Pregnancy

Throughout the novel, pregnancy is primarily presented as an act of social obligation and cultural requirement for women but becomes redeemed as a woman’s act of choice by the end. In the draw between cultural versus personal preference dictating a woman’s impregnation, the cultural forces surrounding her are the defining force, so much so that the act itself of sex and fertility become perceived as public-knowledge, not a private matter. Many women throughout the novel feel entitled to knowledge about other women’s bodies and personal health and fertility when it comes to pregnancy within both the context of rural Nigeria and high-society Lagos. Two social occasions reinforce this. During lunch between the Adeoti’s and the Dada’s, Big Madam probingly inquires about Tia Dada’s fertility and exercises explicit judgement into the couple not having had a child before their first wedding...