Summary

The slum where Phiona grows up is founded in 1971 when a single mother becomes the first person to purchase a piece of the Katwe lowlands outside the city of Kampala. For decades after gaining its independence from Great Britain in the 1960s, Uganda suffers from political instability, economic strife, civil war, and dictatorships. In a country with a large impoverished and displaced population, Katwe grows into a sprawling slum.

In Katwe, people live in makeshift shacks which are constantly under threat of flooding. Harriet Nakku is one of the many single mothers trapped in a cycle of poverty in Katwe. After giving birth to her fifth child, Harriet's husband dies of AIDS and she is left destitute. Afraid she also has AIDS, Harriet wonders if she will be alive to raise the rest of her children.

Robert Katende was also born...