Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Girl with the Louding Voice, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Education, Empowerment, and Self-Worth
Gender Inequality and Solidarity
Wealth, Poverty, and Choice
Survival
Summary
Analysis
Fact: Nigeria’s Zamfara state legalized polygamy in 2000. Adunni wakes to the Tia’s voice. Her head is throbbing, and everything around her is dark. She feels something wet and soft against her eyes. Adunni opens her eyes and finds herself lying on her back in the backyard as the woman smiles over her, moving a washcloth down her face. Adunni notices blood on the cloth and remarks that it feels “like Boko Haram is bombing inside [her] head,” which makes the woman smile.
Adunni’s comment that her headache from Big Madam’s beating feels “like Boko Haram is bombing inside [her] head” aligns Big Madam with the terrorist group. Both inflict violence on girls and stand in the way of them receiving an education.
Themes
The woman tells Adunni she can call her Ms. Tia and explains that this is her second WRWA meeting; her husband wanted her to go so she could get to know the neighbors better. Ms. Tia asks Adunni how old she is and is concerned when she realizes that Big Madam has hired an “underage girl.” Ms. Tia tells Adunni that she moved down the road last year, to join her husband. Before that, she lived in the UK.
Ms. Tia’s wealth is made apparent by the fact that she lived abroad before returning to join her husband in Lagos. That Ms. Tia only just started attending WRWA meetings implies that she isn’t close friends with Big Madam and the other women, which explains why she doesn’t seem to share their values.
Themes
Adunni tells Ms. Tia that she has seen the UK on the news. Ms. Tia considers something inwardly and asks Adunni if she has attended school. Adunni tells her about having to quit school and about studying the Collins and The Book of Nigerian Facts, more recently. When Ms. Tia hears that Adunni is reading, she assumes that Big Madam is putting Adunni through school. Adunni does not correct her.
Ms. Tia’s assumption that Adunni is attending school shows how her wealth and privilege blind her to some of Adunni’s hardships. Even though Ms. Tia seems to be far more compassionate than Big Madam’s other wealthy guests, there’s still a major difference between her experiences and Adunni’s experiences, which stands in the way of them fully understanding each other.
Themes
Adunni asks Ms. Tia if she knew Rebecca. Ms. Tia didn’t but, like the others, she assumes that Rebecca probably did run away. Talking with Ms. Tia makes Adunni’s pain go away, and she asks more questions to prolong their conversation. She asks Ms. Tia where she is from, and Ms. Tia reveals that she was born in Lagos and went to school here until her dad got an oil job in Port Harcourt, where she spent the rest of her days before attending university in Surrey. Ms. Tia also reveals that Ms. Tia’s mother is sick. Adunni tells her about Mama’s sickness, and how she still cries for her. Ms. Tia says she doesn’t cry for her mother.
Even Ms. Tia, who seems so thoughtful and respectful of Adunni, doesn’t seem all that concerned about Rebecca, and Adunni remains the only person determined to uncover the truth. Ms. Tia and Adunni have some things in common: both their mothers have been sick, and both have an interest in education—though Ms. Tia’s wealth affords her the opportunity to actually receive a formal education. That Ms. Tia doesn’t cry for her mother suggests that there might be some tension in their relationship.
Themes
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Ms. Tia explains that she relocated to Nigeria last year because she got a job at the Lagos Environmental Consultancy, and because she fell in love with her husband, Kenneth Dada, who lives in Nigeria, and who is a doctor who helps women get pregnant. Ms. Tia says she doesn’t want any children, though, which is something that Adunni finds ludicrous, since all the women in her village have children. Adunni asks Ms. Tia if her husband will marry another woman if she doesn’t have any children, which makes Ms. Tia laugh. Adunni thinks back to drinking Khadija’s medicine to prevent pregnancy when she was living with Morufu
Unlike economically disadvantaged women like Khadija and Mama who had to leave their romantic interests behind when their families forced them into loveless, arranged marriages, Ms. Tia’s wealth affords her the opportunity to marry for love and chosen companionship. Ms. Tia and Adunni come from such different worlds that Adunni’s sincere question about Ms. Tia’s husband replacing her if she doesn’t have children seems funny to Ms. Tia.
Themes
Adunni tells Ms. Tia about how Mama fought for her to finish school so she could get a good job first and marry later, and about how Papa didn’t have those same priorities for her. She tells Ms. Tia that she will work hard so she can go to school and marry someone who will support their own children going to school, even if the children are girls. Inwardly, Adunni hopes that Papa will one day forgive her for running away. She begins to grow sad. Adunni asks Ms. Tia why she doesn’t want children since she finished school and has a good job. Ms. Tia gives her a sharp look and leaves abruptly. Adunni feels foolish for saying something stupid.
It speaks to the level of comfort Adunni feels in Ms. Tia’s presence that she discloses so many personal details about her life. Adunni’s hope that Papa will forgive her for running away speaks to her compassion and ability to resist becoming bitter in response to Papa’s betrayals. When Adunni asks Ms. Tia why she doesn’t want to have children, it reveals how engrained women’s responsibility to become mothers is in her worldview. Even someone like Adunni, who challenges a lot of the gender norms her society thrusts on her, sees childrearing as mandatory for women. Ms. Tia’s sudden departure implies that something in Adunni’s innocent question struck a nerve in her.
Themes
