Kololo Hill

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I'll be perfectly honest, before I read this novel I knew nothing of the expulsion of Asians from Uganda but upon finishing Kololo Hill, I feel well informed, but actually I think I'd now like to know more. Before reading this book, I did not know anything about Idi Amin, about Asians working in Uganda and Kenya for the rail works and about the expulsion that took place. For me, the setting and level of detail in the novel really helps bring out the story of the country, the history and its people.

If anything, this book made me want to read about Idi Amin’s dictatorship from a Black author or a Black perspective. Hence, the idea of secrecy and silence is not only symptomatic of the response to political events, but within the very fabric of the family the story follows: Asha, the young newlywed who discovers her husband Pran has not been entirely honest with her; Jaya, Pran’s mother, whose secret debt to their black Ugandan “house-boy” has profound and long-lasting repercussions, and Vijay, Pran’s younger brother who, hindered by a genetic disability, harbours frustrations about a life not entirely lived.The plot moves at a satisfying pace but pauses sufficiently, where necessary, to enrich the sense of place and character.

One of my favourite things about this novel is the sensitivity with which the author tackles themes of displacement, identity and belonging with the contrast between the two halves of the book. Navigating a new path and the challenges that come with it, he depicts the continuous efforts made by refugees to reinvent their lives. Before I begin this review, let me clear one thing- even with my rating, would I still recommend this book? My debut novel Kololo Hill was chosen as a 2021 Pick for Foyles, The Daily Mail, The Irish Times and Cosmopolitan.It's partly inspired by my grandparents, who left India for East Africa in the 1940s, as well as those who were expelled from Uganda by brutal ruler Idi Amin.

Despite beginning her life in Uganda during her teen years after marriage and thereby being sentimentally connected to the land, Jaya shows strength and is determined to guide her family towards England to start anew. However, I adore the mutual respect that they have for each other and the way that their relationship deepens throughout the book!Pran, having rescued the family business from his good-natured but woefully lackadaisical father Motichand, is at last approaching some semblance of economic success, giving the family the material comforts that some in the area can only dream about. 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. She has always been an avid reader, but rekindled her early love of writing in 2015 while doing a short online course.

I also remember the day he died because when my parents discussed it, there was a feeling of relief which, even though I didn’t understand at the time, I never forgot. Life in Kampala is on a knife edge and it’s painfully hard to read how people were so persecuted and worse. December has been with the family since Motichand and Jaya arrived from India, and he means a lot to the family, particularly Jaya, and he too, is one of the minority’s who are in danger at the hands of Idi Amin’s regime. The words within the pages vividly paint the climate and give insight to a time that hasn’t ever really been given attention to when history is being told.Neema Shah evokes Amin’s Uganda and early 1970s suburban England with both nuance and a fresh and wonderful vivacity.