May 20, 2013

Julius Ocwinyo on Writing and the State of Publishing in Africa

Julius Ocwinyo

This month, Africa Book Club interviews Julius Ocwinyo, a Ugandan author and poet, whose novels include Fate of the Banished (1997), The Unfulfilled Dream (2002), and Footprints of the Outsider (2003). He is also currently an editor for Fountain Publishers, one of the leading indigenous publishing houses in East Africa.

Born in 1961 in Teboke village in Apac District, Ocwinyo studied at Aboke Junior Seminary and Lango College, before joining the Institute of Teacher Education at Kyambogo.

Fate of the Banished (by Julius Ocwinyo)

Fate of the Banished by Julius Ocwinyo

In Fate of the Banished, Julius Ocwinyo, much like Cowley, examines the natural truth behind the church’s other dogma, one that bars priests from taking wives.

When the book first appeared in 1997, its critics were many and wild. There were calls from one bishop in Northern Uganda to have all the copies pulled out of the bookstores and torched. It was a disgrace, he argued.