A tripartite of self discovery

Tropical Fish: Tales From

Entebbe

By Doreen Baingana

156pp; Cassava Republic

Press

The cover of Tropical Fish: Tales From Entebbe was the first thing that caught my attention: three pairs of accessorised legs resting on staircases with a box of jewels.

Reading the synopsis to this collection of linked short stories, I knew I had to discover the matching faces to the legs.

Being the West African edition published by Cassava Republic, there is a preface by the author. One of Uganda's leading women writers, Baingana, expresses her desire for a ‘connectedness' which could be achieved by ‘artistic change and dialogue' across the African continent.

Hence, her joy at the publication of this edition.

The Tales from Entebbe are told by the three Mugisha sisters--Rosa, Pattie and Christine--against the political backdrop of the 1980s, as they discover themselves as individuals and Ugandans in the aftermath of the Idi-Amin regime.

Set mainly in Entebbe, we follow the footsteps of a family that comes full circle, burying two of its members due to different vices and almost ‘losing' the survivors to the Western religion and culture.

Whether it is Los Angeles or Kampala, we see the family as they struggle to remain relevant in their world by understanding themselves and recognising their self worth in trying socio-economic conditions.

Baingana tackles hard and sensitive issues such as family cohesion, religion, evolution of culture, sex and relationship, friendship and gender roles in society.

She deals with them through the various degrees of metamorphosis experienced by the three sisters as they learn to express their innermost beliefs and follow their passions. The use of three represents the wholeness and emphasises the different parts of the modern day African woman.

This African woman, metaphorically speaking, can be divided into the spirit, soul and body. For me Christine, the protagonist, represents this whole and at the same time is a part of the woman, the spirit.

The eldest of the three, Rosa, starts off as a curious teenager who tries to ‘magically' seduce one of her teachers in ‘Passion' to test the potency of a juju charm.

She is a free spirit and her sense of adventure leads her on a path of sensual and sexual expressions of her femininity and youth. Her life will be cut short by AIDS, for which she sends ‘A Thank-You Note' to a lover, David, for infecting and ultimately killing her.

Till the end, she is bold and daring:

"I displayed my body once and men approved. I will do so again with burning scars, leaking sores, grey skin. This is all I have left: to die loudly, saying, Yes, I have AIDS. Let's turn around and face it. Will you join me, shouting out loud, just like you did before?"

The letter is both metaphorical and literal but at the same time paints a vivid picture of the disease as well as tracing its spread to the complicated networks of culture.

Patti, the middle child, is a direct opposite of Rosa. She is controlled. She remains steadfast to the end in her devotion to God, family and country. Being a born-again Christian, she believes in showing unconditional love to all.

In the Caine short-listed ‘Hunger' she questions God on why the rich girls can get away with wasting food yet she has to run errands for them and still starve. However, in the midst of her hunger, her faith is affirmed as she experiences God from within.

Christine narrates five of the eight stories in the book. We accompany her, from her first wobbly steps in those yellow high heels to her encounters with Western world conveniences and the alienation of America in ‘Lost in Los Angeles', to her return home.

We are let in on her ‘First Kiss,' as well as her first sexual experience with a white man in the title story, ‘Tropical Fish'--also short-listed for the Caine. With her varied palette of experiences, Christine takes us emotionally and physically to the places where neither of her sisters is able to go.

Baingana's use of language is rich with nuances of the native Ugandan dialects. She makes no apology for using African phrases and expressions such as bambi, kisipi, sirrimu, mzungu, Pickeringia montana, to provide emotional truth and foster the ‘connectedness' in her work.

Her cultural commentary comes effortlessly with grace as she describes the interior and exterior of her characters in the context of their environment.

For me, a good book is one that ticks the boxes in terms of language, form and style. But a great book goes beyond the checklist and has that extra ‘something'; pizzazz and panache.

Tropical Fish is one great book that rightly deserves its place as winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book in the Africa region.

Akinseye presents the ‘Bookaholic' segment on the Today Show, Silverbird Television (STV).