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
Adunni enters Morufu’s parlor, which contains a sofa, wooden table, TV, and kerosene lantern. There are two women in the room: Labake and another girl, who is very young and very pregnant. Four young girls, each wearing only pants with no top, sit on the floor and stare at Adunni. Adunni recognizes one of the older girls as Kike, a village girl her age with whom she used to play ten-ten. Morufu introduces the second of the two women as Khadija, his second wife, before sending the children upstairs so he can talk to his three wives. Morufu yawns. Adunni catches a glimpse of his rotten, crooked teeth and wonders how old he is. She suspects he is probably 55 or 60, like Papa, though he looks much older.
Adunni’s entrance into Morufu’s house symbolically represents her entrance into a new set of rules and norms: whereas before she was subject to the law of Papa’s house, now she must learn a new set of expectations set in place by Morufu. The fact that Adunni remembers playing with Kike, who is her age, and the fact that she speculates that must be as old as Papa, really emphasizes the age gap between her and her new husband.
Themes
Morufu begins his speech. He orders Adunni to respect him, because he is “the king in this house.” Nobody—neither the wives nor the children—can talk back to him. He instructs Adunni not to “ask question in my front.” Adunni asks Morufu if he’d rather she question him “in [his] back.” Khadija stifles a laugh as Morufu tells Adunni not to joke, warning her about the special cane he reserves for floggings.
All the women and girls in the house must obey and respect Morufu without question, as he is “the king of this house.” Adunni’s literal and somewhat cheeky response to Morufu’s order not to question him behind his back shows that she is not so easily subdued by him: she still has a spark of individuality to her, despite Morufu’s efforts to dominate her. Khadija’s laughter suggests that she might be sympathetic toward Adunni.
Themes
Morufu fills Adunni in on the family history. He married Labake first. When Labake could not conceive, they sacrificed goats to the water gods, which resulted in Labake giving birth to a baby girl, Kike, a detail he relays with bitterness. Khadija, too, bore only girls for Morufu: Alafia, Kofo, and the most recent child, whose name Morufu cannot recall. If Khadija’s pregnancy does not give Morufu a boy, he will return Khadija to her family and stop giving them food. Morufu wants to have two boys whom he can send to school. They will learn English, become taxi drivers, and make money. Girls, he complains, can only be married, cook, and be used for “bedroom work.” Morufu reveals that he has already found Kike a husband and plans to use her “bride-price” for car repairs and to buy chickens.
Morufu’s displeasure at Labake giving birth to a daughter reaffirms what little value Adunni’s culture places on women and girls. His decision to find a new wife after Labake fails to bear him a son shows that wives are seen as commodities that can be replaced and upgraded when they do not perform to their husband’s satisfaction. They are valued by their usefulness to men, whether that be in the kitchen or for “bedroom work,” for sexual pleasure and reproduction. Morufu’s comment about finding Kike a husband who will pay him a “bride-price” that he can use for car repairs is similar to how Papa used Adunni’s bride-price to pay rent and obtain food. The similarities to the way the men treat their daughters hint that this type of behavior is widely accepted in the society of the novel.
Themes
Having finished catching Adunni up to speed, Morufu informs the wives of their bedroom schedule: Adunni will sleep with him on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday; Labake on Wednesday and Thursday; Khadija on Friday. On Saturday, he will rest. Adunni wonders if Morufu will make her sleep in bed with him and “do [her] the nonsense and rubbish things that adult people” do. Nobody except Mama has seen her naked, and she is afraid. She longs for her mother but tries not to cry. Morufu rises from the couch and removes his agbada. He is thin but has a round, hard stomach, and Adunni wonders if he has a disease. Morufu leaves to “prepare [himself]” for Adunni.
Morufu’s bedroom schedule reinforces that in his view, his wives have no purpose other than to fulfill Morufu’s desires. Adunni’s fear that Morufu will make her have sex with him (“the nonsense and rubbish things that adult people do”) shows how young she is, reminding the reader that Adunni is a child who’s been forced to grow up too fast. An agbada is a robe made of wide, flowing fabric worn by men in West Africa.
Themes
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Once Morufu is gone, Labake tells Adunni that she will not share her husband with a girl so young and plans to make Adunni’s life in this house as miserable as possible. After Labake leaves the parlor, Khadija comforts Adunni, insisting that Labake is all talk. Adunni notices that Khadija speaks English very well and assumes she went to school before she was married. Khadija tells her that in Morufu’s house they have food and water and should be thankful.
Labake and Khadija have opposite approaches to dealing with the new wife: while Labake chooses to respond with bitterness and jealousy, Khadija is compassionate and motherly toward Adunni, recognizing that she is just a girl and had no say in getting married. If Adunni is correct in her assumption that Khadija had some education before becoming Morufu’s bride, this suggests that she, like Adunni, likely had her dreams quashed by an oppressive, patriarchal society.
Themes
Adunni looks at Khadija’s malnourished-looking face and sees a kindness in her. Adunni confides in Khadija that her father made her marry Morufu in exchange for rent money, and Khadija reveals that her own father exchanged her for a bag of rice after he lost his leg to diabetes and could no longer work. She has been Morufu’s wife for the last five years, though she used to go to school. Adunni asks Khadija how old she is, and Khadija reveals that she is just 20 years old. Khadija cautions Adunni not to make Morufu angry but tells her to be happy: tonight, she will become a woman, and if she is lucky, she will soon become pregnant and give birth to a boy.
Khadija and Adunni have a similar backstory: both girls have fathers who view them as commodities to be exchanged for money and material goods. They were even married at around the same age, with Khadija being about 15 when she was married and Adunni now 14. Khadija’s advice to Adunni that it is best to get pregnant with a boy reflects the hopelessness of their situation: Khadija sees no way out of the marriage, so she reasons that the best Adunni can do for herself is give birth to a boy so that she can stay in Morufu’s good graces.
Themes
