Bukenya Austin
Birthdate: February 10, 1944
Place of Birth: Masaka Town, Central Uganda
Languages spoken: Luganda, Kiswahili, English, French and ecclesiastical Latin.
Writing language: English Luganda and Kishwahili.
Education: Namilyango College, 1961-64, and the University of York in England. Bukenya took a First Class honours degree in French, linguistics and literature at the University of Dar es Salaam, 1965-68; a proficiency diploma in French a t the University of Madagascar, 1967; a master degree in literature at Makerere University 1994, and a Ph.D. at Kenyatta University in Kenya. 1999.
Employement: Bukenya currently lecture in languages an literature at Makere and has also taugt at the University of Sterling in Scotland, United Staes International University( Africa Campus) Nairobi, and Kenyatta University alsi in Nairobi.
Bibliography: The People's Bachelor (novel). Nairobi: EAPH, 1971. The Bride (play). Nairobi: EAPH, 1984; Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers (EAEP), 1987. Bukenya also has anthologized poems and plays, a Luganda serial novel in the Musizi monthly, 1974-76, and translations from Luganda. Scholarly and critical works include African Oral Literature( with Jane Nandwa), Nairobi: Longman Kenya, 1983; studies of John Ruganda and Marjorie Macgoye and Notes on East African Poetry, Nairobi and Lagos: Heinemann Educational Books, 1978.
Comment: Austin Bukenya is particularly interested in culture and communication, especial oracy ( oral communication) as a tool for development an social mobilization. A former pupil of F.R. Leavis and other "New/Practical" critics, Bukenya is an enthusiast for form and literary specificity in both creative and critical writing. His main influences are orature (oral literature), Latin and Greek classics and neo-classical satirists.