Tropical Fish - Tales from Entebbe by Doreen Baingana: book review

Tropical Fish – Tales from Entebbe (2006) is an interconnected series of short stories by Ugandan author Doreen Baingana. The stories are mostly set in Entebbe in the 1980s, after Idi Amin’s rule.

Christine Mugisha is from Entebbe, Uganda, where she lives with her two sisters, Patti and Rosa. The stories are told from three different points of view, but predominantly features Christine, as readers follow her transition from childhood to her teenage years. It is also about her transition from Uganda to America and back to Uganda.

Because these are stories, and not a sequential narrative, the life of teenagers in Uganda is seen through fragments, which include themes such as family and inter-racial relationships, belief systems, separation, and cohesion.

The madness of the country’s president, Idi Amin, is intermingled with the questionings of the sisters, and their experiences with lust, sadness, expectations, and changes. What is ‘normal’ anyway – what is a normal lifestyle in Uganda, what is a normal migration to America, what are normal family relationships?

My favourite short story was ‘A Thank You Note’ as it offered a more thought-provoking experience than some of the other stories. However, overall, this was a very interesting read.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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