The First Woman: Winner of the Jhalak Prize, 2021

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If you're worried about partisanship, being as unbiased as I can be I'd say it definitely has a more left leaning slant, but in my opinion tries to be as factual, complimentary & critical of nearly every First Lady it discusses. At the heart of the story is motherless Kirabo. We first meet her in 1975 at the age of 12, living in a small village with her widely respected and loving grandparents. She's a good student who often wonders about her absent mother and likes to tell folklore stories. She also has a tendency to fly outside of her own body, and for this reason she decides she needs to consult with Nsuuta, the blind witch who lives along the road and who is her grandmother's sworn enemy. Nsuuta thinks she can help, and the pair embark on a series of clandestine meetings until Grandmother finds out. As a girl, Kirabo's grandmother impulsively ran naked into a rain shower one day. As much older women, her grandmother and Nsuuta do it again, together. And did all the women shrink?’ Kirabo steered Nsuuta away from Grandmother. ‘With that kind of perversion, who would not shrink? Who would want to be huge, or loud, or brave, or any of the other characteristics men claim to be male? We hunched, lowered our eyes, voices, acted feeble, helpless. Even being clever became unattractive. Soon, being shrunken became feminine. Then it became beautiful and women aspired to it. That was when we began to persecute our original state out of ourselves.” Love is blood choosing blood. Nothing to do with the heart. The heart speaks, you can reason with it. But blood? Blood is inexorable. Once it has decided, it has decided.”

At six months of age, Kirabo Nnamiiro was given to Miiro and Alikisa to raise. Their son Tom was Kirabo's father. Motherless Kirabo, now 12, wanted to find the mother who abandoned her. She secretly consulted with the town witch, Nsuuta. Deep, dark secrets! Why were Grandmother and Nsuuta, once close friends, now arch enemies? Why did Grandmother birth Tom only to give him to Nsuuta to raise? "Traditionally, wives share children. You could not leave your co-wife to live a childless life while you hoard all your progeny to yourself". It was well advised for Tom to take Kirabo to the city with him. It’s always fascinating to learn more about the occupants of the White House and learn more about the actual people. A picture is worth a thousand words, but it doesn’t tell you who those people actually are. And while I would say that this book revealed that the First Ladies are normal women like me, that’s not totally true. Constant mention was made of multi room estates, summer homes, or constant traveling and campaigning, which only served to reinforce that, generally speaking, most presidents and First Ladies came from or accumulated money at some point. I thought this author’s Kintu was great, and was excited to read this book. Kintu focuses mostly on men, and the author describes it as “masculinist” for its examination of how patriarchy hurts men, while this book is intended to be her feminist work. And it is, focusing on a Ugandan girl, Kirabo, and her female relatives, and the way they make their life decisions around expectations for women. Like Kintu, this one appears to be written first for a Ugandan audience, which is to the book’s credit: it doesn’t explain or simplify cultural references, and its way of expressing character or emotion can be a little different than typical Anglophone fiction. But Makumbi is a good storyteller who writes with a lot of dialogue and straightforward sentences, so no one should be intimidated. You don’t have to understand what everybody’s name means to enjoy the story. Storytelling is an essential element of this book. Early on, Kirabo begs Nsuuta to tell the story of why women had the position they occupied in society.

More books by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi

I honestly won't be surprised if this becomes a movie or a mini-series. It's the type of book that gets people talking because there aren't a lot of books out there like it, and it's fun to read because it has a fascinating story and great characters. The beginning is a little slow, but once Kirabo becomes a teenager, it gets so, so good. I'm definitely going to be recommending this one to all my friends! I recall that in Kintu Makumbi set part of her story in the pre-colonial 1700’s and other parts in modern times; colonial interlopers had left their imprint, however it was not their story nor a story of their influence, except to note the impact on the kingdom and so too is The First Woman that belongs to its people, whose existence grows and evolves from its own origins, belief systems and traditions and is challenged from within.

With such training, it is not surprising that many of the 400 buildings attributed to Wilbraham show a strong familiarity with both Italian and Dutch (but not French) architecture, which she synthesised into a sophisticated British style. Some of her better known buildings include Belton, Uppark, Winslow, Temple Bar, Windsor Guildhall, the original Burlington House, and St Mary’s Church, Ingestre. She designed Codrington Library, Oxford before Hawksmoor became involved. I think some people are going to fall into the trap of reading this and feeling superior about their own society's gender norms and expectations, but that would be a foolish mistake to make, because many of these problems continue to plague Western countries as well. The only difference is that the biases have become more insidious as more attention is brought to them. Women are still blamed for abuse and cheating, and women are often expected to leave careers for men or continue working while also expected to shoulder the bulk of the housework and child care (often with little or no support from employers). Friendships are still torn apart over boys, and it's often the girls who are blamed for cheating boyfriends and straying husbands instead of the man, who "can't help himself."

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I read the USA version, A Girl Is a Body of Water, so titled because publishers in USA felt that a USA audience would lose some of the creation aspects of “First woman” and focus instead on first women to achieve great things (and at the time of publication Ruth Bader Ginsburg became the first woman to lie in state in the US Capitol (09/2020)