Elina

Like the author’s previous books I’ve read, this is a social conflict story. Unlike those, this is not a story based on the black man’s anger. It’s more a story of a cunning plot to fight—during colonial times—what was seen as a legislation designed to stamp out one aspect of black African culture in favor of the practice in Europe and America, i. e. polygamy. It was actually previously titled Winds Versus Polygamy.

Elina, the beautiful but poor peasant girl, is at the core of the plot. After her father’s death a hunter comes to claim her in marriage in return for a debt. Her uncle wants a rich politician to marry her instead. The case is brought to the village chief. The next morning the chief is troubled by the new legislation outlawing polygamy, and decides to fight it in court, knowing that his own trial would cause a sensation. But how does he get to the court?

After the two men have brought their claims on Elina, he decides to use Elina to get to the court, by saying he would marry her in addition to 31 other wives. Elina agrees to go along with his plan and when he is to give judgment on the men’s case, he puts it to Elina to say who she’d marry. Elina says she’d marry him. The two men threaten to report him to the police, which is what he wants. He gets arrested, gets a lot of publicity and gets the crucial trial, the outcome being that he is fined 500 pounds for “committing” the crime. The anti-polygamy legislation however gets to be suspended. As for Elina, she falls for the chief’s son and they plan to get married.

May 7, 2015. Review initially written in 1992. Novel first published in 1974. Picture source: Yahoo (Images).