Changes

Set in Accra, Ghana, the novel follows three women whose marriages expose the tensions between modern African womanhood and entrenched patriarchal traditions.

Esi Sekyi, a data analyst at the Department of Urban Statistics, visits the travel agency Linga HideAways one evening to arrange conference travel for her colleagues. She meets Ali Kondey, the agency's charming managing director, who offers her a ride. She declines and leaves in her unreliable car. Ali, a devout Muslim, interprets the encounter as a gift from Allah and resolves not to let the connection end.

The narrative shifts to Esi's marriage. On a Monday morning, her daughter Ogyaanowa eats porridge while her parents argue behind the bedroom door. Esi's husband, Oko, a secondary school teacher about to become headmaster, has felt starved of her attention for years: She uses birth control despite his wish for more children and prioritizes her career over domestic life. His mother and sisters pressure him to father children with another woman. When Oko confronts Esi, she responds with impatience. He pins her to the bed and forces himself on her. Afterward, Esi drives to work in a daze and names what happened as "marital rape," a concept she imagines colleagues dismissing as a Western import with no indigenous African-language equivalent. She dozes briefly and wakes having decided to leave Oko.

Esi's closest friend, Opokuya Dakwa, is her opposite: a plump, energetic nurse-midwife married to Kubi, a government surveyor. They have four children and a stable marriage marred by a daily argument over who drives the family's single car.

Ali's mother died giving birth to him; he was raised in Bamako, Mali, by his aunt, Mma Danjuma. His father, Musa Musa, was a legendary trader across West Africa. Ali attended French schools, then a teacher training college in Ghana where he met his future wife, Fusena, before earning degrees in England and founding Linga HideAways, a travel agency with offices across the region.

Esi and Opokuya reunite at the Hotel Twentieth Century. Esi reveals she has left Oko. Her grandmother Nana and mother Ena were unsympathetic; when Esi explained that Oko demanded too much of her time, Ena called her a fool. Oko's family has long resented Esi for being career-focused and earning more than their son. The friends debate the bind of the professional African woman: Men claim to want intelligent wives but then confine them to kitchens and bedrooms. When Ali enters the lobby, Esi's eyes light up. Opokuya accuses her of hiding a romantic interest. Esi admits Ali has been attentive but sighs that there is a wife.

A flashback details Ali and Fusena's history. Close friends at teacher training college, they acknowledged their feelings only when Ali won a scholarship to England. They married, and Fusena joined him in London three years later with their son, Adam. There she became isolated, recognizing that by marrying Ali she had exchanged a friend for a husband. Back in Ghana, Ali persuaded Fusena not to teach and bought her a profitable commercial kiosk. Despite financial success, her dissatisfaction persisted. The chapter ends with Ali telling Fusena he plans to take a second wife who has a university degree.

Esi's separation from Oko becomes final. Ogyaanowa stays with Oko's mother. Oko's female relatives march on Esi, calling her a "semi-barren witch." When Esi requests a divorce, Oko agrees not to contest it. His mother installs a young, docile girl as his replacement wife.

Ali learns Esi is divorced and woos her in earnest. He proposes with a gold filigree ring, arguing that polygamy is a legitimate African institution. Opokuya raises a concern: In traditional polygamy, the first wife had to approve the second. Esi admits she has never met Fusena.

Ali's first attempt to arrange the marriage fails when Esi's village elders reject his lack of proper family witnesses. He approaches his elders in Nima, the Muslim neighborhood in Accra, who agree to help on one condition: Fusena must consent. Unknown to Ali, Fusena had already visited the same elders to protest. When trusted older women speak with her, she recognizes all is lost and capitulates. A bitter, wordless understanding passes between the generations.

Before the wedding, Esi visits Nana, who delivers a speech comparing male power over women to European domination of Africa, calling men "the first gods in the universe, and they were devouring gods." Yet she insists that change is possible.

The wedding proceeds: Kola nuts are ritually broken, gin is poured in libation, a symbolic dowry is paid, and Ali presents a gold ring. But when Esi arrives home that evening, Ali has gone to Fusena. She reflects bitterly that it has not taken half a day to learn what being number two means.

On New Year's Eve, Ali abandons his holiday tradition with Fusena and drives to Esi's bungalow. Their lovemaking is interrupted when Oko arrives with Ogyaanowa. The two men struggle physically. Esi scoops up her crying child and flees to the Dakwas' house. After days there, she lets Ogyaanowa go with Oko when the child shows eager willingness, a rejection that stings. Ali later takes Esi to Bamako to meet his family, deepening her attachment.

For nearly a year, Esi thrives, focusing on her career. But she begins wanting more of Ali while his absences multiply. She learns he drives his new secretary home every evening. The year-end season brings desolation: She sees Ali only twice in six weeks, and Oko's mother blocks her from having Ogyaanowa for Christmas.

On New Year's morning, Ali arrives with a brand-new maroon car. Esi cannot feel joy, recognizing the gift as a substitute for his presence. He hands her the keys, then asks her to drive him to a business meeting. Watching him disappear into the hotel, she confronts a question: How is her situation different from being his mistress? She drives the new car to Opokuya, who begs to buy the old one.

Roughly three years into the marriage, Esi reaches her breaking point. She tells Ali, "I can't go on like this," calls their arrangement no marriage, and orders him to go home to his wife and children. He walks out. Months later, she phones Opokuya to say it is over.

After Opokuya picks up the repaired car, Esi sits on her bed and begins to weep quietly. Night falls. Kubi arrives looking for Opokuya and, shocked by Esi's tear-stained face, finds himself kissing her. Esi does not resist at first, but her mind snaps open. She remembers Nana's warning that a man always gains from any association with a woman while the woman is always diminished. She thinks of Opokuya, her most constant relationship, and breaks free. They part with an unspoken understanding: Neither will speak of what nearly happened.

Esi never returns to Oko. Her relationship with Ali devolves into occasional companionship. She does not seek an annulment, knowing her family would side with Ali. He professes love, and Esi accepts it is true in his fashion, but his fashion of loving has proved inadequate. She teaches herself not to expect him and not to react to gossip about his other women. The novel closes with Esi comforting herself that perhaps she will find answers, echoing the refrain of a Highlife song, a genre of popular West African music: "One day, one day."