Review
Kwei Quartey's first novel,
Wife of the Gods, is a
dark, edgy mystery that's almost gritty enough to be considered noir. The book
is a marvelous detective procedural; its complex plot includes a plethora of
suspects and clues that will keep readers guessing the murderer's identity until
the inevitable confrontation at the book's climax. The main character,
Detective Inspector Darko Dawson, relies on deduction and observation to solve
the crime at the heart of the book. There's no room for guesswork or
coincidence in this novel; it remains eminently logical until its very
satisfying conclusion.
Ghana is a country in the midst of rapid change, and Quartey takes full
advantage of the friction caused by this change to add another, deeper layer to
Wife of the Gods. The conflict between the old and the new is a constant...
Beyond the Book
The Child-Wives of the Gods
Wife of the Gods refers to a practice in Ghana known as
trokosi. A
trokosi is a
young girl who is given to the village priest, also known as a fetish priest, to
atone for a perceived sin committed by a family member; the custom is basically
a form of sanctioned slavery. It is practiced primarily in the Volta region of
southeast Ghana by members of the Ewe tribe, but also in parts of Benin, Nigeria and Togo, where
it is known as
voodoosi or
vudusi. It is believed the practice
began in Togo and Benin as a war ritual in the 1600s. Before combat, warriors
would offer women to the war gods in exchange for victory and a safe
homecoming.
The
trokosi...
