How does culture shape a person’s response to male infertility? What happens when money can solve your problem, but your character won’t let you take the reasonable way out? What happens when a miracle is not in fact a miracle but a string of carefully planned cruelties?
These are the questions In Our Own Ways, Yejide Kilanko’s latest novel, asks. The novel follows a well-to-do couple, Fadaka and Senami, who are thrilled by a seemingly miraculous pregnancy after five years of waiting. Yet, Fadaka’s pregnancy is haunted by nightmares a sense of unease.
A year later, their family doctor accidentally reveals that her pregnancy was a medical impossibility. This revelation leads to a confrontation with her husband and marks the end of the marriage and the beginning of other problems.
Yejide and I discuss how childhood influences can determine the trajectory of a person’s life and the contradictions of personal choice in empowering one and harming another. We also discuss cultural and legal injustices, the burden of proof, and the path one woman takes to liberate herself.
Show highlights
- The impact of character and culture in navigating life’s challenges
- Broken childhoods and adult influences
- The covering of shame within the context of the African culture
- When the law is not on your side
- Honouring forgotten army wives
- Writing challenges and the road to publication
- Juggling life’s balls
- The secret to staying on the journey of the art
“Culture shapes everything about us — good or bad. Even when people have the means to solve a problem, if they aren’t paying attention to the parts of culture they’re subscribing to, it can still deeply impact their life.”
Yejide Kilanko
In Our Own Ways is available for purchase through the links below.
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About Yejide Kilanko
Yejide Kilanko was born in the beautiful city of Ibadan, Nigeria, and lives in Ontario, Canada. A lover of words and music, Kilanko writes novels, short fiction, poetry, and children’s picture books. She is the author of Daughters Who Walk This Path and a Good Name. Her latest novel, In Our Own Ways, was published by Narrative Landscape Press in 2025.
Find out more at: https://yejidekilanko.com
About In Our Own Ways
After a childhood in the backwaters of a Nigerian fishing town, up-and-comer Senami Mausi is proud of the man he has become. His sprawling compound is his castle and the beautiful Fadaka, daughter of the wealthy Silva family, is his queen. Thanks to the right pedigree and connections, Fadaka and Senami are living an enviable life.
However, cracks begin to appear in their marriage when they struggle to get pregnant. Family and the secrets behind the eventual conception threaten to destroy them. The joy from the arrival of the long-awaited child is short-lived as their marriage crumbles.
A master of self-reinvention, Senami disappears into thin air, taking the child and leaving Fadaka behind to pick up the pieces of her shattered reality. As the days stretch, Fadaka faces two choices: stay home and rebuild or fight for what is rightfully hers.
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