-I have left my home in your memory-
The dazzling and essential portrayal of a Congolese refugee in Uganda from the budding Kitara Nation poet Acha Divine Patandjila Lerato who was groomed by the verse in vac program, that started in November 2014, consisting of mentorship by the founder of Kitara Nation, Kagayi Ngobi @kagayi_ngobi to a clique of teenagers in senior 4 vacation from St.Marys College Kisubi and Nabisunsa Girls School is here and it’s a refreshing read. It’s the 6th publication in the @kitara_nation Poetry Series, just before the 7th publication that is the amazing poetry book, Light by Rushongoza Nkabafunzaki Begumya. Today, Uganda is one of the most refugee-friendly countries in the world. We host over one million refugees. In 2015, Acha Divine Patandjila Lerato @pat_and_jila and her family sought refuge in Uganda because of insecurities back in DRC thus being entitled refugee. Just a 2000 year born, Patandjila shows a rare mature talent by exposing the fear, pain, and uncertainty of living as refugees, she is so loud with her pen, a voice full of love for the Pan African movement as she hails Steve Biko, Kwame Nkurumah, Ghadhaffi, Patrice Lumumba Desmond Tutu, Winnie Byanyima, Lupita, Patience Ozokwor! in the heartfelt soliloquy IF AFRICA WAS A MAN. On the first read, Decountryrized reads like another pity party African story of a young millennial who thinks she knows a thing or two about life, about being “DECOUNTRYRIZED,” “DECULTURISED,” but it’s the incessant reminder to the reader to be more humane, the call for unity, the call to put the guns down and spread love and peace and poetry, the call to love people while they are alive, the call for her fellow Africans to open our eyes wide so as not to watch starvation nor debt drown a nation enriched by nature, UMUNTU NGUMUNTU NGABANTU, the call to pause and light a candle to every race feeling oppressed, yet still pushing forward, it’s this quality of her letting herself to feel, to remember, to show us her thoughts, her feelings, her empathy, her brilliance and her softness that keeps you thinking about the book days after the first read.