John Ruganda Passes On (1941- 8th Dec 2007)

 

The death of John Ruganda has come as a great shock not only to us as his publishers but also to the whole literary fraternity. John Ruganda passed away on 8th December 2007 at his home in Uganda. Until his death, he was at the University of North, South Africa. He was also a Professor of Creative Writing and has taught at the University of Nairobi in Kenya and Makerere University in Uganda. As a playwright, Ruganda contributed significantly to the development of theatre in East Africa through his involvement with the Makerere Travelling Theatre, the University of Nairobi's Travelling Theatre and the Nairobi University Players.
He was Uganda's best-known playwright and one of East and Central
Africa's leading dramatists. Among his published plays, The Burdens (1972)and The Floods (1980) have been used regularly as required texts in the ordinary and advanced level syllabi of the Literature in English courses in Kenya and Uganda.
Virtually all of his plays are studied in universities and other
institutions of higher learning in East and Central Africa.

Since the early 1970s, Ruganda featured prominently on the East African
theater scene not only as a playwright but also as a stage director, actor,
and teacher of drama and theater arts at various institutions of learning.
He was one of the founding members of the Makerere Free Travelling Theatre
and was elected its chief organizer in 1966. In 1971 Ruganda was
instrumental in the establishment of the Makonde Group, an amateur theater
company that performed plays in local languages all over Uganda.

He will be laid to rest at his home in Kireka (spelt Chireka) on 17th
December 2007. Kireka is a few Kilometers from Kampala.

May God rest his soul in Eternal Peace. East Africa has truly lost a great Playwright and Poet.

Some of his other published works by EAEP are.

*    Igereka and Other African Narratives (2001)

*    The Floods (1990)

*    Telling the Truth Laughingly: The
Politics of Francis Imbuga's Drama (1992)

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