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Ange
In “Foreign Soil,” Mukasa is Ange’s boyfriend; he’s a doctor from Uganda. Ange’s mum and Ange’s dad disapprove of their relationship because Mukasa is Black and Ange is white. After Ange moves with Mukasa from Australia to his native Uganda, where he’s in the process of opening a hospital, he spends long hours at work and becomes controlling, manipulative, and eventually physically abusive. At one point, he even rapes Ange. Later on, when Mukasa discovers Ange is pregnant, he’s irate to the point that he insults and physically assaults her. In Ange’s mind, Mukasa has changed completely. Yet the story hints that Ange may simply have been ignoring signs all along—or that she never knew Mukasa as well as she thought she did. Put differently, the story suggests that Ange’s being on “foreign soil” in Uganda has empowered Mukasa and disempowered her (whereas their dynamic was reversed when they lived in Australia.)
Mukasa Quotes in Foreign Soil
The Foreign Soil quotes below are all either spoken by Mukasa or refer to Mukasa. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Foreign Soil
Quotes
All her life, Ange had felt she didn’t belong to the drudgery around her, to her ordinary world. But here, right in front of her, was a chance at something remarkable.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
She began to wonder if the real Mukasa Kiteki was another country entirely, whether what happened between them had always been carried out with the choreographed care and watchfulness brought on by foreign soil.
Gaps in the Hickory
Quotes
When Carter wriggle into the top, his whole body get to singin’. He stand up straight, look in the mirror. His mind unfog itself.
Get the entire Foreign Soil LitChart as a printable PDF.
Mukasa Quotes in Foreign Soil
The Foreign Soil quotes below are all either spoken by Mukasa or refer to Mukasa. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Foreign Soil
Quotes
All her life, Ange had felt she didn’t belong to the drudgery around her, to her ordinary world. But here, right in front of her, was a chance at something remarkable.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
She began to wonder if the real Mukasa Kiteki was another country entirely, whether what happened between them had always been carried out with the choreographed care and watchfulness brought on by foreign soil.
Gaps in the Hickory
Quotes
When Carter wriggle into the top, his whole body get to singin’. He stand up straight, look in the mirror. His mind unfog itself.
