"History and Memory"

History and Memory is a collection of six works of short fiction. These works comprise tales of Ugandan women and the daily weather of their lives. Sometimes this weather consists of the smaller forces of the day-to-day – the distinct intimacies between people for instance – and sometimes it consists of larger forces of history – patriarchy, colonialism etc. In these stories, a woman travels from Kampala to England, seeking her former Sixth Form tutor, with whom she was romantically entangled; another sits next to her husband at a lunch she has prepared for their guests, the whole time fantasising about leaving him; following a strange encounter with another passenger, a high-flying businesswoman is detained at Heathrow Airport; a teenage girl at a boarding school in Kampala seeks freedom from the chokehold of a friendship; a failing opera singer is cut off by her parents and must find a way of remaining in New York City, all while avoiding the subway; and a writer who calls herself a historian and priest pens a genealogy of African women that defies historical and religious canon.