The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives

The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives (2010), the debut novel of African-born poet, Lola Shoneyin, tells the story of multiple women in a polygamous marriage in modern-day Nigeria and how complex relationships like these can be. The book was nominated for the 2012 Nigeria Prize for Literature and the ANA/NDDC Ken Saro-Wiwa Proze Prize. It was also longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2011. The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives has been generally well received by both critics and general readers.

Baba Segi is the family head, and he’s an interesting character. He’s overweight, prone to flatulence, and chauvinistic. He has two children with his first wife, Iya Segi, who loves to remind all the other women that she’s the first and surely the most important. Wife two, Iya Tope, has three children; her docile nature means Iya Segi dominates her.

Iya Femi is wife number three, and she has two children. She’s materialistic and often teams up with Iya Segi to boss Iya Tope around. This unconventional dynamic somehow works for everyone—that is, until wife number four, Bolanle, becomes part of the family.



Bolanle is a university graduate and is nothing like the other three wives. Her outlooks are fairly modern and progressive, and she doesn’t yet have any children. She has her own reasons for wanting to marry into a union like this, as do all the wives. Bolanle’s mother is incensed that she’s throwing herself away on someone like Baba Segi, but she can’t stop her making the decision. There’s a sense of strength and female autonomy in Bolanle even making her own choice like this.

Baba Segi is illiterate, and he’s only interested in siring children with her. He wants to convince himself he’s still fertile and attractive enough to have a new, young wife. It’s hard to have much sympathy for an unlikeable character such as Baba Segi, but his other wives make life difficult enough for him that it’s possible.

When Bolanle arrives, Baba Segi tries to get her pregnant quickly. However, as the weeks and months go by, she can’t get pregnant, and he doesn’t understand why. He doesn’t know what else to do and starts to doubt her value for him. Teacher, Baba Segi’s friend, suggests they visit a hospital and see what’s wrong with her—as far as they are concerned, it can only be Bolanle’s “fault.” The males in the family and friend group all assume women have one job to do, which she’s not performing properly.



To make matters worse for Bolanle, she never fully “gets” the dynamics of Baba Segi’s polygamous household. The other women keep secrets from her and never fully invite her into their circle. She doesn’t even have her own armchair, because she’s not earned her place until she gets pregnant. Throughout it all, it’s not clear to the reader why anyone like Bolanle would choose to live a life like this.

That confusion is crucial to the novel’s plot and character development. Bolanle hasn’t forgiven herself for a sexual trauma she experienced when she was a teenager; she doesn’t think she deserves anything better than this life. For all her education and potential opportunities, she thinks this is all she can get. She continually blames outside circumstances as opposed to looking inwards and taking her power back.

Similarly, the other women end up in Baba Segi’s circle because of trauma and pain. They’re all victims of things which happened to them many years ago, for which society makes them think there’s no better options. It’s this self-imprisonment that brings about the downfall of all four wives—even if Bolanle can be blamed for how it begins.



Interestingly, it’s the quiet and unassuming Iya Tope who’s having an affair and cheating on Baba Segi. She finds some degree of sexual satisfaction from this, and doesn’t try to dominate the household because, frankly, it’s not too important to her. She married out of necessity, but her life is truly elsewhere. This is an intriguing revelation.

As it turns out, the children in this novel have different fathers—much to Baba Segi’s surprise at the end. He discovers Iya Tope is not the only unfaithful wife and he, in fact, is the one with trouble conceiving. This is why Bolanle, who has no other sexual relationships, can’t get pregnant. Baba Segi, however, doesn’t turn these children out or abandon them. To him, they are family, and he treats them like his own. This is a compelling character development.

Bolanle ultimately leaves the household once she rediscovers her own power and her ability to heal from past traumas. Although The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives doesn’t make any outward political comments, there is a clear feminist overtone and the sense that African women, whichever class they belong to, have better options out there than this.