Running through The First Woman, from the schisms that divide Kirabo’s grandparents’ generation to the ambitions of its younger cast, is an exploration of how women preserve and cultivate their power. When Kirabo’s first love, Sio, tells her that he believes in “ mwenkanonkano”, he uses the English word, feminism, and she dismisses it “because as far as she knew, feminism was for women in developed countries with first-world problems”. When he uses the Luganda word, she pays more attention, but is also aware that Sio’s understanding of it is limited to directing her behaviour; as the story develops, Sio’s apparent egalitarianism reveals him to be something of an equal opportunities seducer.

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.I thought it was intriguing (and did not diminish the story) that other supporting women each took centre stage and spoke and acted in a way that I had expected to be conveyed through Kirabo. Aunt Abi(saagi), Jjajji Nsangi, Diba, and even Alikisa all make their voices heard assertively. 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. At turns rapturous and devastating... Makumbi's writing uplifts and inspires, evoking the grand tradition of folklore and stories passed down, one woman to the next.' - Refinery29 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. 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. Born in Kampala, Uganda, Makumbi was two years old when her parents separated. She would not meet her mother again until she was 10. Living with her grandfather until she was four and later with an Aunt, her own early life is clearly an inspiration behind The First Woman. The impact of Amin’s regime was a very personal one for her. Her father, who was a banker, was arrested and tortured and although he survived the ordeal, he sadly spent the rest of his life suffering from mental health issues.

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. Kirabo's grandmother and Nsuuta were best friends as girls. When they played with dolls together, grandmother loved to take care of them. Nsuuta practiced being a nurse with them, using thorns as shots. Grandmother became a nurturing, caring mother to many children. Nsuuta became a nurse. But the Bible says that God created Adam and Eve in his own image.’ ‘If he created them in his own image,’ Nsuuta snapped, ‘then afterwards Adam re-created Eve in his own image, one that suited him 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.”