The First Woman: Winner of the Jhalak Prize, 2021

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Watt also argues that an anonymous eighth-century Life of Gregory the Great could have been produced by one of the nuns in Whitby’s double monastery, not necessarily by a monk. “The emphasis on women within the text would seem to reflect the interests of women, which would seem to suggest female authorship,” she said. This is very much a novel about the lives women negotiate for themselves within a patriarchal system, and there are a lot of interesting women in it. There’s Kirabo’s aunt Abi, an independent and liberated single woman who nevertheless hates her brother’s wife for breaking the traditional wifely mold. There’s Nsuuta, the old blind woman with her ideas of sisterhood and sexual equality, who was once a nurse and now claims to be a witch. There are women negotiating their roles within marriage and clan: Nnambi, who’s fighting for a more modern marriage where she can focus on her nuclear family without propitiating her husband’s clan; Gayi, who runs away to marry across ethnic and religious lines; Nsangi, whose age allows her to take an almost patriarchal role in the family. And then there are the more modern boarding school girls, particularly Kirabo’s sweet and ambitious friend Atim, whom I’d have loved to see more of. I wish we could have seen more of all these ladies, and not filtered through Kirabo. The last time Kirabo was at home, before Christmas, she had slept on the roof with Aunt Abi and her next-door neighbours, because across the road the family who lived in the house with a green roof had been massacred.”

Growing up in a small Ugandan village, Kirabo is surrounded by powerful women. Her grandmother, her aunts, her friends and cousins are all desperate for her to conform, but Kirabo is inquisitive, headstrong and determined. Up until now, she has been perfectly content with her life at the heart of this prosperous extended family, but as she enters her teenage years, she begins to feel the absence of the mother she has never known. The First Woman follows Kirabo on her journey to becoming a young woman and finding her place in the world, as her country is transformed by the bloody dictatorship of Idi Amin.

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There are nonetheless almost flippant comments about the effect of his regime, which showed a resilience to the callous control imposed on people’s lives. For one young girl, discovering what it means to become a woman in a family, a community and a country determined to silence her will take all the courage she has. 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. Set against an evocative portrait of Ugandan village life this makes for a strong start and one which the rest of the book does not fully manage to sustain. Overall an ambitious book – which while strong failed for me to live up to its opening. I would not be at all surprised however to see this book deservedly do very well on

Two women, Kirabo (twelve years old at the outset) and Nsuuta (in her eighties at the books end) represent two generations of Bugandan women sizing up to what extent they challenge the status quo and assert their individual identities or conform to the expectations of females. our Original State ….. was wonderful for us. We were not squeezed inside, we were huge, strong, bold, loud, proud, brave, independent. But it was too much for the world and they got rid of it. However occasionally the state is reborn in a girl like you. But in all cases it is suppressed The First Woman is a lively, engaging read, and Makumbi cleverly braids the immensely personal – Kirabo’s yearning for a mother who appears to want nothing to do with her – with far larger scale social and political shifts. It is a novel that deliberately meanders, and veers between delivering condensed gouts of information with more leisurely set pieces; but its energy derives from its considerable wit and the charm of its central character. I submitted a paper, however, asserting that Elizabeth Mytton, Lady Thomas Wilbraham (1632-1705) was the mystery architect. I have been researching the architecture of Elizabeth Wilbraham since 1959, when I was a schoolboy at Charterhouse in Surrey. This article is partially excerpted from my 2007 paper on Wilbraham and my forthcoming book, First Woman Architect. Utopia' is when she is sent to St Theresa's, a girl's boarding school. An education, a world without men, though interrupted by war and expulsions that occur elsewhere, having the effect of changing the balance of power and perception among the girls as well, many will leave and a new influx will arrive.We follow Kirabo's life from age 12 (1975) to age 20. During this time, she seeks her mother. Her relationship with her father and step-mother change. Ancients saw the universe as divided into four realms. The first realm was heaven.” She wrote HEAVEN where North would be. “Then UNDERWORLD.” She placed it on the South point. "Then SEA". She placed it on the West point. “And finally, LAND.” She placed it on the East point. The First Woman by Jennifer Makumbi is a beautiful book for women, about women, that should be read by all men who would like to understand women. 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!