This is cleverly done in the epigraph with a quote by John Speke, a European explorer. Makumbi wastes no time in introducing the main themes of her book. The book opens in 2004 with one of Kintu’s descendants being brutally attacked and it is not long before we see the curse come to pass in a variety of ways. Ntwire, the boy’s birth father, curses Kintu and all his descendants. The curse is placed on the family of Kintu Kidda, the Ppookino of Buddu Province, when in a hasty moment he hits his adopted son. It tells the story of a family from when a terrible curse was placed on them and how the descendants fight to survive that curse. Kintu ( Kwani Trust, 2014) tells a story that spans from 1750 pre-colonial Buganda Kingdom to 2004 independent Uganda. Until we read Kintu and realise that such a brilliant piece of writing could never have been rushed. We reach into that part of our brain that always doubts that we will make it at this writing thing and we confirm that we will not if writing a novel takes that long. When upcoming writers like me hear that Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi started writing Kintu in 2003, we despair. Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s ‘Kintu’ Made Me Want to Tell Our Storiesīy Africa in Words Guest on 12 November, 2014 › Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s ‘Kintu’ Made Me Want to Tell Our Stories
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