The Girl With the Louding Voice is a 2020 novel by Abi Daré, and her debut work. The story is told through the perspective of the fourteen-year-old Adunni, who lives in a small village named Ikati in Nigeria. Adunni’s world turns upside-down when her father tells her she will be married to Morofu, a much older man with two other wives. Adunni’s life only grows more difficult, especially when she starts work as a maid in the home of the dangerous husband and wife Big Madam and Big Daddy.
Adunni finally sees a ray of hope when she learns of an essay competition for young girls in domestic jobs seeking an education. Adunni wants to not only become a teacher, but also bring change into the world with a "louding voice."
‘‘The Girl With the Louding Voice’’ Tropes:
- Abusive Parents
- Tia’s mother was quite demanding of her daughter and didn’t let her have any friends, which soured their relationship. Tia and Adunni bond over having such parents but still somehow loving them.
- Ken’s mother puts so much pressure on her son and his wife to have children that she guilts Tia into going to a religious bath in hopes of having a baby. This “bath” results in Tia being lashed over and over to wipe away the “curse of childlessness.” She promises she didn’t know about it, but Ken finally cuts all contact with her for doing something so horrible to his wife.
- Acceptable Feminine Goals and Traits: Following the death of her mother, Adunni is forced to give up her education to instead cook and clean her household. Her dreams of becoming a teacher are continuously scoffed at, as adults in her life instead tell her over and over that she should just focus on marrying and having babies. Adunni’s friend’s mother once pinched her ears for saying she didn’t want to marry.
- Affably Evil: Big Daddy treats Adunni with much chivalry and kindness, and even stands up to Big Madam for her—but his true colors are that of a predator, and all his kind acts are just means of luring Adunni in. Thankfully Adunni is smart enough to see through all of it, and keeps her distance from him as much as she can.
- Ambiguous Situation: The book never absolutely confirms what happened to Rebecca. According to Big Madam, Big Daddy gave her some food that caused her to miscarry the baby he impregnated her with, and after taking her to the hospital, Big Madam threw her out and told her to never return. While this is possible, Adunni also thinks it possible that Big Madam herself killed Rebeca. It’s also not said if Rebeca had an affair with Big Daddy, or if he raped her as he tried to rape Adunni.
- Arranged Marriage: Women in villages like Ikati are almost always forced by their families to marry wealthy men, regardless of their own desires or pre-existing relationships. The plot kicks off when Adunni discovers her father is marrying her off to the twice-wedded and much-older Morofu in exchange for community rent.
- Art Evolution: Adunni’s pidgin is reflected in the narration through the story, but it improves as she studies English grammar and syntax with Tia.
- Attempted Rape: Big Daddy tries to rape Adunni in the climax of the novel, but is stopped by Big Madam.
- Baby Factory: Morofu cares little for any of his wives, and only treats them as a means of siring sons (as they have only provided daughters thus far.) Adunni has to enlist help from Khadija to not become pregnant herself.
- Bittersweet Ending: Of the “the present is bad, but maybe the future will be better” variety. Adunni’s essay wins the scholarship competition, and goes to live with Tia, forever free of Big Madam and Big Daddy. However, Rebeca is unlikely to ever see justice for what Big Daddy did to her, and it’s never known if she’s still alive or not. Khadija similarly will go unavenged, as Bamidele disappears without punishment. Adunni is still separated from her family, and with the current state of Nigeria, many girls will experience the same story of forced marriage and rape as hers. The hope comes from Adunni’s determination to use her “louding voice” to change the way things are for girls like her in Nigeria, and one day come back to her family to care for them with her success.
- Child by Rape: All of Khadija’s children are this, by virtue of her being forced into her marriage to Morofu and thus all sex with him.
- Determinator: Adunni pushes herself through all her traumas with her determination to not only survive, but to change the world for the better one day. She only begins with fleeing from her village to escape a possible death sentence, and later survives through Big Madam’s abuse and Big Daddy’s preying. This, while still being only fourteen.
- Domestic Abuse: Morofu threatens to beat Adunni when she “disrespects him,” and beats his own children to the point of their mothers begging him to stop. Big Madam and Big Daddy are also mutually abusive to each other, though Big Madam often walks away the bloodier of the two.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Big Madam abuses Adunni in every sense of the word, using her as her own personal punching bag in light of her failing marriage. However, she does have tender relationships with her other family members, such as her sister and daughter. One of her ‘‘very’’ few moments of kindness to Adunni comes when the girl tells her that Big Madam’s daughter would be proud of her, which makes her preen.
- Even Evil Has Standards: For as wicked as she is, Big Madam tears into her husband for going after Adunni, who’s only fourteen years old. She’s allowed him to have other mistresses, but she’s absolutely disgusted that he’s preying on a child.
- Female Misogynist: Several female characters in the novel, though not major, uphold the beliefs that all women should aim to marry husbands and bear children. The most terrifying come in the form of the women who give Tia her “child-making bath”—i.e. whipping her into a bloody mess to wash away the curse of “childlessness.”
- Hope Spot: After Big Daddy is chased off from almost raping Adunni, it seems like he’s finally going to serve jailtime not just for that, but for his part in Rebeca’s disappearance, whatever it was. Then Big Madam realizes that she, too, would be questioned over the matter, and she tears up Rebeca’s damning letter.
- Kangaroo Court: One theme of the novel is the prevalence of “jungle justice,” ie “mob justice” in Nigeria. Adunni recalls when a young girl in her village tried to elope with her lover after her arranged marriage to another man. Her lover was executed for being a “thief” as he tried to “steal” another man’s wife. This violence is what causes Adunni to flee following the death of Khadija, terrified that she’ll be blamed and thus executed.
- Karma Houdini
- Despite all of Adunni’s efforts, Bamidele never sees any justice for leaving Khadija to die to cover his own skin.
- Though they don’t exactly end in good places by the end, Big Madam and Big Daddy also do not get any karma for their abuse, attempted rape, etc.—Big Daddy might have gone to jail if it weren’t for Big Madam tearing up the letter to cover herself. At best, Big Daddy is in the doghouse by the end, and Big Madam is left to fix the mess of everything that’s happened.
- Kill the Cutie: Only a third into the novel, Khadija, Morofu’s second wife with whom Adunni had a tender, motherly relationship, dies of pregnancy complications. She may have lived, but Bamidele, her lover and a doctor, left her for dead. Her passing is what leads to Adunni fleeing the village, terrified that she’ll be blamed. It is also another factor for Adunni’s desire to change the world.
- The Loins Sleep Tonight: Morofu has to drink something called “Fire Cracker” whenever he lays with one of his wives. Adunni is too young to understand what a “sleeping manhood” even is.
- Marital Rape License: Morofu views his nonconsensual sex with Adunni (and his other wives) as just him enacting his right as a husband trying to sire a son. Many other women in forced marriages also birth children for their unwanted husbands. Despite all of this, “rape” is only said at the very end of the book, and it’s not in relation to any of these things.
- Missing Mom: Prior to the plot proper, Adunni’s mother has died of an unknown sickness—her loss weighs heavily on Adunni to the present-day.
- The Needs of the Many: Adunni’s father argues this defense for marrying her to Morofu. He needs Morofu’s money to pay community rent, and will use the animals he gifts them to feed himself and his sons while Adunni is “cared for” at her new house. Adunni pleads that an education will get her a well-providing job for them all, but her father refuses to listen.
- Parents as People: Adunni’s father takes no joy in breaking his promise to Adunni’s mother by marrying her off to an older man. He goes through with it thinking it’s the only way to save their family from destitution, and sincerely thinks Morofu is a good man. Even after running away from both the village and her father, Adunni plans on becoming successful enough to provide for him and her brothers one day.
- Pet the Dog: Big Madam uses Adunni as her personal punching bag, but she compliments Adunni for keeping the house clean in her absence, and complies with Adunni’s request to put a lock on her door—knowing full and well it was to keep Big Daddy out.
- Rape as Drama: The fourteen-year-old Adunni is repeatedly raped by her much older husband Morofu with the intent of impregnating her with a son. Big Daddy also tries to rape her later, but is thankfully stopped before he can. The word “rape” is only said towards the end of the book, and despite never hearing it before, the word alone shocks Adunni as she instantly understands what it means and the brutality of it.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: The word “rape” is only said toward the end of the book, but Adunni is shocked just from hearing it, knowing what it means and having experienced it herself but still terrified of it. Note that despite all her cruel and abusive behavior, even Big Madam is appalled that Big Daddy would do such a thing to a child.
- Sanity Slippage: Adunni recalls a girl in her village who, after being forced into a marriage with an older man, tried to elope with her lover. They were caught, and her lover was killed for trying to steal another man’s wife. Her father locked her in a room until she learned how to “behave,” but to this day she has not left, and she spends her days staring at the walls talking to her dead lover.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome
- Upon discovering what Facebook is, Adunni tries to find Bamidele to finally make him answer for his part in Khadija’s death. However, Tia (who has no idea of such a thing) dismisses her because there are too many search results for “Bamidele” alone.
- Adunni religiously studies the Collins dictionary to better her English. Instead of advancing her knowledge in no time, Tia has to tell her that reading a dictionary alone will not teach anyone how to speak English. For example, Adunni learns what the definition of “extermination” is, but she wants to tell Tia that she “wants to extermination her bad English.”
- While other coming-of-age stories of this caliber would have Adunni leading revolutionary change, and fight for people like Big Madam, Morofu, and Bamidele to be brought to justice, it’s not so here. Adunni is only one fourteen-year-old girl who can’t even begin to take down powerful adults, let alone shake the foundations of an entire culture. By the novel’s end, all she can do in regards to Big Daddy and Big Madam is get away from them—Big Daddy possibly never getting punished, and thus Rebeca never getting justice.
