Charis welcomes Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi in conversation with Novuyo Tshuma for a celebration of A Girl is a Body of Water an unforgettable, sweeping testament to the true and lasting connections between history, tradition, family, friends, and the promise of a different future. This event is co-hosted by the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History. This event takes place on crowdcast, Charis' virtual event platform.

In her thirteenth year, Kirabo confronts a piercing question: who is my mother? Kirabo has been raised by women in the small Ugandan village of Nattetta—her grandmother, her best friend, and her many aunts—but the absence of her mother follows her like a shadow. Seeking answers from Nsuuta, the local witch, Kirabo learns about the woman who birthed her, who she discovers is alive but not ready to meet. Nsuuta also helps Kirabo understand the emergence of a mysterious second self, a headstrong and confusing force inside her—this, says Nsuuta, is a streak of the “first woman”: an independent, original state that has been all but lost to women.

Kirabo’s journey to reconcile these feelings, alongside her desire to reconnect with her mother and to honor her family’s expectations, is rich in the folklore of Uganda and an arresting exploration of what it means to be a modern girl in a world that seems determined to silence women.

Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi is a Ugandan fiction writer. Jennifer is a recipient of the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize 2018.  Her first novel, Kintu, won the Kwani? Manuscript Project in 2013. She has a PhD from Lancaster University and is a senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Novuyo Rosa Tshuma is the author of the novel House of Stone, winner of the 2019 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award for Fiction with a Sense of Place and the 2019 Bulawayo Arts Award for Outstanding Fiction. A native of Zimbabwe, she holds a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Houston, an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, and a BComm in Economics and Finance from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa.

This event is free and open to all people, especially to those who have no income or low income right now, but we encourage and appreciate a solidarity donation in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Charis Circle's mission is to foster sustainable feminist communities, work for social justice, and encourage the expression of diverse and marginalized voices. https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/CharisCircle?code=chariscirclepage

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A Girl is a Body of Water: Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi in conversation with Novuyo Tshuma