Summary of A Woman In Her Prime By Asare konadu

Summary of A Woman In Her Prime By Asare konadu

Here are some points from the novel:

The opening chapter skillfully draws
drama from a simple situation. It is the
appointed day for sacrifice to the god
Tano, but Pokuwaa is running late. She
washes herself, rubs her skin with shea
cream, and purifies herself with white
clay powder, then looks for the black
hen she means to sacrifice. She finds
only a post in the ground and a broken
string. The hen has escaped! She asks
some children if they have seen it, and
when one child admits to having thrown
a stick at a stray black hen she sees
that he is a fetish child — the product
of prayers and sacrifice like the child
she wants for herself. Rather than
being harsh with him, she enlists him
and the other children to search for her
hen. They find the hen in the bushes,
about to be swallowed by a snake, but
Pokuwaa is just in time to pin down the
snake, rescue the hen, and make her
sacrifice.

Pokuwaa is the leading character and
her role has really given a vivid picture
and beauty of the story. We were
informed that Pokuwaa could not
sustain marriage in view of her
childlessness.Konadu describes
Pokuwaa as one of the industrious
female farmers in Brenhoma. This really
portrays African culture where women
endure deadly farming work.Pokuwaa
demonstrates a habit of hard work and
she is known as an industrious house
wife who always goes to the nearest
stream to fetch water to feed the
family.

She experiences two different
marriages with the unproductive
problem. Pokuwaa has divorced two
husbands, apparently with little fuss,
when they prove unable to give her
children. (Oddly, there is little
suggestion than the villagers think the
fault is with her.) She becomes the
second wife of a kind man named
Kwadwo, and in less than a month she
shows signs of being pregnant. She
loses the child and a medicine man
chides her for not making the proper
sacrifice.

Pokuwaa’s mother, who had pressed
her to leave her second husband,
seems nearly as concerned about the
lack of a child as Pokuwaa herself.
Kwadwo’s first wife also resents her
husband’s attention to Pokuwaa. But
Pokuwaa and Kwadwo have a gentle,
teasing relationship, full of good-
natured humor. Pokuwaa has good
friends, too, and a thriving farm. Her
wish for a child doesn’t prevent her
from enjoying her life.

In a few pages we learn a lot about
Pokuwaa: about her courage and
resourcefulness, her faith, the strength
of her desire for a child, and the fact
that she is good with children and able
to gain their trust. Pokuwaa goes
through a broad range of sacrifices with
a view to recuperating from her
barrenness, but all these efforts are
always in vain. Some of the medicine
men deliberately mislead her and turn
to provide frivolous solutions.
Her mother is highly concerned and
ensures her advices and consolidations
are always enforced. She also has a
compassionate friend, Koramoa whose
companion is significant in many social
ways.

Another small drama arises when
Pokuwaa discovers a dead body in the
forest.We were informed in the novel
about Pokuwaa’s terror of dead
bodies. She prefer sitting with and
confiding in her mother when the
benevolent chief who reigned for fifty
years dies. The chief has been nice to
Koramoa, her best friend in many
standpoints. She describes him as the
only chief who shares food as well as
so many other things with their
families. We understand that the chiefs
in Ghana are of great celebrity and that
they frequently receive gifts from their
disciples.

No sooner had she discovered dead
body near her farm (and failed to
reveal the news to the people of the
town, except her trusted mother) than
she felt discomfort and nostalgia till the
burial of the deceased Yaw Boakye.
Not wanting to draw attention to
herself, she tells only her mother and
keeps quiet as the villagers search for
the missing man. Her feeling of guilt
comes out in her tears at the man’s
funeral, causing Kwadwo to suspect
she knew the dead man better than she
admits.

Perhaps because finding the body has
caused her to think more deeply about
life and death, or perhaps because she
has simply had enough of endless
rituals and sacrifice, and her mother’s
nagging, Pokuwaa finally says, “I think I
am going to have peace at last. I am
going to give up crying inside me for
that which I cannot get. I am not going
to sacrifice any more.”

She is optimistic that God is the only
initiator of a child and not the great
god Tano. She rejected all the
encouragement received from the
mother and the husband with
connection to spiritual sacrifices. We
sense from this performance that
Pokuwaa is not naturally inspired by
traditional practices. She may
demonstrate an outmost interest in
praising the supreme Almighty God
than these lesser gods in Brenhoma. No
one dare blame the supreme God.

Pokuwaa shows sign of pregnancy
within a few months after she boycotts
the sacrifices of the great god Tano.
She has even forgotten about her
barrenness. Her husband Kwadwo
doesn’t bother much about the sudden
change of her mind and they live
happier than before. He is a great
hunter and he brings bush meat home
to impress his wife.

Her mother, the old lady becomes
happy with the sign that her daughter
has finally become pregnant. Her best
friend Koramoa was full of joy while
the husband, Kwadwo was shocked.
Good wishers contribute their mature
compliments and advices. We were
inspired by Maame Fosua’s
information; she informed us that when
a woman is pregnant she needs to eat
more of palm nut soup and chew
sugarcane which will turn provide
breast milk in abundance.

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