YOUNG LEADERS CREATING SPACES FOR EXPRESSION AT MAKERERE

At a university where academic excellence often takes centre stage, an important question remains: where do students go to explore the talents, ideas and stories that cannot always fit into a lecture? For the Literature Association of Makerere University (LITASS), the answer lies in creating the space themselves.

The renewed efforts to revive LITASS reflect a growing spirit of student-led leadership at Makerere, where young people are recognising gaps in campus life and taking the initiative to create opportunities for others. Founded in the 1960s by undergraduate students passionate about literature, LITASS was established to nurture creative writing, poetry and literary appreciation beyond academic instruction. Despite periods of inactivity and administrative challenges, its revival presents an opportunity to reclaim this legacy. But this is about more than bringing back an old association. It is about giving today’s students a platform.

Through poetry sessions, open mics, storytelling, debates and other creative engagements, LITASS seeks to create spaces where students can share ideas, discover their abilities and connect through different forms of expression. Not every student is a poet or writer. Some have stories to tell, others express themselves through music, photography, performance or conversation. What matters is having a platform where these different voices are welcomed.

This is where young leadership comes in.

The LITASS revival demonstrates that student leadership should go beyond holding offices, organising meetings and making promises. It should be about identifying unmet needs, mobilising people and creating opportunities that benefit the wider student community. For Campus 360, this is the kind of student initiative worth celebrating: young people moving from identifying problems to creating solutions, and from waiting for opportunities to building them.

The revival of LITASS offers a wider lesson for university leadership. Young people do not always need to wait until they graduate, acquire resources or occupy influential positions to make a difference. They can begin with the communities around them, identify overlooked opportunities and mobilise others towards meaningful change. A poetry evening, a reading circle, a storytelling session or an open microphone may appear modest, but these initiatives can become important spaces for personal growth, community building and cultural expression.

As LITASS works to reclaim its place within Makerere’s literary community, its greatest contribution may not simply be the events it organises, but the opportunities it creates for other young people. Ultimately, the measure of young leadership is not just how many people follow, but how many people are empowered to discover their own voices.