The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives

Baba Segi is a prosperous man in modern-day Nigeria with three wives and a household shaped by years of careful hierarchy. When he brings home a fourth wife, Bolanle, a young university-educated woman, the balance inside the compound shifts. Bolanle's arrival unsettles the older wives, each of whom has her own history, her own reasons for entering the marriage, and her own methods for holding her position.

The novel follows the internal world of this polygamous family through multiple perspectives. Iya Segi, Iya Tope, and Iya Femi each narrate portions of the story, revealing private grievances, alliances, and secrets they have kept from Baba Segi and from one another. As tensions build around the question of why Bolanle has not yet become pregnant, the careful architecture of loyalty and deception inside the household begins to crack.

Lola Shoneyin, a Nigerian-born poet, wrote this as her fiction debut. The story is set in the city of Ibadan and examines how power, fertility, and status operate within a single domestic space. Shoneyin gives each wife a distinct voice, grounding the novel in the everyday details of cooking, childrearing, and household negotiation.