0. Introduction to The ebyeshongoro Series

Disrupt Development

Twasiima Bigirwa in collaboration with Disrupt Development present to you, The ebyeshongoro Series.
The series is inspired and drawn from Twasiima’s debut collection of poems titled ebyeshongoro bya Debra (songs of Debra). ebyeshongoro bya Debra is a collection of poems written in runyankore and english that chronicle the times we find ourselves in, the state of the world and the feelings of our hearts. Using humour, wit, and honest recollections, Twasiima looks at the ways our histories continue to influence our current times and makes demands of us to sit with both the contradictions and un-comfortabilities that emerge from current events and geopolitical shapings. As she writes Twasiima intends to inspire others who read to sit with the truths of our world and societies and from there imagine something new and liberatory.
The poems speak to some of the pressing development challenges of our time; from the crises in Sudan and Palestine, the ways in which media and narratives continue to perpetuate harm, questions of systemic remedy with reparations and so on, and so forth. The collection is a total of forty-four poems and in this series, Twasiima reads and reflects on nine poems.
Twasiima Bigirwa is an African writer, interested in the ways history has been shaped and altered, and dedicated to the work of conjuring into existence new worlds. Her work is founded on undoing and reconstructing from the colonial imaginations and focuses on exploring paths towards liberation. Twasiima has several years of experience working within the development sector and works to support organisations and individuals that are looking to review and invest in new ways to include a decolonial praxis to international development. She has extended experience serving as a community mobiliser and organiser and believes deeply that the work of movements that exist on the peripheries of society are crucial to our collective liberation. Twasiima has an LL.B. from Makerere University and an LL.M. from Georgetown University – Law
Center.