Love and betrayal in London

On June 19, the Uganda German Cultural Society hosted a public reading by novelist Bananuka Jocelyn Ekochu at the organisation’s gardens.

The author read sections of her book, Shock Waves Across the Ocean.  

The society plans to hold such sessions on a regular basis in order to boost interaction between authors and their readers. 

“We will hold the sessions every two months; they will include book launches, poetry and the spoken word,” director, Carolin Christagau said.  

Ekochu, for example, was launching her debut novel, which portrays the struggles of people trying to make sense of their lives, and the web of relationships that hold them together.

Set in Uganda and England, the characters are part of a rich tapestry depicting the strengths and foibles, joys and tragedies, as well as greed and generosity that characterise human life. 

In these characters, we see an authentic reflection of ourselves — of the things we admire and those we find less flattering. 

The story begins with Cola Kalema accusing her friend Nico Muheki of handing her name and address to a stranger in England called Jeremy King. Cola is angered when Jeremy writes her a letter expressing his interest in her. 

It emerges that it was Nico’s friend Hazel, a student in London, who gave Cola’s contact to Jeremy. Nico had confided in Hazel about Cola’s loneliness as despite being in her 30s, she was uninterested in men.

Interestingly, when Jeremy calls, Cola is instantly drawn to him. She plans a trip to London.

Shock in London

All this while, Nico remains sceptical about Jeremy and the whole affair and tries to discourage her friend from taking the trip.

But the lovestruck Cola ignores her advice. “Isn’t it the sweetest thing? A shock wave across the ocean,” she tells Nico. 

Nico is right. It turns out that Jeremy is a drug trafficker and a pimp. Cola learns this upon her arrival in London.

First, her new boyfriend takes all her money; she soon begins to run his drug trade and is nearly drawn into prostitution.

The couple live in a room that could pass for a pigsty. One day, in a violent rage, Jeremy beats her up so badly he nearly kills her. One of Jeremy’s clients, Paul, turns up — just in time — and saves her.  

Nico calls Hazel and learns that Cola is dying and wants to see her before it is too late. 

When Nico gets to London, she learns that the illness is a ploy to persuade her to attend Cola’s wedding to Paul Smith. Nico is the maid of honour.

Paul is a widower whose wife and son died in a car accident more than a year previously. He has never stopped blaming himself for it. 

Addicted to prostitution

Their marriage does not last due to Paul’s addiction to prostitutes. The two divorce and Cola gets a generous settlement. Cola later falls in love with Bob. 

Cola discovers she has cancer of the uterus and goes to Bob’s place for solace — only to find him in bed with Hazel. She ends up in Jim Murigita’s apartment.

Two months later, she discovers she is carrying Jim’s child. Jim, a student in London, is Hazel’s younger brother. 

When she is unable to arrest the cancer, Cola returns to Uganda. To save the baby, she undergoes an operation, giving birth to a premature baby.  

Cola dies two months later, leaving her son Jimmy in the custody of Nico, with a fat bank account for his upbringing. 

Meanwhile, Hazel’s fiance Joe, is brutally murdered back home in Ghana by an incensed mob when he attempts to rescue an old woman being lynched over accusations of witchcraft.

He had returned to Ghana for his uncle’s burial.

The two had planned to wed on Hazel’s graduation day in London. Hazel is devastated.

Shock Waves across the Ocean is Ekochu’s first novel. Her short story, Not Until I Find My Daughter was published in Tears of Hope, an anthology of short stories by Femrite (2003).

Ekochu is part of the Femrite women writers’ collective.