Two words the editorial team of the all-girls poetry anthology A Child is a Seedling found themselves returning to again and again while reviewing the manuscript: anger and angst.
Initially, the team had provided thematic subtitles for the collection—childhood, womanhood, peace and hope, and love. But as they read more deeply, it became clear that a powerful current of anger and inner turmoil ran through many of the poems. These emotions transcended the original themes, revealing that many young people are living with unspoken pain and pent-up feelings.
“The charms of my smile conceal my pain,” quotes Iga Samuel, referencing poet Mariam Abdinur, one of the contributors. “But my eyes betray hurt untold.” These lines perhaps best encapsulate the central concern: beneath the surface of these young voices lies a profound emotional struggle.
“This, perhaps, is the one question the collection asks us to consider,” Iga writes in his review. “Why are our young voices pointing to more angst than gaiety and calm?”
Adolescence is a turbulent stage. Young people face conflicts and dilemmas rooted in peer pressure, identity struggles, bodily changes, family issues, and gender challenges. These themes dominate the anthology, often overriding any sense of joy or peace. Some of the issues raised are deeply troubling and seem to demand urgent answers.
During a recent two-day poetry writing mentorship held at PMM Girls’ School in Jinja, my engagement with the participants consistently revealed the same pattern: emotional distress, especially among teenage girls. The feelings expressed in the anthology weren’t unique to its twenty-six contributors—they represented a much larger group of young people struggling to be heard.
This context may partly explain why the testimony of one of the contributing poets, Illero Jemimah (pictured), resonated so deeply during the panel discussion on Day Two. She spoke candidly about the roots of her poetry—her personal hardships and those of the girls around her.
She shared how she witnessed many girls being forced into early marriage during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their pain moved her to write.
“Seeing that pain inspired me to write,” she said.
“My life was a painful one,” she continued. “And the only thing that could speak to me was a pen and a piece of paper.”
She had no one to talk to, no shoulder to cry on—but she had writing, and in it, she found solace.
Her words echoed those of another prolific contributor, Palvy Badhan. In her poem I Write, Palvy pleads earnestly for the tools of her expression not to be taken from her:
I will be the greatest pauper,
If I lose them.
Through A Child is a Seedling, these young poets have found not only a voice, but also a refuge—a safe passage to express their anger and angst in a world that often misunderstands or overlooks them.
Hopefully, this anthology serves as a platform for greater understanding and opens up dialogue around the complex emotional lives of young people. And perhaps the title of the collection offers the most fitting approach: we must tend to these young voices with the same care, sensitivity, and nurturing attention that a fragile seedling requires to thrive.
13 thoughts on “‘Angst’, ‘Anger’”
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