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“We shall do our best,” she replied. “We shall have such beautiful gardens and everything will be just modern and delightful…”

Like Obi, Nancy is determined to bring a sense of progress to the Ndume school. She wants to plant gardens as a symbol of that progress. She, like her husband, wants to be admired for her station and wants to act as an influence on the other imagined wives. Before anything happens, there is a sense that their success and importance is a foregone conclusion, and so it is easy for them to see themselves as light-bearers to the presumed darkness of the village. There is a sense of adventure and an expectation that the couple and their beliefs will be embraced and welcomed upon their arrival, and little concept of the actual work involved.

For a few minutes she became skeptical about the new school; but it was only for a few minutes.

In a telling moment, Obi excitedly informs Nancy that there will be no other wives at the school, ensuring that the male teachers will have only their work to focus on. In Nancy’s fantasy, she leads a cadre of wives who look up to her and will listen to her the way their husbands listen to Obi. Nancy is disappointed to learn otherwise, but she reasserts her wifely position of support and comfort for Obi. Her disappointment is an early indication that, while she may support her husband, the two are not entirely aligned in their ultimate desires. Additionally, even as the two of them work toward the modern and the progressive, there remains the expectation that Nancy will sublimate her wants in favor of her husband’s, reinforcing a traditional idea of marriage.

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