S. W. Omamo

Set in Kenya and spanning almost three centuries from the pre-colonial 1700s to the turbulent 1990s, The Men Do Not Eat Wings tells the intertwined stories of eight men from five generations of a Luo family: Nwanji, Oweh, Osewe, Ang’awa, Luka, Boro, Okello, and Sakawa. In 1999, one of them, Luka, a successful farmer and businessman in western Kenya, is brutally murdered. A poor squatter on Luka’s farm is arrested and charged with committing the crime. But at Luka’s funeral, why does his widow seem to suggest that Luka might have done something that contributed to his death? The answer lies partly in Luka’s recent business dealings and the complicated relationships that underpinned them. The answer also lies in Luka’s entanglement in sinister tribalistic political schemes that soon draw in his son, Sakawa, and his brother, Okello. But most of all, the answer lies in Luka’s family history and Luo culture – both of which are marked by male dominance, bravery, violence, ambition, and love.