Summary

Chapter 7 begins with the newlywed couple arriving at his house, a large football-field sized property with a cement house at the center of the compound. Adunni’s fear for her new role as wife is quickly deepened by Labake, Morufu’s first wife. Labake, whose face is painted with white power, quickly threatens violence towards Adunni for any future trouble she causes, as if her presence is an intentional offensive move against Labake and her the welfare of her family. She calls Adunni “ashewo,” the Yoruba word for prostitute, immediately establishing a strong frontier of miscommunication between the two women (40). Khadija, Morufu’s second wife who is eight months pregnant, shows kindness and compassion to Adunni, positioning herself as a mother figure to her. Adunni meets Morufu’s four children, all girls ranging from age one-and-a half to age 14, and Adunni is perplexed...