Asare Konadu's A Woman In Her Prime: A Review

 

     
Besides Chinua Achebe’s things fall, if there is any African novel that portrays the African society with its sacrosanct beliefs concerning women, it will be Asare Konadu’s A Women in Her Prime; if there is any traditional African novel that treats the theme of barrenness as a fatal misfortune for African women besides Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood, it would rather be A Woman in Her Prime. African literature has got to the level of resurging the old African antiquity and merged it with the present for close juxtaposition. The fact that Asare Konadu’s book treats the universal belief of traditional African society on gods as the givers of glory and destroyers of hope has to be considered.

Two things, after reading the book for the second time made me review it: the colourful presentation of traditional African society by the book; and the emotion that surrounds the employment of the book’s diction aimed at meeting the soul of common reader who may not be an African and create the eagerness to know more about traditional African cultural heritage. In the novel, males are regarded as the ‘child givers’ as said by Opanin Owufu statement in the text. Any woman who fails to bear children almost has the blame and labeled ‘useless’. The misfortune of the protagonist of the novel, Aduwa Pokuwa is a true revelation that child bearing is very important for female, as a woman found to be barren as desert cannot be reckoned with in the society. Throughout the novel, there exists conflict between god and God, as great god Tano which Pokuwa has been offering sacrifices for before is relegated as being powerless and all fates are entrusted in God who Pokuwa believes to have erased the indelible mark of barrenness and pessimism from her bosom.

Pokuwa has been a successful farmer and industrious woman well reckoned with in the village of Brenhoma from the onset of her marriage to Kofi Dafo but the joy of being happy in her prime  denies her as she still remains a barren in the middle of her age. This apprehension of barrenness makes her divorce her first and  second husband  before meeting Kwadwo Fordwuo who has been there for her not as only husband but also father through his inestimable patience, caressing advices, sympathy and charm, though his fatherhood has been established in another woman. Many years gone without her prayers answered by great Tano and “if she failed to make this sacrifices and lost her chance of child-bearing, her fate as a barren would be made certain. Then her old age would be doomed in loneliness (PG13)’’. Kwadwo Fordwuo, being a good husband, always “sat thinking of how he had prayed and his feet brushed the dew. He had called on great Tano to make it possible for Pokuwa to bear a child.’’ (PG21), before she decides to reject mother’s interference and recourse to charm, drug sacrifices to ensure the taste of joy embedded in motherhood and leave her fate to supreme God, Nye. Her resignation from being submissive to Tano again, according to her, wipes her tears of barrenness, though her mother who has been in whelming entries with great Tano believes he does it. She is eventually left with tale of joyance to tell after discovers she is pregnant, what indeed a women in her prime she is!

Analytically, the book is filled with imageries worthy of easy envisage; it has to be kudosed for the type of diction employed. The fact that the diction is emotionally detailed amounts the readers to critical evaluation of African society which deems the book fit of being appreciated.

When talking African literature and women, it is compulsory we insightfully consider the problem faced by them in the society. Literature is a window to life and that is the main reason we can’t forget the heart-taken roles of Nnu-ego in Buchi Emechta’s joys of motherhood and Pokuwa in a women in her prime in order to exhibit the hindrances women are made to battle within African vicinity.  But there is hope for whenever there is a will there must be way. Pokuwa, having won over her barrenness saves the book from being tragic and gives hope for African women. Correspondingly, I find the interconnectivity and intertwining of the sub plots to the main one endearing. Every event related along the major storyline is typically African.

However, Asare Konadu’s a woman in her prime leaves the readers in ‘happy suspense’ as we are veiled of what happens to Pokuwa if perhaps she gives birth to the child or another thing ensues. It could be recalled that Pokuwa while with her first husband has miscarriage due to what the priest believes to be her lackadaisical care-freeness towards great god Tano’s orders.  Then if Pokuwa still repeats this again, who knows if Tano may get angered and lead to another brutal miscarriage. Also, by portraying Pokuwa in against to the general belief ascribed to the gods is subjective to the author.