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The Shipikisha Club
- GenresAfrica
334 pages, Hardcover
Published March 10, 2026
4 people are currently reading
164 people want to read
About the author
Mubanga Kalimamukwento
9 books48 followersMubanga is an award winning novelist and short story writer. She won the Dinaane Debut Fiction Award for her debut novel, The Mourning Bird. Mubanga also won the Kalemba Short Story Prize and was shortlisted for the Bristol Short Story Prize. Her work has appeared in The Advocates for Human Rights Minnesota, The Dreamers Creative Writing, The Airgonaut, Overland, The Menteur and elsewhere. From Zambia, she lives in Minnesota.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
The Shipikisha Club opens with Sali accused of killing her husband, Kasunga, instantly pulling you into the mystery of what really happened. The story moves between Sali, her daughter Ntashé, and her mother Peggy, each adding their own piece to the puzzle. Early on, we learn about Sali’s affair and the pregnancy that sets her entire life on a collision course. Kasunga’s choice to protect her reputation only complicates the tension simmering beneath the surface. The novel digs deep into love, lust, shame, and the pressure on women to maintain a “perfect” marriage. It shows how cultural and religious expectations in Zambia can trap women in cycles of silence and endurance. That’s where the idea of the “Shipikisha Club” comes in—this unspoken expectation to tolerate everything for the sake of marriage. Mubanga Kalimamukwento brings these struggles to life with sharp dialogue and vivid scenes. Each chapter starts with a Bible verse or Bemba proverb, giving every section an added punch of meaning. Even though the book deals with gender‑based violence, the characters feel like people we all know. The men aren’t one‑note villains—they’re shaped by a culture that doesn’t allow weakness. In the end, The Shipikisha Club is a bold, emotional look at the kind of marriage people pretend is fine… until it isn’t.
October 28, 2025
Sali is a smart and ambitious woman who thought she could use marriage to a wealthy man as a means to change her life. However, her plan is thwarted after Doc, her lover dies of a heart attack and Sali has to pick up the pieces quite quickly and quietly. Due to the nature of her affair with Doc, she has a hard time grieving publicly for the man and this grief contributes to the woman she later becomes.
In a society that constantly validates women through marriage, Sali finds herself in a marital situation so different from the one she dreamed of. Kasunga is a man with his own demons, in Sali he finds the answer to a troubling predicament. But once the dust settles and life turns out to be different from what he initially thought, he changes or is it that he had been hiding who he truly was all along? This unfortunately leads to a path of mutual destruction.
It was not love that initially bound Sali to Kasunga but as she later questions herself about not leaving the marriage and as her daughter asks her the same question, you start to see how familial and societal patterns shape us. One can see that it is not just love that makes a marriage. Love, one would argue, might not even be part of what makes a marriage. The same question that Ntashé asks her mother is the same question that Sali probably wanted to ask her mother in her younger years.
After Sali becomes a mother herself, her priorities change, it is no longer about a life of comfort but a life of survival and dealing with the cards life dealt to her. Motherhood is not what she thought it would be but as someone who prides herself on being a woman who always makes it work, she is determined to make the best of her circumstances. In the end, she finds herself in a predicament that she cannot get out of, and she lets it all unravel, after all what else does she have to lose? She has been losing parts of herself since Doc died.
Through three generations, we see women learn to navigate a society that was not built to hold space for them. They are expected to bend themselves to the will of society, but society is not expected to bend its will to them. In their own ways, Peggy, Sali and Ntashé try to make life work for them. By being a good wife, a good mother and a good daughter, but it is still not enough. They are not spared of the violence and abuse that affects women in various societies across the world. And as we learn, their silence does not protect them either. Peggy thought that giving her husband the one thing that would validate his manhood would secure her marriage but sadly it does not. Sali, in her own way, tries to do this and it backfires badly.
For Ntashé, being a good daughter and the family peacekeeper was supposed to guarantee understanding and acceptance, but the price is much higher than that. After tragedy strikes, she realises the futility of it all. She is left with more questions than answers and in a society that demands silence and obedience, she has to learn to pick up the pieces at a much younger age. To shipikisha is to learn to live with the indignity that your husband bestows upon you, it is to learn to look the other way, to endure and carry on like you are not dying inside. Peggy taught Sali and Sali was teaching Ntashé.
Sali has a college degree, and it is not enough to protect her from the indignity that society bestows upon unwed mothers. She already has a complicated relationship with her father and knows that a pregnancy without a husband would completely destroy their relationship. This need for male approval and acceptance is something entrenched in women from a young age and with fathers being the first male figure in women’s lives, any gaps in this relationship are likely to reveal themselves in any relationship that happens with a man later in life.
Sali watches her daughter have a positive relationship with her father and this highly likely contributes to her decision to stay in an abusive marriage. She watched her mother endure and she is willing to do the same. As Sali learns from her own marriage and her married friends, society is more accepting of men’s wrongs than women’s wrongs. She was supposed to endure and take everything Kasunga threw her way, she was not supposed to end up in a court of law at the mercy of a judge. To shipikisha is to endure, but at what cost?
In The Shipikisha Club, Mubanga paints a picture of a Zambia that feels reflective of the collective African experience but also gives us a perspective that society is not always willing to embrace. She makes a case for a version of womanhood that shows the intricacies and complexities that come with wanting a good life. Womanhood is both an individual and a collective experience and in Salifyanji we get to appreciate what one path of it looks like. Intimate partner violence is a very sensitive topic that can be difficult to deal with and Mubanga helps us to understand one of the many forms that it can take. Justice for victims of intimate partner violence can feel like injustice to other affected parties and it is important that as a society we keep talking about it.
The Shipikisha Club is an informative and thought provoking read.
In a society that constantly validates women through marriage, Sali finds herself in a marital situation so different from the one she dreamed of. Kasunga is a man with his own demons, in Sali he finds the answer to a troubling predicament. But once the dust settles and life turns out to be different from what he initially thought, he changes or is it that he had been hiding who he truly was all along? This unfortunately leads to a path of mutual destruction.
It was not love that initially bound Sali to Kasunga but as she later questions herself about not leaving the marriage and as her daughter asks her the same question, you start to see how familial and societal patterns shape us. One can see that it is not just love that makes a marriage. Love, one would argue, might not even be part of what makes a marriage. The same question that Ntashé asks her mother is the same question that Sali probably wanted to ask her mother in her younger years.
After Sali becomes a mother herself, her priorities change, it is no longer about a life of comfort but a life of survival and dealing with the cards life dealt to her. Motherhood is not what she thought it would be but as someone who prides herself on being a woman who always makes it work, she is determined to make the best of her circumstances. In the end, she finds herself in a predicament that she cannot get out of, and she lets it all unravel, after all what else does she have to lose? She has been losing parts of herself since Doc died.
Through three generations, we see women learn to navigate a society that was not built to hold space for them. They are expected to bend themselves to the will of society, but society is not expected to bend its will to them. In their own ways, Peggy, Sali and Ntashé try to make life work for them. By being a good wife, a good mother and a good daughter, but it is still not enough. They are not spared of the violence and abuse that affects women in various societies across the world. And as we learn, their silence does not protect them either. Peggy thought that giving her husband the one thing that would validate his manhood would secure her marriage but sadly it does not. Sali, in her own way, tries to do this and it backfires badly.
For Ntashé, being a good daughter and the family peacekeeper was supposed to guarantee understanding and acceptance, but the price is much higher than that. After tragedy strikes, she realises the futility of it all. She is left with more questions than answers and in a society that demands silence and obedience, she has to learn to pick up the pieces at a much younger age. To shipikisha is to learn to live with the indignity that your husband bestows upon you, it is to learn to look the other way, to endure and carry on like you are not dying inside. Peggy taught Sali and Sali was teaching Ntashé.
Sali has a college degree, and it is not enough to protect her from the indignity that society bestows upon unwed mothers. She already has a complicated relationship with her father and knows that a pregnancy without a husband would completely destroy their relationship. This need for male approval and acceptance is something entrenched in women from a young age and with fathers being the first male figure in women’s lives, any gaps in this relationship are likely to reveal themselves in any relationship that happens with a man later in life.
Sali watches her daughter have a positive relationship with her father and this highly likely contributes to her decision to stay in an abusive marriage. She watched her mother endure and she is willing to do the same. As Sali learns from her own marriage and her married friends, society is more accepting of men’s wrongs than women’s wrongs. She was supposed to endure and take everything Kasunga threw her way, she was not supposed to end up in a court of law at the mercy of a judge. To shipikisha is to endure, but at what cost?
In The Shipikisha Club, Mubanga paints a picture of a Zambia that feels reflective of the collective African experience but also gives us a perspective that society is not always willing to embrace. She makes a case for a version of womanhood that shows the intricacies and complexities that come with wanting a good life. Womanhood is both an individual and a collective experience and in Salifyanji we get to appreciate what one path of it looks like. Intimate partner violence is a very sensitive topic that can be difficult to deal with and Mubanga helps us to understand one of the many forms that it can take. Justice for victims of intimate partner violence can feel like injustice to other affected parties and it is important that as a society we keep talking about it.
The Shipikisha Club is an informative and thought provoking read.
March 10, 2026
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Dzanc Books!
The Shipikisha Club follows the trial of Sali, a woman who shot and killed her abusive husband. Because no one else was present when the murder happened, she has no witnesses to call upon to come to her defense. The story is set in Kabwe, Zambia, with rotating timelines that span from the 1980s to 2022.
Characters: While the story is told through three different narrators, it is truly Sali’s story. We learn what led up to her choice, going back through fifteen years of marriage to the moment she learns she is pregnant and the man (Doc) she had the affair with is dead. The life she thought she would have is gone, until another man, Kasunga, offers to marry her and be a father to her child. I had a hard time understanding why she has an affair with Doc and why she wants to get pregnant by him. There is an “ick” factor in their relationship (for me) given that he is The author does not portray the relationship as positive or healthy, but it was still challenging to read.
However, Sali does feel real because her imperfections are put on trial alongside her. She is selfish and proud yet also loving to her children. We see her grow increasingly desperate as the both the story and Kasunga’s abuse progresses. We don’t get to know Peggy (Sali’s mother) and Ntashe (Sali’s daughter) as well. They are given fewer chapters than Sali, and I was disappointed when we did not get more of their sides of the story.
Writing Style: Much of the novel is told through Sali’s diary entries. She is speaking to herself from the past, and I loved reading these parts of the novel. There is excellent, interesting dialogue throughout the story. The court scenes are particularly a treat to read.
Cons: The back cover implies that the book is told through rotating perspectives. However, it leans heavily on Sali’s perspective, with Ntashe’s and Peggy’s perspectives sprinkled throughout. If the back cover blurb focused on Sali’s narration and stated that the perspectives of her mother and her daughter were interspersed throughout, it would be a much more accurate preview of the story.
Spoilers ahead!
Overall, I didn’t love this book, but it was an interesting read that addressed violence against women – a very relevant topic throughout history and in the present moment.
The Shipikisha Club follows the trial of Sali, a woman who shot and killed her abusive husband. Because no one else was present when the murder happened, she has no witnesses to call upon to come to her defense. The story is set in Kabwe, Zambia, with rotating timelines that span from the 1980s to 2022.
Characters: While the story is told through three different narrators, it is truly Sali’s story. We learn what led up to her choice, going back through fifteen years of marriage to the moment she learns she is pregnant and the man (Doc) she had the affair with is dead. The life she thought she would have is gone, until another man, Kasunga, offers to marry her and be a father to her child. I had a hard time understanding why she has an affair with Doc and why she wants to get pregnant by him. There is an “ick” factor in their relationship (for me) given that he is The author does not portray the relationship as positive or healthy, but it was still challenging to read.
However, Sali does feel real because her imperfections are put on trial alongside her. She is selfish and proud yet also loving to her children. We see her grow increasingly desperate as the both the story and Kasunga’s abuse progresses. We don’t get to know Peggy (Sali’s mother) and Ntashe (Sali’s daughter) as well. They are given fewer chapters than Sali, and I was disappointed when we did not get more of their sides of the story.
Writing Style: Much of the novel is told through Sali’s diary entries. She is speaking to herself from the past, and I loved reading these parts of the novel. There is excellent, interesting dialogue throughout the story. The court scenes are particularly a treat to read.
Cons: The back cover implies that the book is told through rotating perspectives. However, it leans heavily on Sali’s perspective, with Ntashe’s and Peggy’s perspectives sprinkled throughout. If the back cover blurb focused on Sali’s narration and stated that the perspectives of her mother and her daughter were interspersed throughout, it would be a much more accurate preview of the story.
Spoilers ahead!
Overall, I didn’t love this book, but it was an interesting read that addressed violence against women – a very relevant topic throughout history and in the present moment.
Review of advance copy received from Author
I was given an ARC for an honest review for Creative Writing News.
This book centres on the life of Sali and the court trial for the murder of her husband. There are so many things that drives the end result of the book but the one that stands out is how women are treated in Zambia and how they are expected to swallow every atrocity committed by a man in the name of marriage.
What I like is how it is told from the perspective of three generations. We can make our assumption of how rooted traditions are in promoting gender based violence and if you can dare to break out of it.
This is an important story and Mubanga Kalimamukwento has done a fantastic job in painting the experiences of Sali in bold colours for us to take a grasp at the reality of many Zambian women.
Read the full review here
https://www.creativewritingnews.com/r...
This book centres on the life of Sali and the court trial for the murder of her husband. There are so many things that drives the end result of the book but the one that stands out is how women are treated in Zambia and how they are expected to swallow every atrocity committed by a man in the name of marriage.
What I like is how it is told from the perspective of three generations. We can make our assumption of how rooted traditions are in promoting gender based violence and if you can dare to break out of it.
This is an important story and Mubanga Kalimamukwento has done a fantastic job in painting the experiences of Sali in bold colours for us to take a grasp at the reality of many Zambian women.
Read the full review here
https://www.creativewritingnews.com/r...
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews