His Only Wife is Peace Adzo Medie's debut novel, and she absolutely nailed it! The story is about Afi Tekple, who is about to get married to someone she has never met. You are wondering how, right? Let me give you a little brief: Afi lost her father, and her widowed mom had support from a rich woman. So when this woman asked that Afi marry her son, they felt indebted to her and had to say yes.
For a while, all the writers I was reading were Nigerian, so when a friend recommended His Only Wife, I was excited. The very first line went, "Elikem married me in absentia; he did not come for our wedding." I was like, yo! What is going on???????? Your husband didn't come to your wedding? Mad!
I was hooked!
His Only Wife is about fighting for your place in the life of the man your mother married you off to. You want to do everything possible to win his love because, to you, that's the only way he will stop seeing his "other wife."
The story got exhausting when I realized all the things Afi was doing and going through. They say most arranged marriages work, but this particular one was a big, fat no.
Reading the book made me understand what African marriages meant. The husband's family always wants to have a say in the marriage. They want access to their son or brother like they did before he was married. But in fact, it's not supposed to be like that.
I remember there was a part of the book where the mother-in-law wanted to dictate to Afi how to run her home. I lost it! But why? Was it her marriage? Technically, it was because she was the one who arranged Afi's marriage for her son, but still...
A friend of Elikem said to him one day that "man wasn't made to be with one woman. You're a lion; you should have an entire pride!" I laughed 😂😂😂. Excuse me, say what???
Let me not spoil this anymore. I was in love with His Only Wife from the beginning. The fact that the book was set in Ghana and had an Ewe touch took me to the moon. Because, in case you don't know, I'm a proud Ewe girl!
I thoroughly enjoyed His Only Wife, and I hope you do too.
