Book Review: Marriage, Motherhood and The Cost of Womanhood in The Shipikisha Club by Mubanga Kalimamukwento
Motherhood, wifely duties, culture, and gender-based violence are the themes that fuel The Shipikisha Club by Mubanga Kalimamukwento.
Divided into three parts, the novel follows the legal trial of Salifyanji Ada Nanyangwe-Penda, who is accused of murdering her husband. It also traces Sali’s life through three distinct perspectives: her own, that of her fifteen-year-old daughter, Ntashe, and that of her mother, Peggy, exploring the actions that shaped Sali into the woman she became and the reactions that ultimately forced her hand.
Mubanga Kalimamukwento is a brilliant writer who, over the years, has won numerous awards for her work, and this mastery is evident in the book’s structure. The narrative moves between two timelines: the present, set in 2019 and written in the present tense, which follows the aftermath of the murder and the court proceedings; and the past, written in the past tense, beginning in 2003 and spanning several years. The book also uses Bemba proverbs and Bible verses as epigraphs in each chapter to set the tone.
The first part of The Shipikisha Club opens from the perspective of Mayo, later revealed to be Sali’s mother-in-law, at her son’s graveside as she reminisces about his birth. Although Mayo does not occupy much narrative space, her interactions with Peggy, Ntashe, and Sali reveal a disdain for Sali from their very first meeting. She tolerates her only because her son, Kasunga Penda, chose her as his wife. This opening section raises a question to be answered: how much does culture and tradition expect from a woman?
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Sali’s past and present are tightly interwoven, with each chapter revealing information that either strengthens or weakens the case against her. The novel opens in the present with the court trial, where Ntashe secretly sneaks into the courtroom at the invitation of the state prosecutor, without her maternal grandparents’ knowledge. Present at the trial are Mbuya (Mayo) and her sons, Katwishi and James, Peggy, Faye, who is Sali’s childhood best friend, and Happy, Kasunga’s oldest friend, “the one he calls Bro,” as Ntashe narrates. As the trial unfolds, several witnesses testify. While many remain unnamed, the most significant testimonies come from Mbuya, Ba Jelita–the maid, Happy, Ntashe herself, and finally, Sali.
Ntashe’s decision to testify against her mother initially appears to be a quest for justice in the name of her father, rooted in her long-held perception of Sali. She believes her mother favoured her two younger brothers and views her father as blameless. During Sali’s testimony, however, Ntashe learns that Kasunga was not her biological father. This revelation forces her to confront the reality that her mother is far more complex than the antagonist she had always imagined.
Sali’s past narrative begins with her stuck in traffic in Lusaka, Zambia, glowing with excitement over a new pregnancy as she heads to share the news with her married boyfriend. She learns of his sudden death on the way and, in a cruel twist of fate, collides with the car of his grieving wife. This encounter mirrors the lives of many wives in Zambia, where men are granted space for infidelity simply because they are men, while women are instructed to endure in silence, grateful for marriage itself.
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It is in this moment that Sali meets her future husband, Kasunga, a police officer who uses the situation to obtain her phone number. Their brief courtship follows. Initially, when Kasunga expresses interest, Sali considers attributing the pregnancy to him but instead tells the truth. Kasunga’s decision to marry her, partly motivated by his belief that he has fertility issues, ushers in many of the novel’s central conflicts.
When Sali is confronted by her mother, who suspects her pregnancy, she informs her parents of the proposal, and preparations for marriage begin. Reflecting on her situation, Sali observes:
“Falling pregnant before getting married, unlike forgetting to shower before sunset, would be Mama’s fault too, and not just mine. It was a mother’s job, after all, to keep her daughter walking straight to ensure no shame landed on her, and, vicariously, besmirched the rest of the family line.”
Mubanga richly immerses the reader in the traditional bride price ceremony—the negotiations, dances, prayers, and the subsequent training on how to be a “good wife.” What stands out most is how a woman’s personal achievements are dismissed in the face of marriage. This reflects a pervasive ideology in many African societies: that a woman exists primarily to serve her husband, regardless of her education, status, or ambitions. During this instruction, Sali comes face-to-face with how much men are permitted to get away with, and how narrowly a wife’s responses to mistreatment are defined.
“Men could slither in and out of any woman they wanted,” Sali reflects, “but only the woman was tarnished. A man’s infidelity can’t break a home.”
The second part of The Shipikisha Club centres on Peggy, Sali’s mother. Like many women in the book, Peggy endured abuse at the hands of her husband long before he became a pastor. In one haunting scene, Sali recalls her father beating her mother for failing to produce a son after a miscarriage. Yet Peggy rises afterward and continues her domestic duties. This generational cycle of suffering explains why Peggy struggles to understand Sali’s reaction to her husband’s infidelity when she visits her in prison. The section also explores Sali’s fraught relationship with her mother-in-law and her disappointment when her pregnancy results in a daughter rather than a son.
The third and final part focuses squarely on Sali—her life as a mother and the sustained verbal, emotional, and physical abuse she endures from Kasunga until the end. A crucial piece of evidence, Sali’s diary, becomes central to the case and ultimately leads to the final verdict.
The Shipikisha Club holds much within its pages, but most importantly, it exposes the toxic nature of a culture that strips women of individuality in favour of marriage and burdens them with lifelong, unyielding roles. While Sali is far from a moral saint, she embodies how women are shaped into lives of pain and endurance until something finally breaks. With gender-based violence and related murder cases against women and girls on the rise since 2018, as the book notes in its closing, Mubanga Kalimamukwento’s novel stands as an important story showcasing the struggles of women in Zambia and Africa at large.
