37 pages • 1 hour read
Kris HollowayMonique and the Mango Rains: Two Years with a Midwife in Mali
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2006A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Patriarchal Domination
At the heart of the story is the highly communal, family-driven society of Nampossela. While attractive on many levels to Holloway and John, it is also frustrating and mystifying to these Westerners. Family dictates all decision-making, especially for young girls and women. The society is deeply patriarchal, with a group of male elders responsible for approving or disapproving any changes in the village or in the villagers’ lives. As such, Monique cannot leave the village to take a brief vacation or visit Holloway in America, and Holloway cannot arrange for the birthing house to be repaired, without the elders’ approval.
Men rule in this society, while women are expected to serve the men and obey their mandates. This patriarchal power results in gender inequality, which manifests in several ways throughout the book. For example, all money is controlled by the men. Monique is one of the few villagers who can read; she is also the only villager with any medical training. She runs her clinic mostly by herself, and yet her salary is paid to her father-in-law. Her husband Francois, who resents the important role Monique plays in the village, flaunts her hard-earned money, spending it on frivolous material things and using it to dote on his girlfriend.
There are several other ways in which patriarchal power affects Monique’s life: She’s trapped in an unhappy arranged marriage; she must constantly push against villagers who distrust her skills or limit her value because she’s a woman; her first sexual encounter was rape; she experienced gender mutilation; she must take extreme care when interacting with her patient’s husbands, lest she offend them and incite conflict; and so on.
Male domination over women is also viewed in villagers who are beaten by their husbands, pressured to birth children at dangerous rates, or to work too soon after labor, before their bodies have healed. These hardships are exemplified by Korotun, whose husband severely beats her for not becoming pregnant. When she does become pregnant, her dreams are crushed after giving birth to a girl whom she knows her husband will consider worthless. Korotun’s lament that “she would have been beautiful in her father’s eyes if she were a son” shows how women are seen as inherently inferior to men (111).
Bridging Cultural Boundaries
The belief that one’s native religion and customs are best is evident both from the Malian perspective and from Holloway’s Western view. Monique and Holloway’s cultural backgrounds collide throughout the book, and the women engage in frequent conversations about these differences. They are continually educating each other, and this dialogue helps spark positive change in Holloway, in Monique, and in the village.
The Westerners (Holloway and John) learn to appreciate the central role that community and close-knit family play in Malian culture. Holloway is particularly struck by the villagers’ funerary customs. She observes the villagers honoring the life and death of Old Woman Kelema with a vibrant celebration full of song and dance, then reflects upon the starkness of her own grandmother’s funeral: “I couldn’t lay a hand on Granny. I could look at death, in a sky blue dress, but could not touch it” (59). Moments like this teach Holloway to understand and respect Malian culture, and how to operate within this paradigm to effect real, positive change. For example, she successfully negotiates with the elders to repair the birthing house; she buys supplies to entice the men to help with the repair efforts; and she respects the authority of the dugutigi by first approaching him with several of her concerns, including the birthing house repairs and Monique’s salary.
The Malians, meanwhile, make strides toward understanding and appreciating women’s rights. This is evident when Holloway provides scientific information about female genital mutilation to Monique, who uses that information to educate her community, and when the villagers, particularly the women, learn to trust Monique’s medical training. They begin to approach her for help and follow her guidance, and successfully learn to make the rehydration tea to secure birth control pills. After considering Holloway’s argument that Monique’s salary should be paid directly to her, Mr. Mariko agrees to this change and even gives Monique a raise.
Throughout the book members of both groups set aside their cultural biases and learn to see each other’s perspective in a more positive light. Consequently, the barriers between these two very different cultures are dissolved, and together they make strides toward goals that serve the village’s best interests.
Public Health and Modern Medicine
The theme of public health runs throughout the book, from Holloway’s start as Monique’s assistant to the realities of health conditions in Mali, especially the harrowingly high mortality rates for mothers and their children. Holloway observes that “birth in Nampossela was a family and community event and lacked almost all modern medical interventions. Monique has simple tools, clean hands, and a sharp mind. But if a woman needed an IV, or a cesarean section, or a fetal monitor, it was not an option” (81). Even beyond matters of birth, life is fragile in Mali; Holloway reflects that “the most mundane habits could separate life from death” (120).
At the crux of these issues are a lack of education and limited resources. Monique herself was driven to pursue medical training after the death of her two-year-old son: “He was very sick and had awful diarrhea. It was before my training, so I did not know what to do” (74). Resolved to never experience such helplessness again, and determined to help other women avoid this same pain, Monique successfully completes 10 months of medical training to become a midwife.
Getting the villagers to trust her training and education is another battle. The villagers distrust Western medicine, and they doubt Monique’s skills because she is both young and a woman. She must work against patriarchal tradition, religious beliefs, and superstition in her effort to improve public health in Nampossela.
Still, Monique persists and achieves several successes, educating women about how to care for their bodies after labor, how to properly nurse their babies, how to ween them, and how to prevent malnutrition in their children.
Despite Monique’s dedication to public health, her fate is a cruel irony: She dies in childbirth due inadequate medical training and education in the region, as does her unborn son. Though Monique made a significant difference in her community, her fate underscores that change is slow and one person’s effort is not enough. Ensuring an entire community’s health and well-being requires permanent change on a much greater scale. Holloway envisions Monique’s efforts as soil, a rich foundation that will nurture and enable future progress. When Holloway advocates for Monique’s children to receive an education in the city, this is one positive sign that the seeds of change sown by Monique will continue to grow.
