The Shipikisha Club
Kabwe, Zambia: Sali, a working mother of three, stands trial for the murder of her husband, Kasunga. The prosecutor claims Sali shot him after a heated fight in their bedroom. There are no witnesses. Sali pleads not guilty.
But her story does not begin with a gun. It begins fourteen years earlier—with her rebellion against the pressure to find a husband, her affair with a wealthy married man called Doc, and her discovery that she’s pregnant on the same day of Doc’s unexpected death.
To avoid the shame of being an unwed mother, Sali accepts Kasunga’s proposal, and finds herself suddenly thrust into the shipikisha club: her society’s expectations that it is a wife’s duty to endure. Over the years, Sali navigates her husband’s infidelities and alcohol-filled nights, their money troubles, and her postpartum depression in silence. Until the day she speaks her mind, and Kasunga puts a gun in her face.
The trial is a national scandal. Many are called to testify—the maid, Kasunga’s mother, and Ntashé, Sali's fifteen-year-old daughter. Even after Sali’s diary is dissected and laid bare for all to see, Sali calls no witnesses to her defense. With Kasunga gone, only Sali will ever know the truth. But is the truth enough?
As Sali awaits her fate, held in appalling conditions in Mukobeko Prison where inmate rape and the threat of HIV infection are rife, she hopes against hope. Before the verdict is announced, memories and words, regrets and accusations fill the courtroom, time crashes into itself, slowing to a near halt while racing ahead. Sali calls no witnesses because no one else was there when it happened. Even her diary doesn’t contain the whole story. Only she and Kasunga will ever know the truth. So why must she alone carry the blame?
Told through the rotating perspectives of Sali, Ntashé, and Sali’s mother Peggy, The Shipikisha Club is a riveting story of gender politics in Zambia and the world at large.
Request more informationOriginal Language
ENGLISH (NA) | Dzanc Books
ENGLISH (UK & Comm. excl. Canada & SA) | Cassava Republic
ENGLISH (South Africa) | Jacana Media
Translation Rights
FRENCH | Éditions de l'Aube
ITALIAN | Astoria
PORTUGUESE (Brazil) | Ímã Editorial
Prizes
Winner of the 2024 Dzanc Books Prize for Fiction
Reviews
“The Shipikisha Club is electric. From the very first page I was pulled into the worlds of Ntashé and her mother. This is a book where the passages, full of beautifully spare, sharp words, are there to serve the story of relationships put to severe tests.” Farah Ali, author of The River, The Town
“In The Shipikisha Club, Kalimamukwento creates an unflinching account of the myriad forms of intimate violence and betrayal within a patriarchal system, interspersed with moments of startling tenderness. She rejects moral certitude, instead pulling us into the minds of messy, complex women attempting to survive and connect in an unjust world…” Sarah Yahm, author of Unfinished Acts of Wild Creation
“Affecting without being sentimental. Mubanga Kalimamukwento knows how to tell a story!” Chika Unigwe, author of The Middle Daughter
“A magnificent novel that hits you like a punch in the gut, taking your breath away with how much it hurts. This is a novel that urges you to stop, to reflect, to question. This is a novel you'll never forget – a writer, a style, a story that will stay with you.” Cristina Prasso, editor (Astoria, Italy)
