The First Woman

Great story about womanhood and social structures in Uganda but the ending was a bit weak and disappointing. I did not feel that the main character used her potential but rather slipped into a standard path of a girl in her privileged position. I really enjoyed the storytelling but maybe shared Nsuuta’s disappointment at the end as Kirabo did not really contribute to women’s empowerment - she only reaped the privileges set by women before her.

She has scored a hat trick folks, a triple double. The way she shifts between time oh my. I highly recommend.

I’ve never been so sad to finish a book. It will be a long time before I read another book this wonderful. You follow Kirabo’s story from childhood to adolescence to womanhood as she searches for her mother and finds herself. It’s a joyous novel, a humorous novel, an intellectual novel, a deep novel, a historical novel. I really cannot praise this book enough.

After all the hype i was looking forward to this book as i was living in Uganda at the time it takes place. Unfortunately it was another coming of age story of young girls. This was a turbulent time in Uganda and the story could have included so much more of what was happening , rather than just the ins and outs of tribal family life. I have her next book so i hope this is better.

The issues raised are all relevant to everyone. I learnt a lot about Ugandan customs. I found it difficult to remember the relationships and the names but that is my bad not the author's. I want to know what happened next.

I loved the insight into a different culture, but found the structure disjointed so that there were times when my attention wandered. The last part of the book certainly gripped.

This book is excellently written, it follows a much loved character, Kirabo in her quest to find her biological mother while being surrounded by loving grandparents, family and friends.The character development in this book is excellent, you get to know the people well through the chapters.The book is broken into five parts, one part is made up mainly of letters between friends and gives the reader an interesting experience, a break from continuous reading.Favourite quotes:‘We are enough, are we not? If love does not come to us, we don’t go chasing after it. We are enough.’‘Even though we are all women, we stand in different positions and see things differently.’‘A girl uneducated is an oppressed wife in the making.’‘Stories are critical, the minute we fall silent, someone will fill the silence for us.’Some lines on this book made me laugh 😂They must be sisters: they looked ridiculously alike. As if their parents were too lazy to make new faces.