Never a Dull Moment: 1950s Village Schooling in Uganda

Born in the 1940s Ntaanya narrates her 12-year passage through cultural and modern schools in a rural village in Uganda. First is a complex maze of clan relationships enforced by her paternal grandfather from which, Ntaanya extricates her identity with difficulty. The weaning school, run by her maternal grandmother shapes her character and notions of beauty. The home schools presided over by parents, friends, relatives and villagers equip her with etiquette, a work ethic and principles of acceptable womanhood. Village production of alcohol comprises another school with unexpected lessons for the young girl. The modern school and its sponsoring church become arenas where Ntaanya continues shaping her growing awareness of a world beyond, consolidates friendships and begins to question old beliefs but always with Muzeeyi her mother as the central reference point. Finally her grandmother's funeral reinserts her firmly back in the center of a cultural milieu that shapes her perspectives on life.