And even if one tried to, Eli would only have to slip him a wad of cash for a favourable ruling.” Dignity From the male teachers who prey on their female teenage students, to the way it’s still accepted, even desirable, for men to have multiple wives, the odds seem stacked against women.Īlthough Eli and his other wife have a child together, Aki tells us: “And what could she possibly do to Eli if he took the girl away? No judge would side with her if she decided to take the matter to court. The author of Global Norms and Local Action: The Campaigns to End Violence Against Women in Africa, the subject matter of her debut novel focuses on the female experience in a traditional, patriarchal culture. The second alarm bell rings loud and clear in the opening scene, where Eli’s brother Richard acts as a substitute during the marriage ceremony because Eli is on some mysterious business trip abroad, code language that the reader quickly deciphers before relaxing into the novel to wait for Aki to catch up.Īdzo Medie is a Ghanaian writer who lectures in gender and international politics at the University of Bristol. One early alarm bell is that the proposal didn’t come from Eli himself, but from Aunty, the powerful, bullying matriarch of the Ganyo clan who wants to use Aki – a known beauty – as bait to lure her favourite son back from the clutches of a Liberian woman the family can’t stand. The role of women within the family nucleus is the central concern of His Only Wife, whose title gives a clue to the predicament Aki finds herself in after accepting the marriage proposal. The favourite son of a wealthy family, employers to many of the community, Eli is also clever and considerate, good in bed, and – get this – he’s even willing to make his own breakfast in the mornings, a cause for consternation for Aki, whose traditional values will come to be tested over the course of an engaging, quietly provocative debut. I was acutely aware of every eye inspecting me for flaws.' We first meet Aki, the 21-year-old protagonist of His Only Wife, on the morning of her wedding to Elikem Ganyo, a handsome, rich businessman who is, in Aki's hometown of Ho in Ghana, widely considered to be that most universal of terms: a total catch.

'They deposited me in front of our two families.

His only wife reviews