Three Women is an intimate portrayal of the voices of three generations of women seen through the portrait of family life in Nigeria Africa. It’s set in the 20th century this novel explains what happens when one is falsely accused. How life throws you challenges and how each woman adapts to being an outcast. It’s a story about how three women encounter the same fate love, family and abandonment.
I like how each story is told from a first-person perspective in the form of journal and letters entries. The grandmother, mother and daughter are the three women who share their lives challenges and how they influence each other’s choices.
One of the characters is born out of wedlock which is another blow to being rejected.
Character Building
Being abandoned as a child by your own mother is a tough burden to bear. Throughout the book, I was inspired by the adaptation of how each woman survived life. Even if it meant dressing as a man to survive. The novel illustrates how cultural adaptation proves to be more challenging and cruel. More false accusations referring to homosexuality also land Oyinkan one of the characters in hot water. Dr Bunmi Oyisan writes because,
As a cultural activist, she believes also that every Nigerian must work towards the preservation of our local languages and culture because they define a people.
This novel certainly gives you an excellent indication of how women if convicted falsely have a tough life ahead of them.
Relationships And Growth
This novel gives a clear perspective of how each woman builds relationships with others to survive. It’s also inspiring how courageous they become through growing and confronting problems that are out of their control. Especially when the trusted career Oyinkan grandma suddenly dies at the age of twelve. How one endures rejection, loss and unfair dismissal is why this book needs to be read.
Life is all about what if. As I read this book I always wondered how their lives would have been if the what if was a different narrative. In this novel, it thought me the art of negotiations throughout their lives.
About The Author
The patriotism of Bunmi Oyinsan runs deep. The author, who is also a scriptwriter, scholar, playwright and film producer. She called on Nigeria to revisit the issue of national identity for the good of all.
“For us to get to where we should be, we must be recognized first, as Nigerians before our state of origin or tribe”, she says.
As a staunch believer in the Fanti timeless dictum which says: “if you educate a woman, you educate a nation”, the author also shares the belief that a society that acknowledges and respects women, grows. So, for her, a woman’s place is definitely beyond the kitchen and adjoining rooms.
