Title: Pumpkin Seeds and Other Gifts
Editors: Helen Moffet and Violet Barungi
Published: 2009
Pages: 132
Available: FEMRITE Bookshop
Price: Shs20,000
Philip Matogo
The Pumpkin Seed, the eponymous short story of this collection, is by turns amusing, baffling and somewhat annoying. Especially for the young bride who thought her honeymoon would bloom with the roseate petals of a love at full flower.
Pumpkin Seeds And Other Gifts is a collection of poems and short stories edited by Helen Moffet and Violet Barungi.
It hits the ground running with the short story by Kingwa Kamencu titled euphemistically and mystically, A Girl’s Gotta Do What A Girl’s Gotta Do.
Without spoiling it for you, I will tell you that the protagonist in this story is only a girl insofar as she is female.
The lady, though, is an aging mother who has more money than a small bank. This, of course, attracts the wrong kind of attention. Several persons who are particularly close to her want to relieve her of her wealth and send her packing.
The twist at the end of this story is worthy of the most mind-boggling thriller. Oh yes, you will not see it coming. The second story is barely four pages long.
Still, that does not stop “The Secret Cave” from being a tale which occupies the open-ended length of your longing for a requited love. Yes, this is a love story. But not just any love story. It is about an impossible love whose context dictates its text with every pretext as to why young hearts cannot fall in love when a shooting war is there to drive them apart.
Set during the Mau Mau rebellion (1952-1960), a white man takes a black lover. The latter is an attractive female caught in the vortex of betrayal and taboo.
The same author follows this story up with a poem titled The Cradle. Its figurative language will leave you wondering about the tragedy that befalls a continent pregnant with possibility, but stillborn with a paradise lost.
The Pumpkin Seed, the eponymous short story of this collection, is by turns amusing, baffling and somewhat annoying. Especially for the young bride who thought her honeymoon would bloom with the roseate petals of a love at full flower.
Alas, the author, Hilda Twongyeirwe Rutagonya, refuses to let that happen. Instead, she teases us with the possibility of the same, at every turn.
Hilda follows this story with three poems that are page-turners, veritable gateways to the next short story.
This is by Yaba Badoe. It is titled Ancestors.
“I want my money,” Sheba [the protagonist] cried. “I haven’t been paid for over three months, yet I come to work every single day. God knows how I have survived Christmas and the New Year without a pay cheque. Is it fair?” she demanded. Intrigued? Why? Is this the story of your life?
Well, I will let you read it and find out.
Devils on Horseback is next up, by the same author. It is the story of conflict perpetrated by the Janjaweed.
Just to get you up to speed, the Janjaweed is an Arab militia group active in Sudan responsible for many of the atrocities carried out during the ongoing Darfur Genocide. The name Janjaweed means ‘Devils on Horseback’.
It is a page and a half, this tale. The only reason that I recommend it is because it is a story and a half, too.
The Poet and The Woodcutter by Colleen Higgs lays before you what can happen when you allow love to blossom in your absence between the one you love and somebody you’ll probably want to throttle, if you are not the one deserving said love. A hop, skip and a jump away from the several stories and poems that follow this story is the rather cryptic story about The Drinking Jar. Again, this is a love story which somewhat awry. Well, so it appears. This collection will definitely arrest your attention, before releasing you to the unquenchable desire to read more herein.
