Discuss all the themes portrayed in Kintu: A Novel by Jeniffer Nansubuga.

One important theme in the novel is ancestry. Kintu is based on the present day clan’s connection to their ancestors and how one mistake can ripple farther into the future than anyone could have guessed.

First, it is important to establish the curse, the clan’s ancestry, and how it continues on despite Ntwire’s declaration that living is suffering. The patriarch that causes the curse is Kamu Kintu, and it is his last name that continues through the bloodline for generations despite the death of himself and his entire family. The Kintu name lives on through Zaya who carries Kintu’s grandchild because “way back, [Baale, Kintu’s son] offered to teach me how to be with a man, in case I had to go back to Gitta” (96). This is the moment that the Nitwire’s curse takes hold. He tells Kintu “Your house, and to those that will be born out of it-to live will be to suffer. You will endure so much that you'll wish that you were never born” (62). When all of Kintu’s family dies, his legacy continues on through Zaya, a woman that only slept with Baale a single time.

This fact creates an interesting conundrum in the future, as the family tree is vast, but centers around a single offspring. The reader knows that the clan is large because the narrator says he married numerous other women and “his wives’ homes were scattered all over the provenance for his convenience when he toured” (24). Furthermore, “Nnakato brought the wives who failed to conceive to Mayirika and asked him to double his efforts” (25). This creates a clan filled with countless children, but only one direct descendant of Kintu. We learn in the later chapters that this is Miisi. When two of his cousins visit, they tell him, “You are at the heart of the family tree… you are the only surviving son of the heir lineage… Baale’s unborn son Kidda was to be the heir. When you follow that heir’s blood it leads to you” (352).

This focus on ancestry is vital to the Kintu clan because it gives them a reason for the suffering they experience in their own lives. By gathering together, the family gets a chance to free themselves from this curse. They come to understand that this pain is not just their own. It is a product of hundreds of years of history throughout their bloodline. Even those that are skeptical, like Isaac and Suubi, find peace in the arms of their family. Their shared past brings them together, absolves them of their suffering, and gives everyone a chance to move on from the damage their ancestors caused.

Other themes in the novel include naming, twins, knowledge, and acceptance.