Upset with how her driver was treating her since she’d left her husband and returned to Ho, Afi decided to go to driving school. Even when Efi forbade her from doing it, using her pregnancy as an excuse, she continued and got her driver’s license. After some time, she got a new driver as well. The first son, Selorm, was welcomed by the family. The grandmothers doted on him and loved him. Eli and Afi were happy together. So when Aunty tells Afi and her mother to do something, they do it. Aunty's latest request is more than a passing task, however— Aunty wants Afi to marry her son, Eli. But there’s one thing missing from this fairy tale – the husband. Elikem Ganyo misses his own wedding (sending his brother as stand in) and only makes an appearance in the apartment six weeks after the wedding. Elikem, it turns out, is in love with another woman and they have a daughter. Afi was the ploy used by his disapproving family to break this entanglement. The question is whether Afi will settle for playing second fiddle or insist that she is Elikem’s only true wife.

Throughout the book there are bright daubs of Ghanian life – kontomire and garden egg stew, the durbar at the yam festival, a neem tree, greetings and everyday phrases such as Woede or Ehn. It all flows remarkably well in a memorable debut from a writer whose frustrations with certain aspects of the culture of her homeland come brilliantly to life. Sarah GilmartinAfi is in an impossible situation. Eli’s mother, Aunty, helped her family when they were struggling. And by her marrying Eli, it will help Afi’s mother financially. But she’s still forced to marry a man she hardly knows. What would you have done if you were Afi? After a wedding sans the groom, Afi moves from her small Ghanian town to Accra, where she is put up in a ritzy condo and carefully looked after. Weeks elapse before Afi meets Elikem in person. In the meantime, Afi uses her newfound connections to enroll in a design school.

A brave young woman confronts modern-day sexism and classism in Peace Adzo Medie’s novel His Only Wife. He finally does appear and melts Afi’s heart. He is so much more than she imagines – and the young woman falls in love with her prince. Though their initial meeting goes well, Eli leaves again, giving no indication of when he might return. In the meantime, he suggests that Afi might want to enroll in school to help her fill her days. Learning of her skills as a seamstress and her interest in fashion, he sends his sister around to take Afi to the city’s design schools. A modern tale of one woman discovering her own sense of purpose in Ghana amidst family drama, expectations, and marriage. I'm not one who automatically goes for domestic stories, so extremely pleased to say that this was such a fantastic read.Afi loves to sew and gets the opportunity to pursue it. This part of the plot was really nice since it showed that Afi didn’t think she didn’t need to work. I liked that Medie wrote about her insecurities around other people who seemed to have accomplished a lot. How far will her dream go? This is the literary equivalent of a friend of a friend telling you a two-hour story about people you don't know. And while that wasn't boring, it was like...I'd prefer if someone else were telling me this? Or maybe if I was having a different conversation. Evelyn knew that Richard would never oppose his mother and marry her. She was, like Muna, unacceptable. Eventually, Richard starting dating a woman his family approved of. She knew that her time with him had its limits, and she was seeing a lawyer in addition to Richard. Mother of the Son Afi and Eli had a traditional ceremony, a wedding that Eli did not attend. He called Afi to tell her he was busy with work and could not get away. Despite this, the wedding was a grand affair, with many gifts brought to the bride’s family by the groom’s, more than the list of what they had requested. Gifts were given to the family members including the “father”, a role that her uncle relished for this event, her mother, and herself. Peace Adzo Medie was born in Liberia and educated in Ghana. She has an MA in International Studies from Ohio University and a PhD in Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh.

I was never bored while reading this, but as soon as I finished I wondered how I was not constantly bored. I was enamoured with this book from the beginning. I LOVE books that are set in Ghana and I have such an affinity for Ghana’s culture, I wanted to inhale this book. I felt the premise was strong and the execution equally as strong. I loved that it was contemporary Ghana and a love story. The writer did such a great job of taking us in to the marriage of Eli and Afi and I didn’t want to leave. We follow Afi through her experience as a wife wed to a man she doesn't even know, in a culture and world that doesn't truly value her as anything more than a wife with duties to care for her husband and give him a family. Even if that husband is unfaithful and even when, against all odds, she falls in love with him. A witty, moving, and smart debut novel, His Only Wife takes place in aworld of men who want their wives to be beautiful, to be good cooks andmothers, to grant their husbands forbearance. And in Afi, we meet adelightful,brave, and relatable heroine who just may break all the rules. Yes, yes, yes!! I was snapping my fingers in the air while finishing up this contemporary Ghanaian debut novel by @peacemedie. It's about Afi, a young woman from a small town in Ghana who is wed in absentia in the first sentence. Way to start off this story! I was hooked from that first line. We get to know Afi and her groom-in-absentia, Elikem or Eli, and follow their relationship and marriage. It's such a vivid and colorful cast of characters, from moms and mother-in-laws to uncles and aunties and everyone in between. You know in big families, EVERYONE has something to say about a marriage!

The story matured along with the protagonists. The women in the community were so adamant and unique with their age. We could see the different set of minds—Afi's mother didn't bother to get her married to a man who was in love with other women. Eli's mother was so adamant and got him married to Afi. These choices made their life miserable. Afi is married into the Ganyo family for two reasons: 1: Aunty G has been 'generous' (quotes because she did everything quid pro quo—the other party just wouldn’t know) with Afi and her mother a majority of her life since her father passed away and 2: the family wanted to get rid of Muna, Eli’s first wife.