The First Woman: Winner of the Jhalak Prize, 2021

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She also makes the case that monastic writers of the time “overwrote” accounts by women of their own histories. One example, she claims, is Bede, who did not name the authors of the local books he drew upon for his account of the early abbesses of the English church in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People. The First Woman is a feast of Ugandan history, language, culture, mythology but above all mwenkanonkano—a Luganda word that loosely translates as feminism, but this concept is older, local, not something imported from the west. Originally set up as a companion to Nansubuga’s debut novel Kintu, the historical sweep of The First Woman is less obvious but the influence and inspiration of the “ancients” is never far from the surface. I wanted to explore two things. One was the idea that feminism comes from the West, and therefore, feminism is destroying our culture. So I needed to locate feminism in my culture. For me, I had to start from the beginning. When did women start to get oppressed? I needed to look at my people, my culture, from the moment it happened: Why did it happen, and how did it happen? It is a beautiful book for women, about women, that should be read by all men who would like to understand women! About the author

More so than Tambu in that book though, Kirabo (who is starting to more actively search for her mother) also receives a sexual awakening in the school and grows in her belief in Mwenkanonkano (a word I think the author has coined as a Ugandan version of feminism). There were so many interesting and relevant themes that the author treated in details. I was very impressed. I found that the role of a the First lady at times could serve as a microcosm of the issues facing women in America: working mom, stay at home mom, sitting at the table, staying behind the scenes, issues in marriages, issues with children; all of those things have and do come up. Many of the women profiled never wanted that role. Some dreamed of nothing better. All tried to put their unique stamp on it and at times found themselves damned if they did and damned if they didn't. And in this day and age, It was interesting to learn that how much of the First Lady's role is still truly like a traditional housewife who plans state dinners, menus, flowers, parties. Although she repeatedly refers to the First Ladies as a "sisterhood", there is one chapter that is titled "Bad Blood" which recounts the feuds between some of the women. I felt like I needed to take a shower after reading it. So unnecessary.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. Bigamy is accepted as part of the culture; Miiro does have a second wife who plays a pivotal role in the story. Other bigamous relationships are explored as well. At times, I wondered at the wives' relationships with each other. Sometimes they did not seem plausible to me. Kirabo is a bright, driven young girl coming of age in 1970s Uganda. She navigates a world shaped by patriarchy, colonialism, Idi Amin’s brutal regime, and complex overlapping hierarchies of clans, classes and ethnic groups. Kirabo’s extended family has its share of secrets and long-held grudges, not least of which is the identity of Kirabo’s own mother. 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. NASA released its first digital, interactive graphic novel, "First Woman: NASA's Promise for Humanity," featuring the story of a fictional astronaut, Callie Rodriguez, who is the first woman and person of color to explore the moon. (Image credit: NASA)

Kirabo is a character I enjoyed hearing from, I really could not get enough of her world. I delighted in her grown and her growing into her womanhood. I had a hard time with this book at first. It seemed really chaotic and unstructured. I still can't figure out the organizing principle from one chapter to the next and the abrupt transitions didn't help either. I think that might largely be because I listened to this book. And as I've learned, I'm a visual person, so if I read it with my eyes, I likely would have had more success understanding what the theme was from one chapter to the next. (Plus, I likely would have loved the no doubt, awesome pictures included in this book!)The feminist themes in this book and the strong women were wonderful. I loved how the book examined things like privilege, colorism, relationships, and marriage, and I liked that it did all that while providing a fascinating insight into Ugandan culture and history. I don't actually know that much about Uganda, so it was really fascinating to read about how it was negatively impacted by colonialism, their war with Tanzania, and how the traditional beliefs mixed with and/or superseded the christian ones that were imposed on them from England. Even though the patriarchal rules and expectations are harsh, it was surprisingly refreshing to see how the women still found ways to seize power from within, and how Kirabo, as part of a newer generation, was able to push the boundaries still further because of the efforts of the strong women preceding her. 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.” Would highly recommend this for any Veep fans. It's like another couple episodes. If you're not a Veep fan, I would highly recommend you become one. The audiobook version of this is amazing, because it's read by Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tony Hale in character. They do some very fun interruptions and commentary on the book; it's kind of the "uncut" version you'd expect if Selina and Gary were in the studio recording the audiobook. I think my normal problem with audiobooks is that it's not the medium novels were created for (I generally prefer radio dramas if I want to listen to a story). The audiobook for this takes the novel and adapts it for the medium of the audiobook, with great success. Julia Louis-Dreyfus of course has an absolutely perfect politician-speaking-to-the-public voice (every bit as perfect as the completely vacuous and lifeless smiling stare on the cover), and is a genius in all her acting and delivery.