In Daughter in Exile, Bisi Adjapon unearths the many factors that promote gender-based violence (GBV), patriarchy, male dominance, societal double standards, cultural norms, lack of support systems, economic independence, and societal judgment. She portrayed how these factors create a vulnerable environment for the protagonist, Lola Odura. The story is set in Senegal and later in America in the 1990s, where Bisi explores themes of patriarchy, stigmatisation of single mothers, religious hypocrisy, indomitable women’s strength and resistance, reclaiming identity and autonomy, sexual assault, and the struggles of an undocumented black immigrant.
Lola is a 21-year-old young Ghanaian woman who lives a comfortable, independent life in Dakar, Senegal. While working as a translator at the Thai embassy, she met and fell deeply in love with Armand, a Haitian-American Marine stationed in the U.S. Embassy. Despite her mother’s strong disapproval and rejection of a non-Ghanaian son-in-law, Lola makes a determined decision to leave her stable life behind and fly to America to be with Armand. However, her dreams of a better life in America quickly collide with the harsh reality of a black immigrant woman: hostile immigration systems, racial prejudice, and the gendered vulnerabilities that follow immigrant women through airports, workplaces, and domestic spaces. Lola is not a perfect heroine; she is an ambitious, flawed woman who struggles to claim her autonomy in a world determined to restrict her.
Lola leaves Ghana in search of freedom and independence, but she soon learns that patriarchy is not only bound to the African continent. It’s everywhere, what she fled: gendered expectations, moral scrutiny, and control over women’s choices reappear in different forms in the United States. Men exploit the economic vulnerability of immigrant women, and society judges women harshly for their reproductive choices but excuses or erases men’s responsibility. While the geography has changed, Lola still contends with double standards from privileged men. Her undocumented status further makes her a target of institutional power and male predation. In the novel, Bisi powerfully asserts that migration does not automatically liberate women; it merely relocates their oppression into new social and legal contexts.
A key theme of the novel is its exploration of religious hypocrisy. Lola grew up in a region where religious teachings were intertwined with morality, spirituality, and a dominant social life. Alas, the same religious institutions and individuals who preach forgiveness, humility, and moral discipline were the first to condemn her when she became pregnant. Instead of being a support system, they treated her as a moral failure, and her pregnancy was viewed as a symbol of sin. The hypocrisy is stark: men’s actions are excused, concealed, or rationalised, while the women are scrutinised, shamed, and punished under the guise of defending religious morality. Bisi uses this double standard to reveal how religion is often weaponised against women rather than uplift them.
Through Lola’s journey, Bisi portrays autonomy as something women must continuously reclaim. She did not present it as a mere independence but as a conscious identity grounded not in how others see her, but in how she sees herself. It is an active, powerful force that is a form of self-determination.
In the end, Lola’s story affirms that women’s liberation is neither tidy nor linear; it is forged through survival, resilience and an unyielding belief that women deserve fullness, dignity, and the right to imagine themselves beyond the boundaries imposed upon them.
