Colored Armpits: Poems for Social Justice

By James Kityo Ssemmanda

In other places,

Time is money

And pay is time; this he knew,

For the concept of time

To an African

Is a mystery,

Making order

A time jumble.

James Kityo Ssemmanda

Native Ugandan James Kityo Ssemmanda is all too familiar with the fragility of humanity. In his debut collection of poetry, he speaks to the human condition, explores racial issues, and shines a light on social injustices.

Ssemmanda presents thought-provoking verse in three sections, the first of which explores and sometimes judges the Mzungua term commonly used in East Africa that refers to white people. While encouraging contemplation, Ssemmanda also shares a compilation of wide-ranging poems that not only highlight the differences and commonalities between the Mzungu and Africans, but also examine life in a busy world, the importance of mans word, and the price for wishing to be like Mandela.

Colored Armpits offers a powerful volume of poetry that draws attention to diverse social justice issues and encourages reflection among all who desire change in a complicated world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Feb 19, 2016
• ISBN: 9781480827837

James Kityo Ssemmanda

James Kityo was born in Uganda. After studying at Leeds, United Kingdom, he worked in Uganda to help communities affected by HIV and AIDS. He is a beneficiary of the International Ford Fellowship for leadership in social justice, a recipient of the Phillips Livable Cities Award, and in 2012, was recognized by the Hrant Dink Foundation as an inspiration for humanity.

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Copyright © 2016 James Kityo Ssemmanda.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Some images courtesy of Erick Bayona, Geared advertising, Dar es salaam, Tanzania.

ISBN: 978-1-4808-2782-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-2784-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-2783-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016902687

Archway Publishing rev. date: 2/19/2016

Contents

Part 1

The Mzungu

The Painter

The African Mzungu

Get Off of Me

Negro Controversy

Does It Matter?

Toward Lifeless

Feeding the Birds

Him and Her

My Two Friends

My Haitian What?

His Thank You

I Ventured in Montreal

Alzheimer's

All Kinds of Research

You Scared Me

Doing It My Way

Lonely Alzheimer

Part 2

The Armpits

Armpits and Collars

Youthful Seniority

The African and the American

American Cop and Other Cop

Madame Waiter

Can't Sit with You

A life and a No-Life

Flee to Work

A Talking System

Dogs Bark

Not Looking ... At

Part 3

The African African

The African Condo

The Madness of a Countryman

Buganda: Judgment!

He Won an Award

We Argued

Rain in Two Places

You Asked Me

The Monarchist and He

Your Word

Going to America

Lost Child

The Second funeral

The Twin Dance

The Other Color

Hyde Park in Summer

Speaking at Cross Purposes

Dead If They Come!

Trees and Sugar

Identity

Time and the African

Holes in Socks

Woes of the Sad World

Like Mandela?

Skullologue

Selective Breeding

Not My Father's Son

Dice of Hearts

Choice Beggar

Glossary of African Terminology

In memory of Isaac Gahweera Abwooli, the teacher we fondly loved.

Acknowledgments

I thank the Ford Foundation International Fellowship Program (New York), through the Institute for International Education (IIE), for having elevated me from a remote village of Mbirizi in Masaka, Uganda, to a more favorable position. I am grateful for the educational scholarship I was offered to pursue further studies in the United Kingdom. It was the Ford Foundation's inculcation of leadership for social justice and commitment to serving marginalized communities that enabled me to serve people with a more open mind.

Secondly, I thank my friend Susan Tibeijuka for coming to my assistance when I needed help the most. Without you, Susan, life would have been miserable the second time I traveled to the United States of America. Without you,