Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi

Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
Born	Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi Kampala Uganda
Occupation	writer
Nationality	Ugandan
Alma mater	Lancaster University
Genre	Fiction
Website
jennifermakumbi.net

Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi is a Ugandan novelist and short story writer.^[1] Her doctoral novel, The Kintu Saga, was shortlisted,^[2] and won the Kwani? Manuscript Project in 2013.^[3] It was published by Kwani trust in 2014 under the title, Kintu (Book).^[4][5][6] She was shortlisted for the 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for her story, "Let's Tell This Story Properly",^[7] and emerged Regional Winner, Africa region.^[8] She was the Overall Winner of the 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize.^[9][10] She was long listed for the 2014 Etisalat Prize for Literature.^[11] She is a lecturer in Creative Writing at Lancaster University.^[12] She lives in Manchester with her husband Damian and son, Jordan.^[13]

Early life and education

Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi was born and grew up in Kampala, Uganda. She is the eldest child of her father Anthony Kizito Makumbi and the third of her mother, Evelyn Nnakalembe. Her parents separated when she was two years old and for two years she lived with her grandfather Elieza Makumbi. During Amin's regime, her father a banker was arrested and brutalised. While he was saved from being killed, Jennifer's father lost his mind for the rest of his life. Jennifer was brought up by her Aunt Catherine Makumbi-Kulubya. She lived with her family first at Nakasero then later at Kololo.

She went to Trinity College Nabbingo for O-levels and to King's College Budo for her A-levels. She did a B.A. degree with Education majoring in teaching English and Literature in English at the Islamic University in Uganda, where she edited the university magazine, The IUIU Mirror. Jennifer first taught at Nakasero High an A-level school then for eight years taught at Hillside High School, an international school in Uganda. At that time she wrote another play, Sitaani Teyebase, in Luganda for an inter-zone competition. This play won the competition and toured many of the SDA churches within Kampala. In September 2001 she joined Manchester Metropolitan University to do an MA in Creative Writing. She completed a PhD in Creative writing at Lancaster University.^[14] Makumbi has taught at various universities in the UK teaching both English and Creative Writing as an Associate Lecturer. Her writing relies heavily on Ganda oral traditions, especially myths, legends, folktales and sayings.^[15]

Writing

Jennifer started writing at 15 when she wrote, directed and produced a play for a school competition. It came third. She wrote another play when she was 18, and it too came third. While in Senior 3 she wrote her first play for an inter-house competition which came third. She wrote her second play for again for an inter-house competition at A-level, once again the play came third. Both these plays were written in English.^[14] In 1994, she started writing a diary in poetry form to expunge her feelings as she was going through a rough patch in her life. She wrote over 50 poems but never bothered to share them with the public. She started writing prose in 1998 while she was teaching in Kampala.^[16]

Jennifer's writing is largely based on oral traditions. She realised that oral traditions were so broad and would be able to frame all her writing regardless of subject, form or genre. She also noticed that using oral forms which were normally perceived as trite and 'tired' brought, ironically, a certain depth to a piece that I could not explain. It is important to note that her intentions in using oral traditions in fiction were not conservationist as is often presumed in African writing. She draws on oral forms because they anchor her writing in Ganda culture. At the same time, because these oral forms are rooted in her first language, she is confident using them. Most of all, I celebrate them.^[17]

Her work has been published by African Writing Online and Commonword. She also runs the African reading group ARG! in Manchester, which focuses on obscure African writers.^[13] In 2012, her short story "The Accidental Seaman" was published in Moss Side Stories by Crocus Books. In 2013, her poems "Free Range" and "Father cried in the kitchen" were published in Sweet Tongues.^[7]

She won the Kwani? Manuscript Project, a new literary prize for unpublished fiction by African writers,^[18][19] and was shortlisted for the 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize.^[20][21][22]

Published works

Novels

• Kintu. Kwani Trust, Nairobi. 2014. ISBN 978-9966-1598-9-2. 

Short stories

• "Let’s Tell This Story Properly", in Granta 2014
• "The Joys of Fatherhood", in African Writing Online
• "The accidental sea man" in Moss Side Stories, 2012

Awards and honors

• Long listed for the 2014 Etisalat Prize for Literature.^[23]
• Overall Winner of the 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize.^[24]
• Winner of the Kwani? Manuscript Project in 2013.^[3]
• Shortlisted for the 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize.^[7]
• Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2014 regional winner, Africa.^[8][25]

References

External links

• "Congrats to the Authors Longlisted for The Etisalat Prize for Literature"
• "AWT’s Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi wins the Kwani? Manuscript Project"
• "Confessions of manuscript judge"
• "I combined oral tradition with dad’s trauma from Idi Amin to write my novel—Jennifer Makumbi"
• "Ugandan Author Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi wins 2013 Kwani? Manuscript Prize"
• "Uganda's Jennifer Makumbi Wins Kwani? Literary Prize"
• "Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2014 shortlist out"
• "Jennifer Makumbi"
• "Three Caribbean Writers Shortlisted for Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2014"
• "Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi: Folklore tells us so much about our history and explains so much of what remains of our culture"
• "Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi Wins the 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize"
• "Uganda’s Jennifer Makumbi Winner of the 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize"
• "Ugandan wins 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize"
• "Ugandan writer who turns established script on its head"
• "Of Course I Have Issues "
• "Makumbi launches book in UK"
• "Novelist would mortify anti-negritude crus aders"
• "Post-coloniality Sells"