What is it like for a family to be forced to leave everything behind and start again? This is the terrifying question at the centre of debut novel “Kololo Hill”. The story hinges upon a significant moment in Ugandan history when in 1971 an officer named Idi Amin became dictator after a military coup. Amidst the brutalities of his new regime, he forcibly removed the entrepreneurial Indian minority from Uganda. I first learned about this shocking period of history when reading another recent debut novel “We Are All Birds of Uganda” which describes the desperate flight from the country. Neema Shah positions Amin's decree halfway through her novel so we follow a family's life in the before and after of this enforced expulsion. This makes it a dramatic and gripping experience because just as we become familiar with the daily life of this family they are uprooted and flung into a new life in England. For couple Asha and Pran who were recently married it presents an even greater complication because they have different passports so are no longer allowed to live in the same country. The catastrophe of the expulsion and the violence this family experiences and witnesses transforms each individual as they struggle to adapt and adjust to their changed circumstances. It's powerful how this novel prompts the reader to question how they would cope if suddenly forced to leave behind the only home they ever knew.
The question of nationality and the meaning of home become so complicated when considering the history of colonialism and the economic disparity between classes in Uganda. The family's community built on an area known as Kololo Hill has clear demarcations between the higher area inhabited by the prosperous Asian community and the lower area with cramped accommodation for black Ugandans. Shah sensitively probes the tensions of these divisions while faithfully representing a family caught in a larger thorny social and political system. The question of their moral responsibility is intriguingly represented in a central mystery concerning what happened to the family's “house boy” December. It was moving following their emotional and physical journey through the revolving perspectives of Asha, her mother-in-law Jaya and her brother-in-law Vijay. Each has a very different point of view and way of coping so I thought it was clever how the author split the story between them. It's especially poignant the way the family recall to each other specific details about Uganda that they loved as a way of not allowing the harrowing experiences of their escape from dominating the memory of their lost country. I found it really powerful how the novel artfully represents this complex history. It left me wondering how I would cope with being forced to flee my home and how it would transform my familial relationships.
