Note: This is not a comprehensive review
Zikora is a story that mirrors a number of socio-cultural issues, and yes, it is fiction. But if you’ve an eye for detail, and if you’ve read other works by Adichie, you’d easily discover that she is wont of throwing in her convictions into literature. And so isn’t about telling you to read or not to read this book, it is about sharing my opinion.

But just before then, can we take a moment to appreciate the amount of hardwork that Chimamanda puts into naming her characters? I mean, she gives such beautiful names that are not commonplace. In Purple Hibiscus we had names like Kambili; in Half of a Yellow Sun, she introduces Kainene, Olanna; in Americanah, we have Ranyinudo, Ifemelunamma… And now in Zikora, we have Zikora! Zikora is an Igbo name that can be translated as show the world, tell the world, herald to the world…largely depending on context

Well, Zikora a young woman who happens to be the major character in this short story. It all begins from where we was in labour, picturing the kind of pain that women experience during childbirth, and then the story goes ahead to recount how she got pregnant for Kwame whom she had supposed to be the best kind of man any woman would wish for. But then, poor communication or the absence thereof, puts in a strain in their relationship. She had assumed that Kwame would want a baby, and that he should know that since they had unprotected sex, that pregnancy was likely to occur. However, Kwame felt disrespected, belittled, because she didn’t consult him before 'deciding' to keep the pregnancy.

The entire story is about mother-daughter relationship, what women have to endure for being women. How men are raised with little or no knowledge about how the female body works; it touches on abortion, and of course, cross-cultural values. How some people see being a ‘senior wife’ in a polygamous family as some sort of beautiful, beautiful achievement; how a woman, despite making exceptional imprints in the academics, in business, or whatever field, will still always be assessed by the success or failure of her marriage.

In essence one learns from Zikora:
i. to always keep open communication in relationships - casual, romantic, work relationships.
ii. The beauty of mother-daughter relationship, and how children would do better if they experience close communication with parents, among other thing.
iii. Why men should take interest in understanding how the female body works
iv. etc

Zikora, the short story has one terrible part... it was too short


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuUDYVb7ps4