REVIEWS

Book: I Will Not Fail
Author: Madinah N. Kisubi
Publisher: Fountain Publishers
Available at: Leading bookshops
Price: ush5000
Reviewed by: Joshua Masinde
HAVE you ever grappled with the painful thoughts of failing? Even when failure is inevitable, I Will Not Fail, a novella by Madinah N. Kisubi offers hope and inspiration.
Namukose grows up in a rural village, largely tangled in gender-based chauvinism and deprived of anything modern. Her society is so biased on educating the girl child, whom they believe is only good at her status to serve her society.

A fellow named Basule says that educating a girl is synonymous to watering a friend's garden. His statement comes in the wake of the Universal Primary Education (UPE) in which all children of school going age must attend school. Such unfortunate and retrogressive sentiments are shared by some men-folk and women-folk in the village. The Local Council Chairman avers that educating a girl benefits everyone, including the girl herself, contrary to the belief that she will benefit only the family she would marry into.

Set against such retrogressive mindsets which prejudice the girl child, Namukose believes she would get the opportunity to go to school. The UPE programme turns out to be a blessing to her and she indeed proves her potential by attaining position one in a class of sixty pupils in P1and grade one in her Primary Leaving Education (PLE).

She does not only use her knowledge gained at school to advance to subsequent classes, but she also puts it into practice by teaching her mother on basic hygienic aspects like washing hands with soap after using the latrine. She also teaches her mother, Mrs. Mukose to read!
Despite the fact that her parents cannot afford to buy her pens and books, her resourcefulness, which arises from her resilience to continue schooling, drives her to make mats, which her father sells at the market. Ironically, her father uses the proceeds to pay off a debt he owes a man at the market but does not buy Namukose the books she needs. Namukose is disappointed but does not as much as give up collecting papyrus reeds to make more mats.
Namukose symbolises the hope for the African girl child. She is the light of the girls’ future. Despite her mother, who had resigned to the fate of her place as a woman meant to serve her family, the mother encourages her daughter to work hard, succeed at school such that she won’t have to comply with the chauvinistic and prejudicial dictates of her society.
In spite of all the obstacles of poverty and of being a girl in the world where girls were considered second rate or treated like mere property, Namukose was determined to succeed.
I Will Not Fail is a celebration of women’s inner resilience and central role to the welfare of humanity. It does not only present the trials, tribulations and cultural constraints the girl child in Africa confronts, but also unveils the opportunities for the girl who stands strong and steadfast in her aspirations. At 60 pages, the novella is relatively small. A fast reader will find it fast moving on one or two sittings.