This excellent novel is the story of one girl’s journey of self-discovery, but also an exploration of the mythological origins of gender roles and the archaic structures of the patriarchy.

There is a quote of Makumbi’s that I adore which is: ‘I don't write for a Western audience. If I can understand Shakespeare, you can understand me’. When I read that I knew I needed to read this book and I was not disappointed. I can understand her and I am richer for it.

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Full review: https://andymcd.wixsite.com/aviewfromthebook/post/review-the-first-woman

Wow is the first thing I can think when I think about this book. Just so beautiful, the writing is very slow paced but in a good way, it makes you slowly absorb the book and in this case its done very well. I can't rate this enough and would certainly recommend to anyone and everyone!

An interesting read about the history of Uganda and the place of women in it's community and society. This story is full of interesting characters and strong female protaganists.

This took me a long time to get into, and that affected my enjoyment of it even though I did eventually end up interested. The problem was that it begins incredibly slowly. I’m usually a fan of non-linear narratives but I found this one a little confusing, as (particularly at the start of a chapter or section) a statement would be made about what was happening and then the narrator would go into many pages of explanation as to how it got to that point from where the last chapter ended. I kept thinking that we were skipping ahead in time, and finally getting somewhere, but then it would go right back to the start. It was a little frustrating. But once things got going, about halfway in, I was fascinated by the way the author weaves a tale of Ugandan culture and the long-lasting effects of colonialism and a dictatorship on the country (all of which I knew almost nothing about) into what is essentially a feminist Bildungsroman. It sprawls decades and family members, becomes a boarding school novel and then an epistolary narrative, but always comes back to the story of a young woman looking for her mother. When reading it initially I noted that I liked the water fable that Kirabo, the protagonist, and her witchy mentor discuss - that women belong to the sea and men to the land - and I was pleased to discover that the novel comes back to this theme to close. It wasn’t enough for me to forgive The First Woman entirely for its slow opener, but I did get something out of it in the end.

The First Woman is an absolutely stunning and powerful read, something I would encourage everyone to pick up. . The book looks into the role and status of women in Ugandan Society, between modern and tradition, ‘Family values’ and the quiet rebellion and resistance of women fighting for equality. This is an epic family drama that shows each generations contribution to feminism and equality. Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi is a fantastic writer and I will definitely be reading her future work.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me this ARC.

The First Woman by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi is described as a "soulful, fiercely original novel rooted in Ugandan mythology, and I found it to be an engrossing coming of age story that transported me to another time and place. It is the story of Kirabo, who lives with her grandparents in rural Uganda before moving to the city to live with her father and later becoming a pupil in an exclusive boarding school. Her family and roots play a large part in the story, from the mother she never knew and spends years searching for, to her grandmother's feud with her former best friend and local "witch woman". The reader sees the parallels in the two stories set generations apart as well as getting a feel for the turbulent history of the period and how that impacted the daily life of regular people. The conflict between the modern and the traditional , both for the country of Uganda and in Kirabo's own story lies at the heart of the book and I particularly liked the way the author incorporated the changing roles of women over the course of the book , and the strong feminist overtones .
It did take a little time to get settled into the book and get a grip on the many many characters and their relationships and connections, but once I was able to get that straight in my head I found myself completely immersed in the story .
I read a review copy courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

In her twelfth year, Kirabo, a young Ugandan girl, confronts a piercing question that has haunted her childhood: who is my mother? Kirabo has been raised by women in the small village of Nattetta—her grandmother, Muka Miiro, (and grandfather), her best friend, and her many aunts, but the absence of her mother follows her like a shadow. Her father, Tom, is an affluent businessman in Kampala and comes to visit her once in a blue moon. Complicating these feelings of abandonment, as Kirabo comes of age she feels the emergence of a mysterious second self, a headstrong and confusing force inside her at odds with her sweet and obedient nature. Seeking answers, Kirabo begins spending afternoons with Nsuuta, a local witch, and her grandfathers lover trading stories and learning not only about this force inside her, but about the woman who birthed her, who she learns is alive but not ready to meet. Nsuuta also explains that Kirabo has a streak of the “first woman”—an independent, original state that has been all but lost to women. When her rendezvous with Nsuuta are discovered, her grandmother sends her to her father in Kampala who in turn sends her to an all-girls boarding school.

Kirabo’s journey to reconcile her rebellious origins, alongside her desire to reconnect with her mother and to honour her family’s expectations, is rich in the folklore of Uganda and is an arresting exploration of what it means to be a modern girl in a world that seems determined to silence women. Makumbi’s unforgettable novel is a sweeping testament to the true and lasting connections between history, tradition, family, friends, and the promise of a different future. The First Woman is a powerful and striking bildungsroman set in 1970s Uganda under the rule of Idi Amin and presents a vivid and riveting picture of Ugandan life and its mythology. It explores the role of women in a largely patriarchal society where the belief is that women should be seen and not heard and be family-orientated; looking after and caring for a husband and children is their assigned roles, which they are told not to deviate from. Kirabo is a wonderful protagonist; she's a strong, relatable, bold and independent character who jumps off the page and into your heart with ease. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Oneworld for an ARC.

“The belief at St Theresa’s was that every girl needs that girlfriend, nfs-nfe, for whom she would prise open the crack of her buttocks to check the pain up there without worrying about the ugliness. Because only a woman knows how to love a woman properly.”

What an epic saga of a book. Spanning the lives of three generations of women against the backdrop of a society moving slowly from tribalism through a violent dictatorship into the modern-day era, it reads both as a lengthy feminist tract and epic family saga.

Through the lives of Kirabo and her elders, Uganda’s patriarchal tribal system is portrayed in a fascinating way and the women’s quiet acts of resistance revealed: “every woman resists. Often in private. Most of our resistance is so everyday, women don’t think twice about it. It is life.”

Kirabo is raised by her grandparents in their village before being whisked off to the big city, Kampala, to live with her father and his family. Her life is a blend of (seemingly, to us) outdated traditions and modernity, of forward-thinking elders who believe in the education of girls, and archaic customs that maintain that a man’s children be raised by his family’s clan upon his death, neglecting a mother’s rights or wishes to her own children.

I could go on and on about all the poignant matters of feminism, equality and simple humanity that this book has raised, and I could plaster this post with endless quotes taken from the text (the one at the top my absolute favourite, not only because the imagery made me laugh, but also because we all know, it’s true!), but I don’t think a short post would do this epic book much justice.

Yes, it’s a long read and it did take me a while, but it’s so very worth it to learn about a country and about a culture that I really didn’t know anything about before this book. So thank you to the author and thank you to Netgalley and Oneworld for allowing me such a titillating insight into the lives of ordinary Ugandans. I’d definitely recommend!

In The First Woman by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, we follow a young Ugandan girl, Kirabo, from the ages of 12 to 18 in the 1970s and 1980s, as she works out what kind of a woman she’s going to be. She has never known her mother; at the beginning of the book, she lives with her paternal grandparents Miiro and Alikisa in rural Nattetta, then she moves in with her father Tom and his family in urban Kampala, before going to boarding school.

Kirabo’s curiosity about her mother runs throughout the book to greater or lesser degrees, alongside several other themes. These include female friendship, the power of stories, the legacy of colonialism, and conflicts between tradition and modernity, country and city, and women’s compliance and independence.

I found The First Woman fascinating, and loved watching Kirabo develop as a character. Right from the start, she’s faced with conflicting messages from Alikisa, and Alikisa’s rival and neighbourhood ‘witch’ Nsuuta. The former values propriety and submission, and regards sex as dirty, while the latter champions women’s ‘original state’ of assertiveness and strength before they stifled themselves to please men, and is far more positive about sex. I enjoyed the scenes early on in the book where Kirabo sneaks off to Nsuuta’s to hear Ugandan stories that are used to explain the place of women in society, and considers the power of storytelling in maintaining established hierarchies.

What Kirabo doesn’t know at the beginning is that when they were growing up, Alikisa and Nsuuta were best friends, and it was these conflicting attitudes that eventually drove them apart. I loved the section of the book that told their story in the 1930s and 1940s, as Nsuuta is an especially interesting character - she had a marriage partner lined up, but she went against her family’s wishes and broke things off to train as a nurse instead. I also liked reading about Kirabo’s friendships, particularly with her childhood playmate Giibwa; as they grow older, a gulf opens between them partly due to their differences in social status, which did not affect them as children.

Even when she’s at boarding school, where the students are expected to excel across fifteen subjects and feminism is the default, Kirabo still can’t escape these conflicting visions of womanhood. Her experiences of going to an all-girls’ school matched mine: even though the students are in what should be a feminist utopia, they nonetheless compete with one another for male attention and police each other’s relationships with boys, shaming girls whose behaviour they don’t approve of. Kirabo herself gets a boyfriend, Sio, and has to take care to protect her reputation.

Another thing I found interesting about The First Woman was how it deals with polygamy. The story takes place over a time period when attitudes overlap: some rural families still practice it, but others who have been influenced by Christianity reject it, as do most urbanites. Nor do all women see polygamy as a bad thing; some see it as an opportunity to share reproductive and domestic labour, and as children, Alikisa and Nsuuta plan to marry the same man so they can always be together.

On the surface, men hold all the power in terms of land, inheritance, and so on. However, despite this, women exercise a surprising amount of power by policing one another and deciding who can be part of the family. This is especially true of Kirabo’s great-aunt Nsangi, who acts as an arbiter of family affairs and dominates Miiro as his older sister. With the possible exception of her beloved grandfather, it’s women who have the most influence over Kirabo’s life and attitudes. They also possess comically low expectations of men - though it isn’t so funny for poor Kirabo when her Aunt Abi fights Sio’s corner and thinks Kirabo’s been too harsh on him when he does her wrong!

The First Woman is a fascinating Ugandan coming-of-age tale that contains multitudes.

Why penned hens peck each other

‘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.’

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 the concept is older, local, not something imported from the west.

‘Any mwenkanonkano is radical. Talk about equality and men fall in epileptic fits.’

This is a novel about Kirabo, a bright, driven young girl coming of age in 1970s Uganda. We follow Kirabo as 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.

It sounds like a lot, but really this is a personal, character-driven story about Kirabo and her family. The rest is context—necessary context—not a history lecture. However, at times the novel favours explanatory detail over action. For instance, when Kirabo moves to boarding school, a lot of time is spent establishing this new setting, new characters and social hierarchy… but very little happens there, and the action soon moves away from the school again.

Like gravity and the tides, kweluma and mwenkanonkano are the forces that move this story. One or both of these influence every piece of the drama—friendships slowly eroding or smashing apart, first love, deaths and marriages. They even shape the stories that are passed down, whether they be ancient myths or recent family history. A rich and rewarding read.

I absolutely loved reading The First Woman. With an insight into Ugandan society and the role and status of women, among other things, The First Woman captured my attention right from the beginning. Makumbi is a writer who writes very well and i will definitely be looking forward to reading whatever next she writes. A fresh voice, Makumbi's novel is bound to catch hold of its readers.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me this ARC.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

I was very excited to read this having read all of Makumbi’s books. I had high expectations going into this.

The first woman is a coming of age story of a young lady, Karibo , who grew up knowing she was different from most of the girls in her village who only wanted to be wives and mothers.

This book explores her life as a young girl who had no relationship with her mother but desperately craved it. She lived in a patriarchal society where women were reduced to nothing, where education was a disadvantage to women as it could make them unattractive to men and the goal was to get married. I did appreciate that despite being raised in such a patriarchal society, she had people that introduced her to feminism.

I particularly loved her relationship with her aunt Abi. I also really enjoyed her conversation with Sio on feminism but it became obvious that even men that champion feminism or ally’s as they call them will fall your hand.

This book highlights the different thought process of African women and how they navigate sexism. It explores feminism in a nuanced way.

It started off a bit slow paced and it almost lost my attention but I soon realized that it was a book that needed my undivided attention and patience to savor and soak up its awesomeness. I’ve noticed that Jennifer Makumbi likes books with a lot of characters and is unapologetically Ugandan as the book was filled with Ugandan words and phrases. It was a bit hard to understand at first but as I progressed, it got easier to understand the meaning of these words based on the context in which they were used.

The First Woman explores heavy themes like feminism, sexism, womanhood, marriage, motherhood, family, loss, friendships & Ugandan culture and history.

TFW was filled with beautiful prose and amazing dialogues ! Jennifer Makumbi wrote one hell of a book. There is a lot to unpack and discuss and I reckon this will be a fantastic book club read.


This was a wholesome read because it was written by an African woman and she told stories of African women navigating patriarchy and sexism which is so important in the world we live in.

This book was wonderful. It was a great story while also giving more of an insight into life in Uganda, particularly the culture. It was also very well linked with the universal theme of motherhood.

I found this book fascinating and I couldn't put it down!

The story is set in Uganda and follows a young girl named Kirabo as she embarks on her journey into womanhood. Kirabo is growing up in a time where women are changing their role in society and she is keen to follow her own path. Kirabo has a strong family network and while she is respectful to her family, their traditions and beliefs, she is also an independent young woman who wants to create her own path. Rich in family, relationships, friendships and aspirations this book has so many layers.

Before reading this book I had no knowledge of Ugandan Mythology but I found the book eye opening and an interesting read.

I felt so drawn to Kirabo's character and this made for an enjoyable read.

I did find it a little confusing with the many different characters. Due to this being an ARC read I didn't come across the character list on my kindle until the end.

This book was fascinating, there was a wealth of knowledge about Uganda and Ugandan mythology which was such a refreshing read for me as this is a topic where my knowledge is lacking.
This novel follower the protagonist Kirabo on her journey through life. They way the author wrote relationships was impeccable, the complex families were a little hard to follow however it was worth it once I got it straight in my head.
This book was a great coming of age novel and it had so much depth many layers to it.
I would definatley recommend it to others looking for something different than your typical summer blockbuster novel.

This was a fantastic book - set in Uganda in the 1970s, an era and place of which I know very little, we see the protagonist, Kirabo, grow up amongst her extended family. She is being brought up by her grandparents, landowners in the town, as her mother left when she was born. This fascinating novel follows her growing up, the relationships with her friends and family, and her navigation of a patriarchal society.

With the backdrop of Idi Amin's rule, and powerful men disappearing around her, we follow her as she moves into her father's house in the city, and an upmarket boarding school. The relationships were incredibly well described, and the constraints around women were palpable.

There is a thread running through the book about the power of women, and links to Ugandan mythology, but I found it to be a really grounded and earthy novel, with so much everyday detail. There are complicated family networks that I did need to use the provided cast of characters to follow, but it was so satisfying when the story moved back in time and we found out the effects of their past actions on Kirabo's life.

This stunning book is a classic of coming of age feminism. I will be reading the author's first novel and seeking out more Ugandan fiction.

What a ride! I feel naked while reading Makumbi—because there is so much history, and cultural nuances packed into her novels. She makes me aware of how little I know. Makumbi does not dumb it down. Quoting her own words “I don’t write for a Western audience. If I can understand Shakespeare, you can understand me.”

In The First Woman, you will be enamoured by the Ugandan folktales with witches, men and betrayal, or sympathize with the coming of age narrative, or find yourself plunged into patriarchy, colonialism, spread of religion and power dynamics. The First Woman is indefinitely layered and Makumbi leaves it to the reader to find the depth they are looking for. I loved the women in the book, be it the motherless teenager Kirabo (finding and losing love, searching for her mother, trying to understand herself) or the grandmothers who have a long history between them or the wife who is unwelcoming of her husband’s illegitimate child. On a sly sarcastic note, if you are one of those people who equate Africa to a dot on the map instead of the many countries and cultures that make it, or read one hyped book by a black author and tweet ‘I read diverse books’, then let Makumbi cure you.

The First Woman is a wonderfully eye-opening read, that conveys a deeply personal story of one extraordinary woman's upbringing. Her battle to find herself is courageous, and inspiring.

Set in Ugandan mythology, The First Woman is very much a coming of age novel. It can be read as a companion novel to Kintu, Makumbi’s first novel. Kirabo is a young teenager who is being raised by her grandparents in a rural village following her Mothers departure when she was a baby. As she grows older, she looks for explanations as to why her Mother left and searches for her role and direction in life. This is very much a coming of age book as Kirabo becomes a young woman. Set in Uganda during Idi Amin’s brutal regime, this particularly torrid period of Ugandan history is always in the background.

I had not read any of Makumbi’s prior work before, so this novel was very much outside of my reading comfort zone. Not being a fan of the magic realism genre, I struggled to finish this to be honest.

Thank you to @netgalley and @oneworldpublications for this free e-book in return for my honest review.

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me with an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is not my usual genre, I’m more into crime/thriller books and even psychological thrillers too so I am extremely pleased and grateful to them for opening up my mind to something totally different.