Ṣàwárí

Courtship and ìdána, bridewealth, how polygynous households actually worked from the inside, divorce, fostering, and what Christianity, Islam and the city changed.

What aya and ọkọ actually encode, why a married woman never stops belonging to her father's lineage, the politics of co-wives, widowhood and inheritance under Yoruba customary law, and the grounds on which a woman could leave.

A co-wives tale in which a girl short-changed by an ìwin follows him to the land of the dead, passes tests of humility and obedience, and returns rich, while the head wife's daughter repeats the journey dishonestly and is killed.

A co-wives tale in which a bird of prey takes a poor woman's baby and returns it with a fortune, and kills the child the head wife brings to repeat the trick, ending with the head wife executed by the king.