Bat Katanga is a Ugandan just returned to his homeland after two years in Britain. While he completed a postgraduate degree at Cambridge, he watched from afar as ”flag independence gave way to economic independence” in Uganda, his chances to make a fortune there increasing with each ”reform” imposed by Idi Amin. Now, when Bat lands a job as Bureaucrat Two in the Ministry of Power & Communications, he feels himself entering the top echelons of government, his sense of honor & honesty firmly intact
- ” Everything seemed to have been building to this moment, his triumphant entry into the bastions of power.” But when he is threatened into taking a bribe from a Saudi prince, he unwittingly begins a journey
- both psychological & physical
- into the darkest & most dangerous precincts of the madness that was Amin`s Uganda. As Bat`s life begins to unravel, we see the men & women whose lives intersect his
- General Bazooka, his superior at the ministry
- ”a creature of people`s fears & prejudices”
- a man slowly losing Amin`s approval, & with it any sense of safety or sanity; Victoria, who bears both Bat`s child & a deadly grudge against him; Bat`s family & friends, coping with the advantages & disadvantages of connection to someone in high places; Bat`s wife, Babit, who pays the ultimate price for his mistakes; Robert Ashes, the mercenary Englishman who insinuates himself into Amin`s trust
- & who will be the only one left standing after Amin`s downfall. Snakepit is an extraordinarily revealing, deeply humanizing exploration of the experience of virulent corruption. It is a fiercely compelling novel.