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Summary
In Teller of Secret, Bisi Adjpon explores an intergenerational women’s complicity around Esi, her stepmother, aunts, and stepsisters. As custodian of her family’s secrets, Esi witnessed how women are silenced and forced to bear secrets that bind families together. Her reclaimed voice in a world that seeks to oust her reflects the struggles women endure to break free from the shackles of patriarchy.
What does it mean to grow in a world where men’s flaws and secrets are given pass while the woman is forced to bear the consequences? In many African patriarchal societies, women are burdened to be the custodians of secrets. They are expected to swallow their desires, hide their pains and endure injustices to preserve family honour and societal harmony. Bisi Adjapon’s Teller of Secrets is a powerful exploration of the culture of silence and control. Through the coming-of-age story of Esi Agyekum, Bisi examines how patriarchy shapes girlhood, female sexuality, identity and how silence itself becomes a weapon of oppression.
The novel follows the journey of Esi Agyekum to adulthood, who from a young age notices the double standards that govern her household and society. Men’s flaws are excused, their desires normalising and the women are policed and harshly judged. As the family’s silent observer and unofficial “custodians of secrets,” she witnessed acts of betrayal, shame, and pain – learning that silence is the price women must pay for survival.
Punished for her sexual exploration, Esi learnt that women’s bodies are policed for men’s desires and female sexuality is treated as a source of disgrace. Despite her academic excellence and achievements, Esi is reduced to a marriage prospect illustrating the reality women face: the constant system of being pulled back into gendered roles that diminish them.
Through her sexual awakening, Esi confronts the secrets and lies that policed her life and that of other women. Her journey mirrored the lived experiences of many women navigating love, ambition, silence, duty and loss. Through her, Bisi crafts a narrative of how the personal experience of one girl demonstrates the collective fight of women seeking autonomy and dignity in a patriarchal world.
Although Esi’s character is not a straightforward rebel to the patriarchal society, her feminist awakening triggered by sexual shame gradually begins to ask the difficult questions, make defiant decisions, and dare to live a life by her own terms.
Moreover, the title of the book “Teller of Secret” is deeply symbolic of Esi’s character and feminist resistance. Traditionally, women are burdened with expectations of keeping the family secrets, silence their desires, and cannot dare voice out the abuse they experience. Through Esi’s journey, Bisi shows how patriarchy sustains itself not through men’s power, but also through women’s silence born out of fear, survival, and societal expectation.
