Akiki Nyabongo

"Pan-African Flag" created by Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League

Nyabongo lived a global life. He collaborated with prominent civil rights activists and shared the works he wrote in Uganda, the United States, and Western Europe. He lived and worked with George Padmore and cooperated with W. E. B. Du Bois for the latter's abortive project, Encyclopedia of the Negro. Nyabongo challenged colonialism and furthered conversations about Black internationalism through these publications, relationships, and correspondences. Nyabongo also introduced civil rights activist Eslanda Goode Robeson to Uganda during her trip to the African continent in 1936.[2]

In 1936, while completing a thesis on Ugandan religious customs at Queen's College, Oxford, and a year after publishing his first novel The Story of an African Chief (re-titled Africa answers back), Nyabongo sent a letter to Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), a Bengali poet.[7] The letter requested the translation of a morally charged poem that Tagore had composed about Africa to disseminate the text to all Africans. The poem protested Benito Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia (then Abyssinia) and critiqued the organized violence by European imperial forces on the African continent. In Tagore's response to Nyabongo, he complied with Nyabongo's request. As a result of this correspondence, the British press The Spectator published "To Africa," the English version of the original poem translated by Tagore on May 7, 1937.[7]

In 1945, Akiki Nyabongo delegated at the Colonial Conference that Du Bois and the NAACP called in New York on April 6 at the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library. He was a resolutions committee member and helped outline four points that advocated anti-colonialism and the development of the African states. These points were sent to a variety of presses and finally presented at the San Francisco Conference.[8]

Akiki Nyabongo was a significant member and contributor to the Universal Ethiopian Student's Association (UESA), formed by activist scholars from the United States, the Caribbeans, and Africa, in Harlem, New York, in 1927.[9] In January 1947, Nyabongo served as the editor-in-chief for the UESA's essential publication: The African: The Journal of African Affairs. His editorship symbolized the entire Black intellectual community's attention to the tense political climate in Africa. Nyabongo contributed to this drifting attention by directing the periodical to concentrate on African politics. Moreover, by writing book reviews of noteworthy African activist scholarships recommended by the UESA, like W.E.B. Du Bois's Black Folk Then and Now, Nyabongo tried to advocate unity across the Black population. Both agendas echoed the journal's call for liberation, the end of imperialism, humanization for Africans in the diaspora, and the development of African states.[9]

Akiki Nyabongo advocated for the unity of ethnicities and religions. Nyabongo had also been in contact with the members of the African Association and endorsed a united tribe, characterized by brotherhood with no "tribe against tribes" or "sects against sects".[10] This ideology directly influenced many East African states with many ethnicities, including the British Uganda Protectorate and the Toro Kingdom. Inspired by Dr. James Aggrey and his educational philosophy on unity and inclusivity of the entire African continent, Akiki Nyabongo further emphasized that there should be no religious quarrels among Africans and one's religious beliefs must be respected. He pushed for religious inclusivity in his political agenda. For Nyabongo, religious inclusivity was a vital way to promote the general well-being of the whole continent. The erased distinction between backgrounds created a shared African identity, supporting a pan-African political awakening.[10]

Religious syncretism, the incorporation of two unrelated religious practices (e.g., rituals) into one coherent system, was a significant theme evident throughout Africa Answers Back in describing the merging of Christian and African religious systems in Uganda. This theory is symbolized early in the novel when the chief names his son, the novel's main character Abala Stanley Mujungu. "Abala" was a traditional Ugandan name, whereas Stanley stemmed from the chief's fondness for a Christian missionary named Stanley.[12]

Africa Answers Back is one of the first English novels with an African-informed perspective on colonial narratives. The novel is considered a "foundational text of postcolonial African literature" by critiquing the then cultural and racial stereotypes circulating academia and society.[4]

Despite praise from the literary world, Nyabongo encounters criticism for this novel. Literary scholar Martina Kopf claimed that Nyabongo took an approach similar to the colonial institutions he criticized. She focused on the medical scene, where the injured man was not included in the conversation about his medical treatment. Instead, the chief took a top-down approach, using assumptions and biases to inform his decision-making on behalf of his villagers, similar to the arbitrary decision-making of colonial institutions.[4] Moreover, Nyabongo's use of 'savage' throughout the novel left scholars like Mahruba T. Mowtushi questioning the negative connotations of locals in contrast to the 'civilized' society.[7]

The scholar Danson Sylvester Kahyana provided a comprehensive review of the novel. He focused on the medical scene and argued that Akiki Nyabongo's advocacy of introducing Western medicine showcased his particular belief in the Western culture's positive impacts on African living standards. Yet, the anti-colonial novelist primarily sees Western education as a challenge to the survival of African norms, customs, and beliefs operating for centuries.[5]

Nyabongo published a few folktale collections in the 1930s. In 1937, he published Bisoro Stories (1937), succeeded by Bisoro Stories II (1939).[2][13] Winds and Lights: African Fairy Tales was published in 1939.[13]

Nyabongo also produced an unpublished manuscript, Yali the Savage, which intended to introduce the American actor, singer and activist Paul Robeson. This draft is now preserved at the Queen's College's "The Nyabongo Papers" archival collection.[6] The author's last known project published was a Rutooro-language book, Oruhenda, which described the Toro region's culture, tradition, and arcane palace language.[3]

As an Oxford-trained anthropologist, Nyabongo once researched Ebito, the ancient Ugandan language based on flowers. In this study, he disregarded his identity as a pan-African political activist but meant to suggest the mobility and interconnectedness of ancient Uganda via overlapping cultural practices. However, Nyabongo failed to complete this research. The project lacked funding. More importantly, the Toro Kingdom asked him to go back to Uganda to help negotiate independence from Britain.[3]