She currently lives in Manchester with her husband and son and in between writing and lecturing, also managed to contribute to the 2019 anthology, New Daughters of Africa, edited by the esteemed I told you Grandfather is easy. Tom, I mean my father, is the same: they don’t put barriers against me. It is Grandmother, it is always other women, apart from you, who put up barriers against girls and on themselves. I know men can be tyrants, but a lot of women are nasty to women – everybody says it, unless you have not met Jjajja Nsangi, Grandfather’s sister.’ ‘Kirabo, have you seen God come down from heaven to make humans behave?’ ‘No.’ ‘That is because some people have appointed themselves his police. And I tell you, child, the police are far worse than God himself. That is why the day you catch your man with another woman, you will go for the woman and not him. My grandmothers called it kweluma. That is when oppressed people turn on each other or on themselves and bite. It is as a form of relief. If you cannot bite your oppressor, you bite yourself.” Throughout this jubilant, gorgeously penned celebration of women, Jennifer Makumbi has been perceptive, humorous and revealing about a young woman’s journey, navigating her way through a changing body, family, friendships, folklore and love in a time and place where being a woman was never going to be easy. Smart, headstrong Kirabo is raised by her grandparents in rural Uganda. But as she enters her teens, she starts to feel overshadowed by the absence of the mother she has never known. Firstly I am a huge fan of literature that takes us elsewhere, into the storytelling traditions of other cultures, seen from the inside, but told in a way that doesn't alienate a reader from outside that culture, but has both a particular and universal message.

Kirabo is a young girl of 12. She has been brought up by her paternal grandparents. Her mother left the family when she was small. Her father Tom has married another woman. He lives in another village.All of that is geared towards showing my culture that we had feminist thought before the Western feminism came. If you think Western feminism is wrong, OK, let's get rid of it, but let's look at what we have here. In the end, you're going to find that they intersect. 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.” Feministic themes are the focus of this book. Other than that, the author also talks about colorism, racism, marriage, friendships, relationships, and family dynamics. The novel is more than a coming-of-age story of Kirabo. It also gives us a glimpse into Kirabo’s grandmother and Nsuuta’s life and how their grandfather’s relationship with the two of them changed the friendship between the two women. It was interesting to see how society viewed and cheered the women based on what people inferred about their relationship. With the wrong idea in mind, the community shunned Nsuuta, dubbing her to be a witch capable of drawing men to her. The responsibility of men concerning their actions in these communities is laughable, and we see how they turn the blame onto women and how women also turn against one another in moments of strife. 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.

The First Woman is, unusually, both a character driven novel and equally a book that has important themes.

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 read the audio book and first I want to mention the narrator because so many of the reviewers disliked her. I do not agree with those reviewers. I liked Ms. White's conversational manner. I felt as though we were sitting over beverages sharing knowledge. It was a simple, quiet and intimate conversation about the first ladies. I loved it. One caveat: I listen (always) at 1.5 speed or faster so perhaps that helped.

I suggest you read this in small bites otherwise you begin to think as she does and this would be seen as deeply divisive, not just our country, but your social circle and family. Whether or not you’ve seen it, I think most people do know of Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ performance as Selina Meyer on HBO’s satirical Veep at least to some extent—she has won a disgusting amount of Emmys. Either way, the character of Selina Meyer can be summed up as a sociopathic alien trying her darndest to imitate a human-being as she claws her way to political power. That, and she becomes America’s first female president. Selina is the kind of narcissist that is the most while doing the least—a true American icon. In 2015 I started a project of reading biographies and memoirs about first ladies. I have managed to read most of the biographies except a few hard to find ones. I also learned that the rule book says first ladies is not to be capitalized. This book about the first ladies covers the first ladies from Kennedy to Obama and was published in 2017. The author did a great job of showcasing religion and how religion was used as a means to colonize. Throughout the entire book religion was explored, through the planting of churches and how Christianity changed the customs of the villagers. While I enjoyed the book, I felt it could have benefited by having a stronger editor. I felt too much was happening and the themes were not strongly fleshed out. There is the hint at magical realism at the start of the book that basically fizzled out and was not carried through the entire book.

In 1973, four years after Neil Armstrong’s space boot hit moon dust in the most celebrated step ever taken by a man, a Nasa report observed that: “There have been three females sent into space by Nasa. Two are Arabella and Anita – both spiders. The other is Miss Baker – a monkey.” The report’s co-author Ruth Bates Harris, who the space agency had originally hired to run its equal opportunities office, was described as a “disruptive force” and fired a month later. Was it bad what we were? Is it what makes me do bad things?” Kirabo asks. “No, it was not bad at all,” replies Nsuuta. “In fact, it 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 that state is reborn in a girl like you. But in all cases it is suppressed. In your case the first woman flies out of your body because it does not relate to the way this society is.” The narrative begins when Kirabo is a girl living with her grandmother, who develops a curiosity to know who her mother is, she is awakening to the deficit in her life and notices that those closest to her are unwilling to talk about her parents. So she seeks out Nsuutu, who some refer to as the witch, intuitively knowing she may have knowledge, visiting her in secret. With Jennifer Makumbi's storytelling, she has all the elements - great, unforgettable characters, a 'moving at pace' plot, a little bit of mystery, a whole lot of feminism and controversy and multiple perspectives and mini dramas and wise counsel and women who've had enough of the injustices of the past. I want to add some of the quotes that will make the readers understand the honesty and rawness of each of them. The beauty and truth these words carry, even in today’s day and age, will be remarkable to see. I saw the honesty and intelligence residing in these words. I also found myself thinking about the state of women, and how even today, our silence is valued and respected. There were so many similarities between the Ugandan and Kerala cultures. I appreciated the representation of the state of women, and I am glad to see the situations voiced by the author. I believe the book will be incredibly thought-provoking, and the words will resonate with people who have lived in patriarchal societies.