Excerpt from Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

The parents gave up, turned to the gods and prayed for mercy.

But after the wedding, Nnakato would not settle down to marriage. She kept going back and forth, back and forth, to her parents' house to check on Babirye. When, after many seasons she had not conceived, Kintu forbade her from visiting her sister. He declared that if the twins must see each other then Babirye, unmarried, should do the gallivanting.

Still Nnakato did not conceive.

The parents hung their heads in a now-you-see posture. But Kintu blamed Babirye for Nnakato's reluctant womb. Oh yes, twins might have an uncanny sense of each other, but to him, Nnakato's concern for Babirye was guilt and fear. It was this that locked Nnakato's womb. Kintu was certain that Babirye had punched Nnakato so hard while they were in the womb that Nnakato learned to make peace with her. He was surprised that Babirye did not devour Nnakato; such overbearing personalities often ate their twin and were born with a hunchback.



In the end, when Nnakato failed to conceive and Babirye failed to get married, Nnakato suggested that Babirye come and help her with conception. Even though Nnakato had abandoned her for a man, Babirye was keen to share her womb. At first, Kintu would not lie with her. However, as time passed, Nnakato's apparent barrenness begun to compromise not only his virility, but his governorship. Expectant whispers: Is the bride getting morning sickness yet? turned from well-meaning to prying and finally petered out. Kintu gave in: better to have children with Nnakato's twin than with another woman.

Even though moments with Babirye were few and perfunctory, Kintu felt that she had jumped at the chance of becoming his wife. When Babirye conceived, she took over Nnakato's home with gusto, walking around the village showing off her swelling belly. Even when Nnakato explained to Kintu her agreement with Babirye—that on conception she would step back and assume the role of Babirye looking after her expectant sister, Kintu would not trust the older twin. To him, those first two years of Nnakato becoming a visitor in her own home, when Babirye became his wife, made Nnakato shrink. Babirye played her part well. Residents only noticed a slight change in Nnakato's' character. Apparently, her tone was sharper and she was impatient. Old women nodded knowingly: pregnant women were notoriously bad-tempered.

Babirye gave birth to twins. She nursed the babies until they started to run. Then she returned home to her parents. Over the years, she bailed Nnakato out four times. Each time, Babirye gave birth to identical twins. However during the pregnancies, Kintu stayed away from home: either he traveled to the capital or toured his province.

Kintu was conflicted. He resented Babirye's claim to their marriage but prided himself in siring twins. His new title was Ssabalongo. The residents marveled, "As a sire, Kintu is chief indeed." Every time a set of twins arrived, they shook his hand, "A strong man may wake up late and still get to do as much as we who woke up with the birds."

Nnakato and Babirye were both called Nnabalongo, the children called both of them "Mother', but in her heart Babirye knew that when people called her Nnabalongo they were talking to her sister. She knew that the children called her Mother not because she had knelt down in pain to bring them into the world, but because she was their mother's sister. Babirye's eight children belonged to Nnakato.



It was midmorning: the sun was still amiable. Villages were now behind them. The further they traveled, the more stunted the vegetation became. Reeds had given way to ssenke, a sturdy grass accustomed to stingy weather. The ground was harder than before. Even to a novice taking the journey for the first time, the hardening of the ground, the yellowing sparseness and thinning of vegetation indicated that they were moving further away from fertile land towards a more arid landscape.

From Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi. By arrangement with Transit Books. Copyright © Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi 2017. All rights reserved.