Walk into any Zambian bookstore, and you'll find shelves groaning with memoirs and self-help guides. But fiction? That's rare as rain in August. Mulenga Kapwepwe's Perfect Marriage breaks that drought with a story that does something remarkable: it captures the tension between modern desires and traditional expectations without choosing sides.
Fiction is a rarity in our nation's publishing landscape, which is dominated by memoirs, self-help guides, and historical accounts. Perfect Marriage by Mulenga Kapwepwe stands out not just for being a rare work of fiction, but for powerfully showing that a novel can preserve and illuminate cultural tradition while telling a compelling story. This dual achievement forms the book’s unique value.
As the title suggests, the story is sparked off by an impending marriage. The engagement of Musonda and Bwalya, two successful academics, leads to a push and pull between their own desires and those of their families, and the upholding of the values that comprise a traditional Bemba wedding. Shifting perspectives between the bride, Bwalya, the bridegroom, Musonda, and the bridegroom's sister, Kasonde. Each character is deeply complex and has been moved and shaped by their personal histories, which dictate their reasons for being wary of, or running to and from, tradition.
The characters have been moved and changed by their history in the same way their culture has adapted and shifted with time, and throughout the duration of the ukulange mbusa and ubwinga practices, we see the characters grapple with their tradition and themselves and navigate how to not be defined by their personal pasts while still embracing the knowledge of their traditional pasts.
In shifting perspectives, there is sometimes the risk of making certain character sections less appealing than others, but in the case of Perfect Marriage, I found that the story and my interest in it were seamlessly maintained regardless of which character's point of view I was experiencing events through. Additionally, there is a cast of colourful side characters bringing in moments of hilarity.
What ultimately distinguishes the perfect marriage is how it balances education and entertainment, seamlessly weaving cultural insight into its narrative without disrupting the flow of the story.
The author’s statement in the preface, 'I am the living heritage of my Bemba forefathers...I had to write this story,' encapsulates the book's core purpose: to present tradition from within, not as an outsider explaining it. The pages are rich with Bemba songs, folklore, and sayings, gently immersing readers in the culture and enabling them to experience a living tradition, rather than a translated or diluted version.
Perfect Marriage is available at Bookworld stores nationwide as well as Lusaka Collective at Agora Village. It can also be ordered online through Bold Ambition Books.
