Sue Nyathi’s The Polygamist is a complex, multi-perspective narrative that deconstructs the life and eventual death of Jonasi Gomora, a wealthy Zimbabwean businessman whose appetite for power and women leads to a tangled web of four wives and multiple mistresses. The novel is structured through the alternating voices of the women who shared his life Joyce, Matipa, Essie, and Lindani culminating in an epilogue voiced by the deceased Jonasi himself. The Prologue: The End of an Era The story begins at the end, at the funeral of Jonasi Gomora. His body lies contorted and ravaged by illness, his once-dark chocolate complexion turned a dull, ashy shade. The hundreds of mourners gathered at the Catholic church see only a fraction of the man he once was; to some, he was a pillar of the community, while to others, he was a “greedy one with an insatiable appetite for sex”. As his wives stand by the casket, their internal monologues reveal a mixture of relief, hatred, and lingering attachment. One wife reflects that she had lost the man she loved a long time ago, and she is glad he is dead so he can no longer cause her pain. Another looks at…
