Marriage and Tradition

This story explores the perspective of the narrator, an "outsider," a Westernized African woman referred to as Chicha, on the marriage traditions of a small Fanti village. Maami Ama explains to Chicha that she has been unhappily married for seven years to a man named Kodjo Fi. Although she is his first wife, he has completely neglected her, as well as their son, and has allowed the rest of his family to shun and isolate her. In addition, Kodjo Fi is described as "a selfish and bullying man, whom no decent woman ought to have married." Maami Ama's "formal divorce" from Kodjo Fi exposes the narrator to traditional attitudes and practices of her culture which she had either not known or forgotten. The divorce proceedings take place at the home of one of the women of the village, and other members of the community attend for...