Mg Vassanji Quotes

No amount of photography could replace the memories of a life lived, of lives observed and known, of lives elaborated in the mind and on the page.

We were a country of sages. They were all over the place, sometimes clogging the streets and roadways.

Destination Kampala! Africa’s postcolonial renaissance.” There would have been few other places in the world where there was such an excitement about new literature, new ideas, and new politics. The inspiration arrived at this conference for a new publishing imprint of literary titles called the African Writers Series, which was soon launched by Heinemann in the U.K., with Achebe as the series editor. The excitement reached as far as my high school in Dar, where literary competitions were held, new drama was produced, and a parade of literary luminaries passed through, including Chinua Achebe.

Where indeed has that old idealism, that uhuru spirit, gone? The answer is that it didn't last long after he left. That idealism and pride, the hope of independence that some of us remember so wistfully as the heyday of uhuru, was taken to ideological extremes that finally brought us to this state. All this bustle that you see in our capital, the wonderful dollar consumerism, runs on the rails of foreign aid ... That's what became of our pride. We swallowed it, along with all the gifts we received.

Marge Thompson with Karsan Dargawalla: I recall repeating the names, getting a thrill from their unlikely, gobbledygook togetherness.