The Girl With The Louding Voice

The story of Adunni, the beloved protagonist of The Girl with the Louding Voice, is a familiar story for many Nigerians! If you are not an Adunni, you know one.

Her story is set in Nigeria, West Africa. It starts out in the village of Ikati and ends in the bustling city of Lagos.

Abi Dare, the author, gives us a glimpse into the lived experiences and inner world of young Nigerian girls married off as teenagers or trafficked into a life of servitude.

Girls, who regardless of the realities they exist in, have dreams, and Adunni is no exception. She has a dream! A dream she held onto and shared with anyone who gave her audience.

She wants an education and hopes to become a teacher.

But after her mother, her biggest supporter, died, war broke out in the shape of teen marriage, human trafficking, and child abuse. Her good-for-nothing father married her off to an older man with two wives in exchange for rent money, among other things. Despite this detour, Adunni’s desire to go to school did not wane and neither did her voice. She amplified it with the cards patriarchy and misogyny dealt her. In the midst of her darkness, she found a friend and a beacon of light in her husband’s pregnant second wife, Khadija.