life rattle show no. 1192

Presented on Sunday, February 19, 2012

Hosted by Laurie Kallis

featuring

Donna Kakonge reading her story
"Matoke"
and
excerpts from Only My Voice

tonight's Show

Tonight, on Life Rattle No. 1192, we continue our series of programs honouring Black History Month with two new stories by Life Rattle writer Donna Kakonge.

In tonight’s first story, "Matoke," we see a young girl struggle with and then proudly rise above both the ignorance of her classmates, and indeed her own lack of knowledge of her African heritage.
Kakonge's second reading tonight, is a series of excerpts from Only My Voice, her upcoming book, soon to be published by Life Rattle Press. Through these excerpts, Kakonge gives us intimate glimpses of life in Uganda in 1996, as she visits the birthplace of her father and interacts with her Ugandan family.

Donna Kakonge was born in 1972 in Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada. Her dad, from Uganda, has a PhD in biology and currently delivers newspapers for the Toronto Star and owns residential properties. Her mom, from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, studied psychology and sociology. Kakonge is the first born. Her brother Kevin works as an immigration officer and her sister Lisa works as a speech pathologist.

Kakonge, the aunt of two nieces, grew up and attended university in Toronto. She studied journalism at the undergraduate and graduate level, and currently studies curriculum, teaching and learning development at the doctoral level. She loves reading and writing, loves teaching and loves working in the world of education.

Donna Kakonge is single and, for now, that helps her to focus on her career.