LYING TO THE SELF: SOCIAL DRAMA IN LOLA SHONEYIN'S THE SECRET LIVES OF BABA SEGI'S WIVES

Equating male erection with fertility and imputing a couple’s childlessness to the wife without any further ado is a common practice in Africa, the ultimate goal of which is the protection of male ego. Despite this hasty representation of women as a dumping ground in the African mindset, a scrutiny of a couple’s life reveals a traditional lie to cover male infertility, the central topic of Lola Shoneyin’s The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives. Informed with a womanist theory, this essay unveils that age-old secret, a social lie which has doomed Mr. Alao.