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  • The Shipikisha Club by Mubanga Kalimamukwento book cover
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The Shipikisha Club

by Mubanga Kalimamukwento

Marriage, endurance and a courtroom in Kabwe

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AlbakiReads Editorial

Marriage, endurance and a courtroom in Kabwe

Set in Kabwe, Zambia, the novel moves between Sali’s murder trial and the fourteen years that precede it. That structure links the courtroom’s competing account of Kasunga’s death with the pressures that shaped Sali’s marriage: social expectations around wifehood, infidelity, financial strain and postpartum depression. The phrase “shipikisha club” names the demand that a wife endure, a social rule Sali navigates in silence before speaking up. With family members and household staff called to testify, the trial also brings private experiences into public scrutiny.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in fiction set in Zambia and wider African literary contexts.
  • Readers drawn to stories about marriage, social expectations and women’s lives.
  • Readers who appreciate courtroom narratives framed by events from earlier years.

Themes

Marriage and social expectationsWomen’s autonomyInfidelity and financial strainPostpartum depressionPublic scrutiny and private life

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

Kabwe, Zambia: Sali, a working mother of three, stands trial for the murder of her husband, Kasunga. The prosecutor claims Sali shot him after a heated fight in their bedroom. There are no witnesses. Sali pleads not guilty.

 

But her story does not begin with a gun. It begins fourteen years earlier--with her rebellion against the pressure to find a husband, her affair with a wealthy married man called Doc, and her discovery that she's pregnant on the same day of Doc's unexpected death.

 

To avoid the shame of being an unwed mother, Sali accepts Kasunga's proposal, and finds herself suddenly thrust into the shipikisha club: her society's expectations that it is a wife's duty to endure. Over the years, Sali navigates her husband's infidelities and alcohol-filled nights, their money troubles, and her postpartum depression in silence. Until the day she speaks her mind, and Kasunga puts a gun in her face.

 

The trial is a national scandal. Many are called to testify--the maid, Kasunga's mother, and Ntash

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