AFRICAN PROSE ASARE KONADU: A WOMAN IN HER PRIME What role does tradition play in the relationship between Pokuwaa and her mother?

Answer Details

In Asare Konadu's A Woman in Her Prime, tradition shapes the whole relationship between Pokuwaa and her mother, and Konadu uses that relationship to weigh the pressure of custom against the value of personal peace.

Tradition as the source of anxiety. In the Akan village of Brenhoma a woman's worth is measured by her ability to bear children. Pokuwaa, though hard-working and prosperous, is childless after three marriages, and it is her mother who most keenly feels the shame this brings on the family. The mother's constant concern for grandchildren is not personal cruelty but the voice of tradition speaking through her; she wants her daughter to fulfil the role custom expects.

Tradition drives the round of rituals. Acting on customary belief, the mother urges Pokuwaa into repeated sacrifices and rites. Together they consult diviners and perform the sacrifices prescribed by the god Tano and the fetish priests, including the ritual killing of a sheep, in the hope of removing whatever curse or spiritual block is keeping Pokuwaa barren. The relationship is therefore built around shared religious observance dictated by tradition.

Tension and eventual release. The mother's traditional expectations place a quiet strain on Pokuwaa, who grows weary of endless rituals that yield nothing. A turning point comes when Pokuwaa resolves to stop the sacrifices and simply live her life, trusting that a child will come in its own time. Significantly, it is after she frees herself from the anxious pursuit of custom that she conceives. The mother's traditional pressure is thus shown to be well-meaning but ultimately less effective than Pokuwaa's calm acceptance.

Konadu presents the mother-daughter bond as loving yet dominated by tradition. Custom binds the two women together in shared ritual, but the novel finally suggests that peace of mind, not slavish adherence to tradition, brings fulfilment.