The author tells the stories of people over 65 years of age who lived during the pre-independence times.
Told in first person, he reveals small aspects of their lives, those he thought today’s readers would find interesting. He manages to bring out the unique tones of the people who talked to him.
Each of the stories make for interesting-easy reading but embedded at the back of my memory are the stories of Hussein Warutere (the last story in the collection). This is a ‘loo’ story that is as shocking as it is hilarious. He woke up after a siesta with the need to go
to the loo. Because of desperation, he ends up using the white
mans toilet. A white corporal sees him leaving. He is arrested days later, accused of assisting the Mau Mau by trying to plant a bomb in the loo. He ends up spending 13 years in hard labour; six in Mwea and seven in Manyani.
Al Kags says that these stories are meant for our generation. He hopes that as
you read them, you will understand and see yourself because these are our grandparents. He also urges us to ‘write the memoirs of the elderly people near you, or record them in some fashion.”
An amazing set of short stories by debut author Doreen Baingana, “Tropical Fish” quickly drew me in and held me captive until the very last page of the last tale in a series of stories on the lives and development of three Ugandan sisters. Largely focused on the youngest, Christine Mugisha, these stories take us into life as young women in a society full of such promise but decimated in many ways by missteps such as the regime of Idi Amin.