Ange Character Analysis

In “Foreign Soil,” Ange is a white hair stylist who leaves her native Australia to accompany her boyfriend, Mukasa, to his home country of Uganda. Ange loves Mukasa and resents her parents (Ange’s mum and Ange’s dad) for disapproving of their relationship. Still, Ange isn’t a wholly unproblematic character. As a white woman and a native-born Australian citizen, she doesn’t experience the prejudice that Mukasa experiences and doesn’t fully understand Mukasa’s struggles. For instance, Ange falls short of calling her parents’ rude treatment of Mukasa what it really is: racism. And Ange herself unwittingly objectifies and Mukasa, with her initial attraction to him stemming from her hope that being with him would make her life more interesting and exotic. But Ange and Mukasa’s roles are reversed when Ange follows Mukasa to Uganda. In Uganda, it’s now Ange who’s on foreign soil, and her new inability to understand the local language and culture disempower and alienate her. The move also affects Ange’s relationship with Mukasa. Mukasa works long hours, leaving Ange home alone all day, and he does little to ensure that Ange is comfortable and happy. For instance, he only speaks in Luganda, which Ange doesn’t understand. Ange’s troubles comes to a head when Mukasa becomes physically and emotionally abusive toward her. When he catches Ange chatting and laughing with Lucinda, a servant, he scolds them both and then fires Lucinda in retaliation. Later, he rapes Ange, who becomes pregnant. When Mukasa confronts Ange about the pregnancy, an argument ensues, and Mukasa strikes Ange. Ange seems caught off guard by Mukasa’s abuse, and even as his treatment of her worsens—and despite the fact that he may have been this way even in when the couple was still living in Australia, she remains in denial about the abuse.