"Joys of motherhood" by Buchi Emecheta.

This novel centres on Nnu Ego, an Igbo woman from Ibuza , Delta State, Nigeria. She is the daughter of Chief Nwokocha Agbadi and his mistress Ona. The night she is conceived, Agbadi's first wife (Agunwa) dies of shock because of Ona's loud moans. A slavewoman who is buried with Agunwa promises to come back as Agbadi's daughter. Nnu Ego ("20 bags of cowries")  is as light-skinned as the slave.

Nnu Ego marries Amatokwu as a virgin  but has no child for him. Amatokwu takes another wife who bears children. Eventually, the marriage crumbles and Nnu Ego returns to her father's house.

She later marries Nnaife Owulum by proxy and goes to him in Lagos. When her first son (Ngozi)  dies , she attempts to jump into the lagoon but is restrained. She later bears a son Oshiaju ("the bush has rejected this") and 8 other children (out of which 2 die). Along the line , Nnaife has children by his late brother's wives, Adaku and Adankwo. He also marries 16-year-old Okpo. Nnaife has 12 children in all -  7 from Nnu Ego, 2 from Adaku, 1 from Adankwo and 2 from Okpo.

Nnaife expects Oshiaju to stop schooling after excelling in his Cambridge Certificate exams and take over the family responsibilities from him but Oshiaju gets a scholarship to further his education in the United States.  Later on, Nnu Ego's daughter  Kehinde wants to marry a Yoruba man (Ladipo) against Nnaife's wishes. Nnaife matchets Ladipo's relatives and is jailed for a while. Nnu Ego later dies on a road, neglected by her children who later organise an expensive burial.

The novel is a satire which bears out the Yoruba proverb " Having too many children brings much poverty and sorrow".

"Silas Marner" by George Eliot.

George Eliot is the pseudonym that Mary Ann Evans uses when writing
novels. Therefore the pronoun "her" is used for George Eliot.

THE NOVEL'S PLOT.

Silas Marner is a weaver and a member of a small religious community
in Lantern Yard. One day, the church deacon falls ill and members take
turns waiting on him at night. When it is Silas' turn, the deacon
dies and William Dane (Silas' best friend) slips in and steals money
while Silas is lost in thought. William makes everyone believe Silas
is the thief. Silas is disfellowshipped and he moves to Raveloe. His
fiancee, Sarah, marries the false friend a month later.

Silas has lost faith in God and becomes a hermit in Raveloe. He weaves
on Sundays and hoards his money. One day, the local nobleman's second
son, Dunstan Cass, steals his 5 guineas. Silas becomes very miserable
indeed.

Squire Cass's wife is dead and he frequents beer parlours so his sons
(Godfrey and Dunstan) become wayward.Dunstan's evil influence makes
Godfrey to marry a low-class woman, Molly Farren. Molly has a child
for him. Godfrey later falls in love with Nancy Lammeter and bribes
Dunstan to keep his previous marriage secret.

One day, Molly decides to show up at Squire Cass's New Year party and
introduce herself (to punish him for abandoning her). Due to the cold
and her being a drug addict, she dies in the snow on the way, near
Silas' cottage, and her 2-year-old daughter crawls into the cottage.

Silas adopts the child , names her Eppie (after his late sister
Hephzibah) and starts going to church. Godfrey feels relieved at
Molly's death and marries Nancy without telling her about the child.
"There was no danger that his dead wife would be recognized...and as
for the registry of their marriage, that was a long way off, buried in
unturned pages" (chapter 13). The only other person in the know,
Dunstan, hasn't returned home after stealing Silas' money. However,
Godfrey and Nancy remain childless for many years, having only a
stillborn baby. Godfrey suggests to Nancy that they adopt Eppie from
Silas (without revealing she is his daughter) , but Nancy is against
ALL adoption.

Eppie grows up into a charming 18-year-old . She knows no father but
Silas and she serves to bring the former recluse into contact with his
neighbours.

Then, Dunstan's skeleton is seen at the bottom of a pond near Silas'
house. He has Silas' bag of money in one hand and Godfrey's whip in
the other. Godfrey is forced to reveal his past and he and Nancy go to
Silas to claim Eppie. However, Eppie refuses to leave Silas, the only
father she knows. Godfrey and Nancy return home dejected.

Silas and Eppie visit Lantern Yard, hoping that the truth of the
robbery allegation would have emerged, but the town has been razed to
the ground. They return to Raveloe, their permanent home henceforth.
Eppie marries Aaron Winthrop, an honest and diligent son of a
neighbour, and they live with Silas in complete happiness.

Number riddle

RIDDLE

There are 5 positive whole numbers. The first is the square of the
second. The sum of the 2nd and the 3rd is 10. The 4th is greater than
the 2nd by 1. The sum of the 3rd and the 5th is 14. The sum of all the
numbers is 30. Find the values of the numbers.

SOLUTION

Represent the 5 numbers by any 5 letters of the alphabet you fancy. I
am using a, b, c, d and e for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th numbers
respectively.

From the statements in the question,

a = b² ................ (1)
b + c = 10 ................(2)
d = b + 1 ................(3)
c + e = 14 ................(4)
a + b + c + d + e = 30................(5).

* Express any 4 of the unknowns in terms of the 5th unknown in
equations (1) to (4).

a = b² (equation 1).
c = 10 - b (from equation 2).
d = b + 1 (equation 3).
e = 14 - c (from equation 4) = 14 - (10 - b) (from equation 2) = 14
- 10 + b = b + 4.

* Substitute these values into equation 5.

a + b + c + d + e = 30.

b² + b + (10 - b) + (b + 1) + (b + 4) = 30.

b² + 2b + 15 = 30.

b² + 2b + 15 - 30 = 0.

b² + 2b - 15 = 0.

(b + 5) (b - 3) = 0.

Either b + 5 = 0 or b - 3 = 0.

b + 5 = 0 ➡ b = - 5.

b - 3 = 0 ➡ b = 3.

Therefore, b = 3 (positive number).

Hence, a = b² = 3² = 9 ;
c = 10 - b = 10 - 3 = 7;
d = b + 1 = 3 + 1 = 4;
e = b + 4 = 3 + 4 = 7.

Therefore, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th numbers are 9, 3, 7, 4 and
7 respectively.

NOTE: * If you express the other unknowns in terms of a, substitution
of the values will lead you to an equation involving surds which you
can manipulate into a quadratic equation (by isolating the surd on one
side of the equation and then squaring both sides of the equation).
You will get 2 values of a (a = 9 or a = 25). Use the smaller value of
a , or your
a + b + c + d + e will be greater than 30 (violating equation 5).

"The Concubine" by Elechi Amadi.

The novel is set in the Igbo villages of Omokachi, Omigwe, Aliji and Chiolu.

Madume (in his early 30s) is annoyed that his only wife bore him 4 daughters without a son, despite the bride price he would collect on them. The thought of his brother's sons inheriting his houses and lands contributes to his laziness. In addition, he is greedy and never satisfied with his share in anything good. Hence, he is always quarreling over land, trees, etc with his neighbours (including Emenike). Madume also hates Emenike for being more popular than him and for Ihuoma's choosing Emenike over him.

Emenike and Madume quarrel over a piece of land and many of their fellow villagers speak in favour of Emenike. Madume waylays Emenike in the forest and wins the fight after dashing his side against the jagged stump of a tree. Anyika, the Omokachi village medicine man, is called to treat him. Nwokekoro is the priest of Amadioha (the god of thunder and of the skies). Ojukwu is the god of smallpox.

Ihuoma has had 3 children by age 22 after 6 years of marriage to Emenike. She is beautiful, sympathetic and reserved. She is able to bear a neighbour's stinging remarks without a repartee and earns the reputation of a peacemaker among fighting women. She is from  Omigwe, a neighbouring village. Emenike recovers from the fight but dies shortly afterwards of  "lock-chest". Many people link his death with his fight with Madume which had considerably weakened his resistance to any disease. Ihuoma wears the customary sackcloth for one year before the second burial ends her mourning period.

With Emenike out of the way and his brother Nnadi being "too reserved to make trouble", Madume plans to extend his boundary with Emenike indefinitely and take over Ihuoma. One day, he  tries to help Ihuoma put down a pot of water from her head against her wishes.  He hurts his right toe against a half-buried old hoe in her compound. Anyika holds some spirits from the sea and Emenike's father's spirit responsible and warns Madume to keep off Ihuoma and her compound. While Madume is  harvesting  plantains from the disputed land one day, a cobra spits into his eyes and he goes blind. He later commits suicide and is thrown into Minita, the evil forest.

Ekwueme is 2 years older than Ihuoma and interested in marrying her. Ihuoma rejects his proposal because of his engagement to Ahurole (her village girl) since childhood. Ihuoma's father is even "distantly related to Wagbara", Ahurole's father (page 193). Ahurole is 5 years younger than Ekwueme. Though otherwise intelligent and dutiful, Ahurole is prone to weeping over trivial matters. This weakness of hers stresses her marriage with Ekwueme and makes him long for Ihuoma and seek her company frequently (though on a platonic basis). Ahurole gets jealous and feeds him with a love potion which runs him mad. She runs away out of shame.  

Ekwueme insists on Ihuoma's presence beside him  before bathing and taking his medicines. When he gets well, his parents permit him to marry Ihuoma. Anyika says (after consulting the oracle), "Ihuoma is the favourite wife of the Sea-King in the spirit world before being incarnated as a human being. Her spirit husband eliminated both Emenike and Madume. The sea-king can be appeased to let her be someone's concubine (but never a wife) until she lives out her normal earthly span and returns to him".

Anyika says there is no way Ekwueme can safely marry Ihuoma but Agwoturumbe , a "dibia"(or medicine man) from Aliji, thinks he can bind the sea-king. The requisites for the sacrifice include a brightly-coloured male lizard. The sacrifice is to be done in the middle of a river at midnight.

After overcoming his fears about the midnight sacrifice , Ekwueme teaches Nwonna (Ihuoma's son) and his friends to shoot arrows along the wall so that the wall will direct their arrows to the lizards. After one of his friends has caught a lizard, Nwonna tries to kill another one by himself and for his own use. That is when Ekwueme steps out of his room and is hit by an arrow in his belly. He dies before even going for the midnight sacrifice.

Ihuoma can only be a concubine.