Women and Power: Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
![Makumbi credit Danny Moran red ok](/imager/files/Auteurs-beelden/89237/Makumbi_credit-Danny-Moran-red-ok_6e691d99ec6210a5a717f7d42f01333d.jpg)
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would you like to connect to the author? Ask your question before 26 March via connect@passaporta.be or during the event via the chat.
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Makumbi’s multi-award-winning novel Kintu has been hailed as the great Ugandan novel, a modern classic. It has received effusive reviews in Uganda as well as the US and Britain. Blending Ugandan oral tradition, folk tales, myth and Biblical elements, Makumbi brings a very colourful cast of characters to life. Her new novel, The First Woman, is of the same calibre.
An instant classic
Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi writes novels and short stories. She studied and taught English literature in Uganda before continuing her studies in Manchester in 2001, where she now teaches creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University. With the instant classic Kintu, she won the Kwani Manuscript Project in 2013 and the Windham-Campbell Prize in 2018.
The first woman
In Makumbi’s second epic novel, The First Woman, we follow the headstrong Kirabo growing up in rural Uganda. Although surrounded by strong women – her grandmother, many aunts and best friend – she begins to feel the absence of the mother she has never known. Who is the woman who gave birth to her? The search for answers brings her to Nsuuta, a woman who lives outside of the community and can tell her more. Among other things, she learns about ‘the first woman’, who was once independent and free but has been forced to adapt for centuries.
Traditions and feminism
The First Woman is based on the Ugandan creation story of the first woman. It is a sweeping yet deeply personal novel about longing and rebellion, steeped in old traditions and feminism. This makes Makumbi an ideal interlocutor in our ‘Women and Power’ series.
Passa Porta, Uitgeverij Cossee, Pelckmans uitgevers, De Munt
photo jennifer nansubuga makumbi © danny moran
Coming soon at
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Brecht Evens
A brilliant illustrator and multi-award-winning graphic novel artist, Brecht Evens will create a fresco in real time. His subject? Refuge, the theme of this 9th edition of the Passa Porta Festival.
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Women and Power: the power of the pussy
‘What straitjacket are we forcing women into?’ The ‘Wild Women’ in Heleen Debruyne and Sofie Vandamme will ask their guests this question in the live version of their podcast of the same name. With Rachida Lamrabet, Julie Cafmeyer and Finnish writer Mia Kankimäki.
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Vijf schrijvers op zoek naar een personage
Onze boekenkasten worden bevolkt door duizenden personages waarvan we nauwelijks iets weten. Een begaafd auteur deelt net genoeg informatie over een personage om de lezer te overtuigen. Maar wat als de lezer meer wil? Wat als een figurant meer te vertellen heeft over het grote verhaal? Schrijvers Aya Sabi, Bregje Hofstede, Carmien Michels, Joost de Vries en Mustafa Kör zetten vijf ‘kleine’ personages uit de wereldliteratuur in de kijker.