Uganda in the last years of Idi Amin’s rule is a cesspool of decadence, debauchery and unimaginative excesses, but for Bat, it is a place where fortunes can be made.
Against all expectations and good advice, the Cambridge graduate returns home after studying mathematics.
He gets a job as Bureaucrat Two in General Bazooka’s ministry of Power and Communications. It comes with a huge pay, a posh car and servants paid by the state. His official mansion has a rich and significant history and is surrounded by spectacular and soothing scenery.
Bat is good at his job and soon acquires the reputation of getting things done. Marshal Idi Amin singles out the Ministry of Power and Communication for special praise. Bat thinks its due to his hard work and effciency.
But his boss at the ministry is less than impressed. General Bazooka both envies and fears Bat and wants to bring him down. The General puts a beautiful southern spy to bewitch and trap him but Bat keeps his mouth shut.
He lives as if the wider political and economic issues don’t exist.
Bribery and Corruption
In the dying days of the Amin regime paranoia, petty rivalries and corruption reach alarming proportions among the Uganda ruling military elite. Bat is sent to Saudi Arabia to negotiate a deal for the supply of construction equipment. He is left with no choice but to take the bribe before awarding the contract to one of the rival Saudi princes.
Back home, Bat’s boss has lost favour with the Marshal, who promotes a rogue English mercenary over him.
After a period of stewing over the possible ramifications of his bribe taking, Bat is imprisoned without charge and without trial. He experiences the neglect and torture that are the hallmarks of Uganda’s hellhole prisons.
A Compelling Read
Snakepit is a compelling and shocking story that is funny in a tragic way. The depths of human depravity to which Uganda’s military rulers sink seem to be too deep to be conjured up in a mere writer’s imagination, but are at the same time too outrageous to have any basis in reality. For instance, during the General’s drunken orgies, guests piss in the bathtub all night long. At the end of the party a dice is thrown and the loser is made to strip and bathe in the piss. Marshall Amin, as if not to be outdone in madness, at one time issues a million shilling dollar bank note which had a picture of him defecating on Europe
All the same, Snakepit might be a work of fiction but feels like a chronicle and an indictment of Amin’s rule.
Depth of Characterisation
Snakepit is written in flowing prose that sometimes tends to be over the top. The characterisation seems to be poor. None of the characters appear to have a unique voice or depth. Most are deplorable and short sighted villains who do not sense the crises about to engulf them until it’s too late. This includes Bat who has an option to leave the country for Britain by virtue of his education, money and connections.
The North South Divide
Snakepit also raises questions central to the plot that do not get answered. The north south divide and coffee smuggling are constantly referred to throughout the narrative but never explained. For example, Bazooka hates Bat because he is an educated southerner supposedly born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Due to his inferiority complex Bazooka beds southern women in order to father children with southern blood. However, the author does not explain the origins and nature of the north south dichotomy to inform and educate readers who are not familiar with Ugandan history.
Snakepit is a perversely enjoyable read and gripping story, if only to get an idea of how low people can sink both morally and spiritually, under a mad dictator.
About Moses Isegawa
Moses Isegawa was born in Kampla, Uganda. He is now a Dutch national and lives near Amsterdam. He is the author of Abysinian Chronicles. Snakepit is his second novel.
was originally published in the Netherlands as Slangenkuil by Uitgave de Bezige Bij in 1999. First published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2004. This edition published by Picador in 2004. ISBN 033041996X
Farai Muchemwa - I am medically qualified and worked as a general practioner in Zimbabwe for five years. I have an uncompleted Master of Public Health ...
