Finches, euphonias, and allies [ edit ] Yellow-fronted canary at Queen Elizabeth NP, Uganda Streaky seedeater

BBC Radio 4 - We Are All Birds Of Uganda by Hafsa Zayyan BBC Radio 4 - We Are All Birds Of Uganda by Hafsa Zayyan

If you do not have Ugandan citizenship, and you do not have British citizenship, then you are a stateless person, as I found myself to be. To become stateless is to be expelled not ,only from Uganda but from anywhere on Earth. I imagined myself as Armstrong, floating in outer space, untethered. The LoveReading LitFest invited Hafsa Zayyan to the festival to talk about We Are All Birds of Uganda. The following tags highlight several categories of occurrence other than regular migrants and residents. The grandfather's chapters were a wasted opportunity. They gave us information about Uganda and the 1970s expulsion of Asians but this information could have been imparted differently. Later on, Sameer comes across his grandfather's letters and learns more about Ugandan history, so why not insert here those facts that appeared in the grandfather's chapters? He certainly did not necessitate so many chapters! I never believed in his voice, and couldn't really visualize him or his relationship with the other characters. His letters were there only for us to be able to learn more about Uganda, which I appreciate but as I said I think this information could have been presented to us in a different way. I understand that family sagas have to have two timelines, but here one of the timelines was limited by its format (that of a letter to a dead person). Also, the grandfather seems to recount a few months and at times years in the span of one letter...which didn't really make sense. Does he write a letter to his dead wife every couple of years? Filling her in with all that happened since his last letter? And why would he give her information she would have already known?The love story between Sameer and Maryam was not only standard fare, but the dialogue between the two of them was at best clunky, and at times stilted. Its no good saying that the two of them talked for hours or were very easy in each others company, or in their companionable silences; it needs some passion, some fire, some chemistry. That was missing. Only one member of this small family is found in Africa, and its range is limited to Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It feeds mostly on fruits. Sameer is the British son of Ugandan Asians, expelled from their home country by Idi Amin. He is on his way to becoming a successful lawyer in London, but is under pressure from his family to return to Leicester to join the family business. The family Pandionidae contains only one species, the osprey. The osprey is a medium-large raptor which is a specialist fish-eater with a worldwide distribution.

We Are All Birds of Uganda by Hafsa Zayyan | Waterstones We Are All Birds of Uganda by Hafsa Zayyan | Waterstones

Entirely coincidentally, I read this book immediately after reading The Yield. Both books are multi-generational stories that deal with colonisation (Australia in The Yield, Uganda in this), racial tensions, and belonging. Also, both books use letters as a device for reviewing the historical aspect of their story (one long, serialised letter in The Yield, multiple letters over a prolonged period in this).Best Books Set in the 1920s — from Stories That Shimmer with Champagne and Social Change, to Rip-roaring Reads Covering Crime, Colonialism and Beyond. The helmetshrikes are similar in build to the shrikes, but tend to be colourful species with distinctive crests or other head ornaments, from which they get their name. The switch between the time periods serves to unravel and explore the complexities of generational divides, racial tensions and the long legacy of the destructive British colonial empire. Zayyan also explores themes of family, faith, friendship, culture, memory and identity. Her focus on identity and how Sameer struggles to find himself and life direction is central to the whole narrative.

We Are All Birds of Uganda - LoveReading We Are All Birds of Uganda - LoveReading

I loved reading this book and discovering the injustice faced by Sameer, his friends and ancestors in the UK and Uganda. Uganda is a country I had no prior knowledge of but the author paints a picture of a place of beauty but also of societal and cultural upheaval.... Read Full ReviewIf you don’t understand where you’ve come from, you’ll never really understand who you are or where you’re going. Locustellidae are a family of small insectivorous songbirds found mainly in Eurasia, Africa, and the Australian region. They are smallish birds with tails that are usually long and pointed, and tend to be drab brownish or buffy all over. These letters are mixed into the main narrative of the book which tells us the modern day story of Sameer. Sameer is a talented lawyer working for an international law firm and the book opens with his bosses offering him the chance to be part of the team opening a new office in Singapore. This is the kind of opportunity Sameer has always dreamed of. Of course, things are not that simple. Sameer’s family, moved to Leicester in the UK by the expulsion mentioned above, expects him to return to the family home, marry the right girl and become part of the (successful) family business. This conflict of interests for Sameer is then heightened by a number of further events. I think it is best to read the book to discover how the pressure on Sameer gradually grows. The action moves to Uganda when Sameer takes an opportunity to visit a family friend there and explore his roots (as well as to escape from the situation at home). The people he meets in Uganda come to shape his future and explain his past in ways he did not expect. Once success has been achieved, the indigenous populations become antagonistic and aggressive. This is a book about wider societal resentment in Africa, and in England. There is not any great difference in the racial comments and the physical violence happening in the two very different nations.