Let's review the book, His Only Wife

 Hello dear readers, happy new year. It's 2022 and I pray that you achieve your goals. A colourful 2022 is what I wish for you, my dearly beloved 🥰

Today, I would be reviewing a novel titled His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie. Relax and let me take you on this beautiful ride that would leave you wanting to read the entire beautiful piece of art.

Picture Credit: @pagebookstore on Instagram

 

His Only Wife is a bildungsroman novel that centres on the life of a young Ghanaian lady who is made to marry a man she doesn't know in order to repay the kindness from the Ganyos after the death of her father.

A Bildungsroman is a type of novel that deals with the development of the main character, also known as the protagonist. In this type of novel, we witness a character shift and psychological development in the main character.

We realise that life for the average woman is challenging and any woman who tries to be daring is taken as an enemy. We see how Toga Pious refuses to give Afi and her mother a room to live in after her father dies and their properties are taken away by the people he worked with. He dislikes her mother because of her resistance towards his unacceptable, entitled behaviour when her husband was alive and they lived comfortably.

This book makes us understand that men are not the only people standing in the way of women. Women also do. We see this in the character of the Ganyo women- Aunty and Yaya. Aunty is a woman who loves to control everyone and be obeyed to the letter. Truly, she is helpful to Afi and her mother, Olivia. We eventually realise that she is only kind to people who are always obedient to her. When Afi decides to stand her ground against Elikem Ganyo, her husband, Aunty begins to show her true colours just as Evelyn has hinted to Afi.

Yaya, on the other hand, is an apple that doesn't fall far away from the tree. She is like her mother. We think she is sweet because of the show she put up with Afi at the beginning of her marriage to Elikem. However, we realise that she is just like her mother when Afi decides to divorce Elikem for refusing to stick with her. Yaya uses the most condescending words to describe Afi and her family when they had an altercation before Richard just outside Elikem's house.

Evelyn, Richard's girlfriend and Muna, Elikem's mistress signify the breaking from the norm. While Evelyn is not very instrumental in driving this point home in this book, she is the tool through which the writer opens the eye of the protagonist, Afi. Her conversations with Afi enable her understanding of who Aunty really is and how she doesn't care about other people's feelings.

Muna refuses to be ordered around by an old woman simply because she is the mother to her boyfriend. She refuses for her daughter, Ivy, to be outdoored in the Ghanaian tradition. She kicks against so many family traditions which the Ganyos have and this is the reason for the bad blood between the Ganyos and her. However, she doesn't care.

We realise that Afi is not driven by what she has to get from Elikem, despite how much Evelyn preaches about getting properties from him in her name as compensation. We realise that she falls in love with him and doesn't fail to show it. This is so unlike the conventional arranged marriage which we are familiar with, where the two parties do not see eye-to-eye.

The writer, for a minute, makes the idea of an arranged marriage seem wonderful. However, we later discover that it is a totally bad idea although it has helped in elevating Afi and her mother from poverty and out of Aunty's house. Afi is also able to achieve her dreams of becoming a certified fashion designer, learning from Sarah who learnt how to design abroad (a fact that is a big deal for Afi), opening her own luxury boutique close to the airport, and also building a house for her mum at the village. That's a huge accomplishment for the family of two.

Elikem Ganyo is a puppet before his controlling mother and could not resist his mother when she decides to marry a wife for him. Contrary to what Richard and Aunty say about Muna's looks and behaviour, Afi realises that she is nothing like she is painted as. She doesn't look manly with athlete legs and arms and she doesn't smoke or drink like they said, neither is she a bad mother. Even before Afi realises she is Muna, she admires her looks and wishes that she could model for her brand. Afi realises that she has been lied to all the while and deceived into an arranged marriage with a selfish man who wants two wives to himself. She realises that there were no plans in place to send Muna away to her country. 

At this point, we begin to subconsciously plead for Afi's forgiveness as we didn't feel her pains when she left Accra for Ho because of Eli's shuffling between his house and the lounge where she stayed for close to a year. We now see reasons with her and applaud her for making such a move.

Afi is a symbol of feminism. She realises that she has a voice that is audible. She realises that she can have a say in events that take place in her life. She realises that she can rebel against things that are imposed on her. She realises that she can survive on her own with such a skill as the one she has acquired. She is a voice for the women who have allowed themselves to be silent for so long. 

Her character makes us realise that settling for less is not an option. She would've been hurt everyday staying under Elikem's roof, being tended to by servants and given allowances every month. However, she realises that this is not the kind of life she desires for. She doesn't care about how much Aunty has done for them anymore because she has done so much repayment since the day she agreed to get married to Eli, and also having a son for him. 

Another important thing to note in this book is that Afi doesn't allow herself to be held down by the fact that she now has a child with Eli. She asks that her head drink be returned to her in-laws, since Eli refuses to marry her in a church and make her his only wife. 

This is the story of a woman that allows herself to be blown by every wind till she realises that her destiny is in her hands.

We notice a shift in her mentality about marriage and life after she has several conversations with Evelyn and has moments of critical thinking. She gradually shifts from wanting to always please her husband and take care of all his needs without thinking about herself to someone that prioritises herself, her growth and her mental health. She takes another bold step by asking for a divorce in order to avoid getting depressed by the thoughts of her husband being in the arms of another woman in another house while she lay still in bed waiting for him. 

This novel embodies so much that reading it throws you into a river of emotions and reality. It activates your thinking faculty and makes you question so many things which are normal in the African setting. It is a masterpiece and does justice in promoting feminism amongst African women. Afi was like so many African women before she got a mindset shift and then everything changed. She has always been inquisitive right from the day she moved into the lounge with her mother. However, she begins to use her voice when things get bad and having Evelyn as a friend makes things clearer to her and also encourages her to stand her ground.

This novel is a must-read for every young woman who is tired of the status-quo. It nudges women to stand up for themselves even in the face of fear. Women have had every aspect of their lives controlled for so long and this book was birthed with such women in mind. This novel is not one to just be tasted and chewed. It is one whose content is to be tasted, chewed, swallowed and digested.

I hope you loved this book review. If you did, kindly leave a comment and share it with your friends to read. I would've asked you to subscribe to my blog but Feedburner has stopped functioning and I'm still trying to figure out what to do about it. Anyway, bye for now.