Kwani? Series

Kintu

Author: Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 978-9966-1598-9-2
No. of pages: 468
Size of book: 198mm x 129mm
Price: ksh 1500
Year of Publication: 2014

'This is the novel Uganda—and not just Buganda—has been waiting for. Here, history comes alive in such sensual and accurate detail.  For many of us who draw a blank when seeking pre-colonial family histories, this multi-layered story makes us re-imagine, reclaim, and yes, re-live what has been lost.'  Doreen Baingana, author of Tropical Fish 

'An ambitious modern epic that takes in family saga and the history of Uganda, fusing the urgency of the present with the timelessness of myth.'  Jamal Mahjoub, author of The Drift Latitudes 

In 1754, Kintu Kidda, Ppookino of Buddu Province, in the kingdom of the Buganda, sets out on a journey to the capital where he is to pledge allegiance to the new kabaka of the realm. Along the way, a rash action in a moment of anger unleashes a curse that will plague his family for generations.

Time passes and the nation of Uganda is born.  Through colonial occupation and the turbulent early years of independence, Kintu’s heirs survive the loss of their land, the denigration of their culture and the ravages of war. But the story of their ancestor and his twin wives Nnakato and Babirye endures. So too does the curse.

In this ambitious tale of a family and of a nation, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi skilfully weaves together the stories of Kintu’s descendants as they seek to break with the burden of their shared past and to reconcile the inheritance of tradition and the modern world that is their future.