THE SECRET LIVES OF BABA SEGI'S WIVES. By Lola Shoneyin

Lola Shoneyin's book is one of the most successful and most widely read, received in African literary history (never mind African women's literature). This of course indicates that this work is also widely read in the western world. Indeed some observers sneer at facts like this, claiming that such an author is only largely read by "detached whites' overseas", but this is absurd, as tens of thousands of perceptive African readers abound all over the western world anyway.

Shoneyin is a superb writer, often even giving the impression of a tongue in cheek, non-conformist. This book is about polygamy, African polygamy, which might remind one of the late Isidore Okpewho's early classic, The Victims. Here, we have an irresistible mixture of societal intrigue, chicanery, blackmail, gossip and sparkling conversations, as we latch onto the inner workings/travails of a medley of women in particular.

Many a modern African man will express their reservations, and even the "impossibility" of coping with just one woman at home (monogamy), as they claim that many modern women delight in turning their man into a "docile imbecile" - hence younger ones can only grasp at the effrontery of Baba Segi (the polygamist here) who marries 3, 4 women and somehow keeps them in tow, including whenever he deigns to invite any of the wives to share his bed!

Here we vividly experience the gamut of what such women (wives) go through - their daily foibles and experience, the horrors of (child) barrenness, intense, sly competition among women and siblings... The author pulls it all off magnificently.
- Henry Ozogula