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Kintu
Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
Novel, 2014
A sweeping novel of Buganda across 250 years, from a curse on Kintu's line to modern Kampala, rich in clan, myth and politics.
Books set in Uganda
Five books by writers from Uganda, set there, that give a real sense of the place, starting with Kintu and Abyssinian Chronicles.
About the literature of Uganda
Uganda's most celebrated poem is Okot p'Bitek's Song of Lawino, in which an Acholi woman laments her husband's rejection of tradition for Western ways. Okot wrote it first in Acholi, drawing on the songs of his people, and it is still widely read in English. Makerere University in Kampala has long been a gathering place for writers, and many later novels return to the years of Idi Amin's rule, from 1971 to 1979.
Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi's Kintu is a sweeping novel of Buganda across 250 years, from a curse on one man's line to modern Kampala. Moses Isegawa's Abyssinian Chronicles traces a boy growing up through Amin's regime and its aftermath. Doreen Baingana's Tropical Fish: Tales from Entebbe links stories of three sisters growing up around Entebbe and Kampala after Amin.
By writers from Uganda
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Abyssinian Chronicles
Moses Isegawa
Novel, 1998
A sprawling novel of a boy growing up through Amin's regime and its aftermath, with Kampala and village life vividly detailed.
Snakepit
Moses Isegawa
Novel, 1999
Set in Kampala during Amin's rule, following a civil servant's life under terror, corruption and family pressures.
Song of Lawino
Okot p'Bitek
Poetry, 1966. Translated from Acholi by Okot p'Bitek
A celebrated long poem in which an Acholi woman in northern Uganda laments her husband's rejection of tradition for Western ways.
Tropical Fish: Tales from Entebbe
Doreen Baingana
Short stories, 2005
Linked short stories of three sisters growing up around Entebbe and Kampala after Amin, touching on class, faith and AIDS.
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