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A psychiatrist teaches medical students lessons he learned from his mother, a traditional healer. A popular film maker explores traditional folklore in martial arts movies. An aging patriarch presides over his family according to principles handed down by ancestors. In these and other stories in this wide-ranging collection, Ugandan writers paint a vivid and moving portrait of today’s Africa.
The writers offer unblinking criticism where they see social failure. Population growth and the cash economy have devastated once idyllic villages. Communities are gripped in a culture war pitting missionaries against spiritual healers. A pastoralist tribe that withstood colonial rulers now finds its cherished way of life vanishing. And a woman’s spiritual crisis reflects widespread religious conversions.
Yet values undermined by colonialism and globalization still echo across this verdant land. A respected journalist believes surviving ancient clans hold the answers to social decay and environmental destruction. A young man learns the meaning of leadership and character from a line of powerful matriarchs. And an aging woman in hill country proudly recalls her arranged marriage as a moral triumph.
These tales of resilience, dignity and moral vision speak not just to Ugandans eager to chart their own way in today’s world. They contain lessons for all people everywhere.
The writers offer unblinking criticism where they see social failure. Population growth and the cash economy have devastated once idyllic villages. Communities are gripped in a culture war pitting missionaries against spiritual healers. A pastoralist tribe that withstood colonial rulers now finds its cherished way of life vanishing. And a woman’s spiritual crisis reflects widespread religious conversions.
Yet values undermined by colonialism and globalization still echo across this verdant land. A respected journalist believes surviving ancient clans hold the answers to social decay and environmental destruction. A young man learns the meaning of leadership and character from a line of powerful matriarchs. And an aging woman in hill country proudly recalls her arranged marriage as a moral triumph.
These tales of resilience, dignity and moral vision speak not just to Ugandans eager to chart their own way in today’s world. They contain lessons for all people everywhere.
"The most outstanding book that Uganda has yet mothered"
- Timothy Wangusa
Novelist, Poet and Educator
Novelist, Poet and Educator
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ANOTHER MUST READ
Click the Image to View the Crossroads Page
Ugandan women stand at an intersection where tradition and the “modern” world meet. In "Crossroads," they explore their pasts and share their hopes for the future. Discussing topics ranging from religion to sports, and moving between quaint rural villages and bustling Kampala, they weigh their society's rich traditions against changing attitudes about sex, medicine, and women's many roles -- and explore how the virtues of the past can be preserved in a time of unprecedented social change.
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