I love reading new African fiction. Everyone obsesses over Chimamanda Adichie, (who I think is a great writer and brought home the reality of the Biafra Civil War in Nigeria); however, I think there are a lot more writers of Adichie's calibre who do not get the same exposure. Lola Shoneyin is definitely one. Her storytelling and her delicate prose really made me feel sorry for Baba Segi; the polygamist at the heart of this tale.
Shoneyin is clearly writing from an internal cultural point of view; coming from a Muslim background I have no strong views on polygamy. I was, however quite interested to learn that in the part of Nigeria (Ibadan) which Shoneyin sets this tale, that polygamy is practised across different religious backgrounds - Christian and Muslim. To be honest, even though the book is set within the context of a polygamous marriage, you become far more involved with the characters of each of the wives and the fleeting minor characters who each influence the combined destinies of the four wives.
The book picks up with the tale of the fourth and last wife to be added to Baba Segi's harem: Bolanle. She differs from the other three wives in that she is a university graduate; whose mother had high hopes for her daughter to lead an ambitious and career driven life. Her daughter disappoints her greatly by opting to marry a man who though wealthy and established as prominent member of his community; Bolanle's mother refuses to accept her daughter's choice of husband. We do not know what troubles Bolanle, why it is that she would so readily accept the proposal of an uncouth and vulgar man; (Baba Segi always has to relieve himself at moments of stress); but as we read on we learn why it is that "Our paths crossed for a purpose, but we were never meant to be together."
Bolanle's arrival in the already tense and crowded household of Baba Segi (so called as his first daughter is named Segi) rattles the other three wives immensely. The first wife Iya Segi and the third wife Iya Femi set out to destroy Bolanle's precarious position within the house. They keep their children away from her and bat away her offers to tutor their children. The second wife Iya Tope distrusts both the first and third wife and takes kindly to Bolanle. They all scorn her barreness after two years of marriage, and Baba Segi, impatient with his fourth wife's apparent stubborness to bear him more children forces his hand to seek fertility treatment. It is this decision that ultimately is the undoing of Baba Segi's household. The truths which unravel from this decision change each of their lives forever. What is also interesting to note here, is how a very simple truth is laid bare before the key protagonists; Shoneyin handles this so well and I have to commend her ingenuity for revealing the secret in the way that she does.
Shoneyin writes about this ficitional account of a polygamous marriage in such a way that as a reader, you don't really feel that strongly about it. Whatever your views are about polygamy, this book balances it with other themes such modernity vs tradition, jealously, aspirations etc. It would be wrong to read this book and to start campaigning against polygamy. This is a ficitional book, and all it does it tell a tale of self-preservation. Far from presenting the marriages as marriages under force and duress, each of the wives freely enter the polygamous arrangement. For them; far from subjugating them; their marriages free them. The wives whose lives unravel so very quickly in this book are just human: motivated by greed, self-preservation and status. As Bolanle says at the very end of the book: "I will remember them as inmates, because what really separates us is that I have rejoined my life's path; they are going nowhere."
A very strong recommendation.
Shoneyin is clearly writing from an internal cultural point of view; coming from a Muslim background I have no strong views on polygamy. I was, however quite interested to learn that in the part of Nigeria (Ibadan) which Shoneyin sets this tale, that polygamy is practised across different religious backgrounds - Christian and Muslim. To be honest, even though the book is set within the context of a polygamous marriage, you become far more involved with the characters of each of the wives and the fleeting minor characters who each influence the combined destinies of the four wives.
The book picks up with the tale of the fourth and last wife to be added to Baba Segi's harem: Bolanle. She differs from the other three wives in that she is a university graduate; whose mother had high hopes for her daughter to lead an ambitious and career driven life. Her daughter disappoints her greatly by opting to marry a man who though wealthy and established as prominent member of his community; Bolanle's mother refuses to accept her daughter's choice of husband. We do not know what troubles Bolanle, why it is that she would so readily accept the proposal of an uncouth and vulgar man; (Baba Segi always has to relieve himself at moments of stress); but as we read on we learn why it is that "Our paths crossed for a purpose, but we were never meant to be together."
Bolanle's arrival in the already tense and crowded household of Baba Segi (so called as his first daughter is named Segi) rattles the other three wives immensely. The first wife Iya Segi and the third wife Iya Femi set out to destroy Bolanle's precarious position within the house. They keep their children away from her and bat away her offers to tutor their children. The second wife Iya Tope distrusts both the first and third wife and takes kindly to Bolanle. They all scorn her barreness after two years of marriage, and Baba Segi, impatient with his fourth wife's apparent stubborness to bear him more children forces his hand to seek fertility treatment. It is this decision that ultimately is the undoing of Baba Segi's household. The truths which unravel from this decision change each of their lives forever. What is also interesting to note here, is how a very simple truth is laid bare before the key protagonists; Shoneyin handles this so well and I have to commend her ingenuity for revealing the secret in the way that she does.
Shoneyin writes about this ficitional account of a polygamous marriage in such a way that as a reader, you don't really feel that strongly about it. Whatever your views are about polygamy, this book balances it with other themes such modernity vs tradition, jealously, aspirations etc. It would be wrong to read this book and to start campaigning against polygamy. This is a ficitional book, and all it does it tell a tale of self-preservation. Far from presenting the marriages as marriages under force and duress, each of the wives freely enter the polygamous arrangement. For them; far from subjugating them; their marriages free them. The wives whose lives unravel so very quickly in this book are just human: motivated by greed, self-preservation and status. As Bolanle says at the very end of the book: "I will remember them as inmates, because what really separates us is that I have rejoined my life's path; they are going nowhere."
A very strong recommendation.
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