His Only Wife

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Initially I thought His Only Wife might be reminiscent of Lola Shoneyin's The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives, but that notion is quickly disavowed with Afi's arrival in Accra.

In spite of her beautiful new apartment and her newly acquired wealth, she questions the validity of her marriage: after all, she only saw her Elikem years previously and has yet to meet him as her husband. Her mother and her uncle were so demanding that I could barely stand it and reflected on how different family relationships were in this culture. It didn't really make sense to me as she was built up as knowing the situation beforehand and so, I’m not quite sure what her endgame or expectations were but as a reader, it didn’t feel realistic to me.giving readers a chance to get to know them, descriptions of the people she meets in Accra tend to be more superficial. We never meet Muna, but the family’s objections to her seem to be based on the facts that she is dark skinned and isn’t interested in impressing the family. Peace Adzo Medie’s debut novel, His Only Wife, was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, a New York Times Notable Book of 2020, and a Time Magazine Must-Read Book of 2020. It is quite common for certain cultures to have this tension between women since the men are presented as this golden prize. A warm and moving tale… His Only Wife is utterly transporting – Medie's use of Ghanaian dialect, rich descriptions of traditional foods and an insight into cultural practices make readers feel like they are completely immersed in Afi's world… Afi's strength is inspiring, and I guarantee that all readers will feel inspired to consider who we truly are and what we value when we stop worrying about the judgement of others.

She has won numerous awards for her scholarship and has held several fellowships, including the Oxford-Princeton Global Leaders Fellowship.Elikem Ganyo is a wealthy businessman whose family has chosen Afi in the hope that she will distract him from a relationship with another woman they think is inappropriate. This author is sharp and witty in her observations bringing laugh out loud humor to an otherwise frustrating story. Her book, Global Norms and Local Action: The Campaigns to End Violence Against Women in Africa, was published by Oxford University Press in 2020. Again, to be charitable, Afi IS quite young at 21 and also quite inexperienced, so perhaps that plays a role in her characterization and behaviour. Afi’s mother’s ingrained sense of fealty to Eli’s mother leads her to heap significant expectations on her daughter to be the perfect wife to an imaginary husband.

Afi Tekple challenges the social norms as she decides to fight for a life she imagined, a life where she would be his only wife, loved and respected. She is the embodiment of a difficult yet essential lesson: for as painful as it is, we sometimes have to cut out overbearing and selfish people in our lives if we hope have a true chance at happiness and success. I think it would have been incredibly helpful for Peace Adzo Medie to peel back the curtain on how these “isms” have impacted the Ganyo’s lives, in the same way she portrays the societal burden placed on Afi’s shoulders. Medie also depicts the sexist attitudes of those in Afi and the Ganyos' circle (a friend of husband says this: “man wasn’t made to be with one woman.Before the marriage Afi is informed of Elikem's particular situation: he has a daughter with a woman from Liberia, whom is hated by the Ganyos. This produces undue pressure for the Ganyo children (Eli, Fred, Richard, and Yaya) as well as financial and emotional abuse for those they deem beneath them. Finished reading it in 24hoursI really want to sit with Afi and catch up on how life has been since. The book opens in the house of her Uncle Pious, her father’s oldest brother and family patriarch (a role he largely sees as a means to extract money from his family) – Afi is being married to Elikem (the son of her mother’s boss – Auntie – or Faustina Ganyo – who has been a great benefactor to the family) but Elikem is absent and his brother Richard stands in.

I do think the characters had strong voices and the family drama had potential but I just was bored and couldn’t wait for this to end.We encounter a world in which older women, mothers and aunts, are not setting the example but gatekeeping a system in which their daughters grow into dutiful leaches that exist only to, through the right marriage, provide a good living for the entire family. It's a sequence of stuff that happens--they marry, they spend time together, she sets up a business, other people come in and out of her life, she makes a couple of big decisions--but it's very much "and then. The resolution and the conflicts felt a little too easily achieved when a book such as this was BEGGING for more dramatic effect. When Faustina Ganyo, her benefactor who also happens to be her widowed mother's boss, arranges her marriage to her own son, Afi views it as a great honour and a lifetime opportunity.