Summary

“Mugumo” - Young and beautiful Mukami leaves the compound where her husband and his other wives make their home, feeling a desperate need to get away. As Mukami moves further away from the compound and further into the forest, narration reveals something of her history: her determination to marry her man, the charismatic Muthoga; how she had been ceremonially welcomed into her marriage, despite the jealousy of Muthoga’s other, older wives; and how, after a year and no sign of her becoming pregnant, Muthoga had started to beat her. Narration also describes Mukami’s decision to defy tradition and leave in the aftermath of a particularly vicious beating that morning. She has no idea where she is going to go, only that she has to get away.

As her blind panic calms, Mukami realizes first that she is...