an annual week of literary activities featuring events such as panel discussions, workshops, performances, storytelling, book launches, literary presentations, lobbying, and advocacy activities for Ugandan literature, among other activities. The week brings together authors, academics, publishers, and many people in the literary world to discuss, celebrate, and talk about literature.
The 2025 edition is set to be hosted with the theme “Writing, Feminism, and Social Policy,” in Uganda’s capital, starting on Friday. Events planned in venues around Kampala will include school visits, a poetry bonfire night, a Book & Art Expo Open, an open mic, readings, and performances. There will be an event celebrating Ngugi wa Thiong’o, while the keynote address will be delivered by Prof. Pumla Dineo Gqola. Gqola, who is currently a professor at Nelson Mandela University, is the award-winning writer of What is Slavery to Me?: Postcolonial/Slave Memory in Post-Apartheid South Africa (2010), A Renegade Called Simphiwe (2013), Rape: A South African Nightmare (2015), Reflecting Rogue: Inside the Mind of a Feminist (2018), and Female Fear Factory: Gender and Patriarchy under Racial Capitalism (2021). Some of her awards have been the Canex Prize for Publishing in Africa and the Sunday Times Literary Awards.
Here is a full program of activities, which includes time, event, and venue.
Friday, June 6
8:00 am – 4:00 pm – School Visits
6:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Poetry Bonfire night – Femrite Courtyard
Saturday, June 7 and Sunday, June 8
10:00 am – 6:00 pm – Book & Art Expo Open, open mic, readings, and performances – Femrite Courtyard.
Monday, June 9
9:00 am – 4:00 pm – Nonfiction writing workshop – Femrite Courtyard.
5:30 pm: Readers Writers Club – Celebrating Ngugi wa Thiong’o – Femrite Courtyard.
Tuesday, June 10
9:00 am – 4:00 pm – Nonfiction writing workshop – Femrite Courtyard.
5:30 pm: Book launch and author conversation – Goethe Zentrum
Wednesday, June 11
9:00 am – 4:00 pm – Nonfiction writing workshop – Femrite Courtyard.
5:30 pm – 7:30 pm: Prof. Pumla Dineo Gqola Keynote Address – Makerere Institute of Social Research
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