Paper short abstract:

I explore how Dila's science fiction proffers insights into the intersection between environmental disaster and disease outbreaks in contemporary Uganda. I argue that Science Fiction delineates the causes, coping mechanisms and myths about environmental-related pandemics in the public sphere.

Paper long abstract:

Uganda, like most countries on the African continent, has in the recent past grappled with existential pandemics such as AIDS, Marburg, Cholera, Ebola, and currently the Covid-19 pandemic. All the above-mentioned disease outbreaks have often unleashed unimaginable suffering on Uganda’s population. This is perhaps why Ugandan scholars and public intellectuals — especially its writers such as Mary Karooro Okurut, Moses Isegawa, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, Austin Ejeit — have used fiction to offer insights into the various contours of these contagions. For example, in their interrogation of one of the worst pandemics to hit the Ugandan society — AIDS — a host of writers have centred a cautionary tale motif and verisimilitude to show how behavioural change can effectively combat disease outbreaks. This article builds on this substantial Ugandan archive of plague writing by focusing on one genre of Ugandan writing — Science Fiction — that has not received much critical attention for its exploration of pandemics. This paper explores how three Ugandan science fiction short stories proffer insights into the intersection between environmental disaster and disease outbreaks in contemporary Uganda. I argue that Dila uses Science Fiction to effectively delineate the causes of, how to cope with and the myths that circulate about these catastrophic occurrences in the Ugandan public sphere.