Category: Coming of Age

Book Review and Reflection: The Parlour Wife by Foluso Agbaje

21 June 2025 / Dr Ndiweteko Jennifer Nghishitende

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Cover of the novel "The Parlour Wife" by Foluso Agbaje displayed on a Kindle, held in front of lush green trees and bright daylight. — Reading The Parlour Wife by Foluso Agbaje on Kindle.

Published: 2024
Country: Nigeria
Genre: Historical Fiction, Coming of Age
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Introduction

The Parlour Wife by Foluso Agbaje is a compelling portrayal of agency, power, culture, patriarchy, aspiration, and more. Set during the 1930s and 1940s, a time when women were historically dispossessed and reliant on male decision-making, it captures the layered struggles of the era.

While the author notes that some parts of the novel are based on real events discovered through research, I found elements of the story difficult to connect with. Much of the narrative felt implausible for that specific time in Nigeria, especially for Nigerian women with a tone and style heavily influenced by British sensibilities.

Book Summary

Set between 1939 and mid 1940s, this novel captures a turbulent period for Africans, particularly women, under British colonial rule. As World War II progressed, colonised subjects, including Nigerians, were encouraged to enlist in the British army.

The story follows Kehinde, who lives a quiet and content life with her parents and her twin brother, Taiwo. While their father is a hardworking fisherman, Taiwo dreams of enlisting in the war rather than continuing his education. He and Kehinde share a close bond, and he often encourages her to speak up for herself, especially when their parents begin arranging her marriage. Kehinde, however, aspires to read, study, and become a writer.

When their father goes missing in a ferry accident, the family’s financial and emotional stability collapses. Kehinde is quickly married off to a much older, wealthy, and morally questionable man. She becomes the third wife in his household. Although unhappy, she finds companionship in the second wife, and later, forms another important friendship at a market stall her husband sets up for her.

Despite being trapped in a loveless, polygamous marriage, Kehinde does not give up on her dreams. In the process, she meets the love of her life. Still, her husband is a powerful and influential man. The question remains: can she ever escape his control and pursue the life she truly wants?

Read the book to find out.

Reflections

This novel resonated with me in its portrayal of a young woman’s pursuit of freedom, purpose, and love. Kehinde’s determination to live a meaningful life despite cultural and social constraints is both inspiring and thought-provoking.

As the author writes:

“Although The Parlour Wife is a work of fiction, I hope it will get readers thinking and talking about how people have always wanted the same things, through the ages – to find one’s purpose, to have a voice, to be free, to be useful, to love and to be loved for one’s true self.”
(The Parlour Wife, p. 349, Kindle Edition)

Agbaje undertook extensive research into women’s lives during this time and includes a useful bibliography for readers interested in learning more. However, despite being set in the late 1930s to mid-1940s in Nigeria, the novel’s tone did not feel distinctly Nigerian. The characters, particularly Taiwo, express a sense of loyalty to the British Empire that felt out of place without a critical examination of colonialism. As a work of historical fiction, there was a real opportunity here to critically reflect on many aspects of the British colonial empire in Nigeria and Nigerians during that period.

While many Nigerians did enlist in the war for several reasons, the harsh realities they faced, especially in Burma, are an essential part of Nigerian history. Their sacrifices were often overlooked, and the novel does little to confront this erasure. I was hoping for a more nuanced portrayal that acknowledged both the motivations and the consequences of colonial influence.

Kehinde’s journey, though empowering, also felt somewhat removed from the historical limitations that women in Nigeria faced during that time.

Recommendation

Despite these concerns, The Parlour Wife is a worthwhile read. The writing is strong, the characters are well developed, and the story offers an engaging look into personal resistance and ambition. I recommend it to readers interested in historical fiction, especially those seeking to explore the work of African women writers.

About the Author

Foluso Agbaje has been writing stories since she first learned to write. She calls Lagos home, though she has a deep love for London, and her writing is shaped by both cities.

She is a graduate of the Faber Academy, with a master’s degree in Management and Human Resources from the London School of Economics and a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Loughborough University. When she is not reading or writing, she enjoys bookshops, museums, singing in her church choir, walking, and swimming. She lives in Lagos with her husband and two children, balancing her writing with a full-time career in financial services.

Citation
Agbaje, Foluso. The Parlour Wife (p. 365). HarperCollins Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Explore more book reviews by African women writers.

Book Review and Reflection: The Book of Not by Tsitsi Dangarembga

14 June 2025 / Dr Ndiweteko Jennifer Nghishitende

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Cover of "The Book of Not" by Tsitsi Dangarembga, featuring a bold magenta background with fragmented shapes revealing a white church tower and blooming tree. A quote at the top reads “A great writer.” — Chinua Achebe. — Cover of Tsitsi Dangarembga’s powerful sequel, The Book of Not, a bold exploration of race, identity, and belonging in postcolonial Zimbabwe.

Published: 2006
Genre: Fiction, Coming of Age
Country: Zimbabwe
Buy the book here

Introduction

The Book of Not is the powerful sequel to Nervous Conditions. It follows Tambudzai’s (Tambu’s) story further as she grows from her Baba Mukuru’s home to moving on to high school. As Tambu moves from colonial Rhodesia through the liberation war (Chimurenga) and into independent Zimbabwe, her internal struggles take centre stage. Her attempts to rise, to fit in, to be seen, to be the best, all become a quiet but relentless internal war.

Book Summary

Tambu has been through the wringer. So much happens to her in this sequel. The book picks up right after Nervous Conditions, following her into high school at the elite Young Ladies’ College of the Sacred Heart. Hopes were extremely high for Tambu, and her future looked truly bright. But as her cousin Nyasha later proclaimed, “Life happened”. Tambu’s High school was a primarily white school, with a handful of African students carefully chosen as part of a government quota. Tambu was one of those “privileged” ones.

Meanwhile, Zimbabweans are fighting for liberation from colonialism. Tambu’s family is deeply affected. Her sister lost a limb, and her Baba Mukuru was also injured. Her mother becomes increasingly difficult to connect with.

At school, Tambu faces blatant racism. The colour of her skin marks her very existence. Even the act of touching a white person’s food is loaded with racial meaning. Despite this, she throws herself into her studies, desperate to excel, to be a “good” student, aiming for academic excellence.

Yet Tambu is torn. She mimics Baba Mukuru’s reverence for whiteness, lives in pursuit of approval and of proving just how good she is. But nothing is enough. In a system built on anti-Blackness, no amount of excellence earns true belonging. Despite her hard work, however, Tambu’s struggles to reach the greatness she envisions for herself, the same one her Baba Mukuru expects from her.

Tambu also struggles with her identity, with her sense of self. She searches for validation in her grades. She tries to practise Unhu (or Ubuntu – see Everyday Ubuntu: Living Better Together, the African Way by Nompumelelo Mungi Ngomane Book Review), but even that slips from her grasp. After Nervous Conditions, I hoped Nyasha’s politics would influence Tambu. But this novel shows otherwise. It was painful to read about Tambu’s internal struggles and what became of her in the end (luckily, there is a book three, This Mournable Body, and I hope things turn around for Tambu).

I was hoping to read more about Nyasha in this sequel; however, there wasn’t much written about her.

Final Thoughts

Through Tambu, Tsitsi Dangarembga exposes the emotional toll of racism and internalised oppression. The way it can change people and the things it does to identity, especially of the self. There was so much hope for Tambu at the end of Nervous Conditions, but The Book of Not left hopelessness in its wake. Hopefully, the final book restores hope.

Recommendation

If you’ve read Nervous Conditions, you must read The Book of Not.
If you haven’t, start there, and then dive into this powerful sequel.

About the Author

Tsitsi Dangarembga is a multi-talented Zimbabwean author, filmmaker, and activist. She made history with Nervous Conditions, the first novel in English by a Black Zimbabwean woman, followed by The Book of Not and This Mournable Body, which was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize. Her work explores colonialism, race, gender, and trauma. In 2021, she was awarded the PEN Pinter Prize.

Book Review and Reflection of We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

5 May 2025 / Dr Ndiweteko Jennifer Nghishitende

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Cover of the book “We Need New Names” by NoViolet Bulawayo, photographed upright on gravel with pink flowers in the background. — My copy of We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo, captured on a quiet morning in the garden — a vibrant cover for a powerful story.

Genre: Coming of Age, Fiction
Date of Publication: 2013
Get a copy HERE

Introduction

Another literary gem from Zimbabwe. Firstly, I adore the cover of the hard copy I received. We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo is striking from the very start. Chilling themes are revealed early on and continue to unfold throughout the book. The writing is excellent. NoViolet takes readers into a vivid world that feels almost tangible, with its incredible nuances threaded throughout. One may miss hidden meanings if they aren’t looking closely. For instance, in Chapter One, Darling, the protagonist, says:

“We just walk nicely like Budapest is now our country too, like we built it even, eating guavas along the way and spitting the peels all over to make the place dirty.” (p.11)

Here, Daling and her friends indicate that they dream of belonging, of living in good neighbourhoods and good houses. But because they do not in reality, they can do something small to taint the perfection—they can make it dirty, even just a little bit. But it is the intention that matters.

There are also various nuances about countries. For instance, Darling says:

“We just eat a lot of guavas because it’s the only way to kill our hunger, and when it comes to defecating, we get in so much pain it becomes an almost impossible task, like you are trying to give birth to a country.” (p.16)
Or “like he has swallowed a country.” (p. 45)

There are many such lines, alluding to the state of their country and how they experience it—the understanding of a country’s significance. Knowing Zimbabwe’s history, especially in light of colonialism, independence, and the international sanctions imposed on it in the 2000s, explains a lot.

Book Summary

Set in Zimbabwe, this book does not waste any time getting to very serious themes, cleverly couched in what may seem like the everyday. The first chapter already paints an unequal world, where Black Zimbabweans are poor, hungry, and even abused. The first chapter starts with Darling and her friends “hitting Budapest,” and readers discover that one of her friends, Chipo, is pregnant at 11 years old and has stopped talking, alluding to sexual violence and trauma. Thus, early on, we are introduced to the hardships these children face and what they are exposed to.

Darling and her friends walk from their place of residence, which they have named “Paradise”, an informal settlement, to what they call “Budapest”, seemingly a rich and lush suburban area with beautiful houses inhabited by white people. The children aspire to own houses just like these one day. And Darling? She has bigger dreams, she will live in America one day, her America, she calls it.

But Paradise was not always their home; they were displaced there. At this, I thought the book was set in colonial Zimbabwe, but we find later that it seems to be post-independence Zimbabwe. And so, a powerful narration of how we are not living in a post-colonial world, the injustices of colonialism, even though it has legally been abolished, linger.

This brings much clarity to the emphasis on countries woven through the book: what makes a country? Who oppresses, and who are the oppressed? What is a real country? What is the significance of a country? Like the emphasis on countries, “things being real” is another thread flowing through this book. Darling and her friends often emphasise how the things they do or have are for real, games they play, for instance, and much more.

Another interesting theme is the white saviourism that gives but also captures. For instance, NGO personnel frequent Paradise, bringing its inhabitants gifts, taking pictures of them, but do not want to touch them, drawing a clear othering line between the us and them dichotomy. Yet, they take pictures of them at every chance they get. The children are grateful, but the adults are humiliated by the charity. NoViolet weaves this picture-taking conundrum of poor Africans sporadically throughout the book, leaving readers to ponder its meaning.

More themes that Stood Out

Another theme that stood out to me was the character of Darling’s father, the man who abandoned his family in search of better, forgot them, and then returned when on the verge of death. This is as heartbreaking as it is common: men leaving their wives and children behind, never to return, or returning only in precarious conditions. We see a similar fate befall Atini in Sindiwe Magona’s Living, Loving and Lying Awake at Night.

Chapter 10 – “How They Left” is so chilling, it grabs you and tightens your heart in a familiar pain, especially if you are an immigrant who was forced to leave their country. Only a page and a half long, but it weighed so much. NoViolet made a poignant point when she said:

“They will never be the same again. Because you just cannot be the same once you leave behind who and what you are, you just cannot be the same.” (p.146)

Will Darling be one of those who left in droves? Will she finally meet HER America? And if she does? What does she make of it?
Get yourself a copy of this phenomenal book to find out.

Black Joy Shines Through

With all the heavy themes of this book, Black joy still peeks out. It is in the characters that NoViolet has produced, especially the children. In the midst of all that was going on, they found ways to have adventure, entertainment, and to carry on somehow.

Mina Salami, in her book Sensuous Knowledge (review coming soon), explains that Black joy is not an absence of hardship—it is recognising those hardships but also choosing to find moments of joy, creativity, hope, ease, security, and freedom. This same Black joy is woven across the pages of Sindiwe Magona’s earlier-mentioned book, Living, Loving and Lying Awake at Night.

Recommendations

Everyone of age, African or not, should read this book. Even though this is a work of fiction, it is based on the realities of not just many Zimbabweans, but many other people whose countries have encountered such deep trouble that their sons and daughters had to leave in droves, but also of the reality of those who stay.

About the Author

NoViolet Bulawayo is a Zimbabwean author whose writing captures the complexity of migration, identity, and postcolonial struggle with gripping honesty and poetic power. Her debut novel, We Need New Names, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. She has subsequently written others that I am eager to read and review: Country Country (2020) and Glory (2022).