Ebonyi Journal of Language and Literary Studies 1 (2) April 2018 Volume 1, No. 2: 70–76 (2018) ISSN 9091 4582 7142 THE DIALECTICS OF BETRAYAL IN LOLA SHONEYIN'S THE SECRET LIVES OF BABA SEGI'S WIVES Ezinwanyi E. ADAM & Alheri Winifred BULUS [email protected] Department of Languages and Literary Studies Department of Languages and Literary Studies Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo Nigeria Nigeria Abstract This paper appraises Lola Shoneyin's The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives with the intention of analyzing how issues of family betrayal and its impact on family members, individually and collectively, as well as the society are portrayed with the creative tool of meta-fiction. The study is qualitative and adopts the interpretative tool of sociological criticism to provide insights on how the author uses her plot, characters, actions and settings to represent the subject matter in the selected text. Findings reveal among others the appropriateness of the approach of social criticism to the selected novel that unveils the author's concept of family betrayal; the various forms of betrayal that exist in polygamy or polygamous homes. Through analyzed actions of Iya Segi, Iya Tope, and Iya Femi, and reactions of Baba Segi and Bolanle, the study reaffirms that betrayal takes place when an initial trust is broken and occurs in variant ways and modes in the context of polygamy. Likewise, any member of a family can be either its perpetrator or victim but its experience can build up or destroy the betrayed. Keywords: Betrayal, polygamy, literature, the Novel, and society Introduction Betrayal in families is an aspect of institutional betrayal. While institutional betrayal is the betrayal of two or more people bound by a social contract or covenant such as cult, marriage, business and many more, family betrayal is mainly experienced within a family setting. The family, according to Microsoft Encarta (2009), “is a basic social group united through bonds of kinship or marriage, present in all societies”. Ideally, the family provides its members with protection, companionship, security, and socialization. The structure of the family and the needs that the family fulfills vary from society to society. The nuclear family—two adults and their children—is the main unit in some societies. In others, it is a subordinate part of an extended family, which also consists of grandparents and other relatives. A third family unit is the single-parent family, in which children live with an unmarried, divorced, or widowed mother or father (Winifred Bulus, 2014). There are different types of betrayal in a family setting, which include betrayal of spouse, polygamy, betrayal of children by parents and vice versa, and betrayal of siblings. A family may experience more than a form of betrayal as exemplified by the Alao's family in Shoneyin's debut novel. Many of these forms of betrayal are represented in Shoneyin's novel and this paper is set to identify and discuss the forms and their impacts on victims, the family and the society, as portrayed in The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives. The novel, as a genre of literature, has become the principal tool often used by contemporary African writers to unveil cultural, political, religious and economical realities in the societies in which their works are written and/or received. Many literary critics and writers have argued that African literature, especially the novel, is a medium through which events and happenings in a society can be understood. Hence, African literature cannot be devoid of its enabling environment and realities. It is 70 Ebonyi Journal of Language and Literary Studies 1 (2) April 2018 within this context that social criticism becomes applicable to the study in order to understand the representation of betrayal in polygamous homes, which is a social construct, in the selected novel within its enabling social milieu. Theoretical Framework This study adopts the method of social criticism to represent social constructs by analyzing how society functions in literature and how literature works in society. Sociological criticism considers art as a manifestation of society. Ngugi wa Thiong'O in Writers in Politics (1997) sees literature as an offspring of conscious acts of men in the society. Literature divulges the tension and conflicts of a community. Sociology is the scientific study of human social relations or group life. Other disciplines within the social sciences—including economics, political science, anthropology, and psychology—is concerned with topics that fall within the scope of human society. Sociologists examine the ways in which social structures and institutions—such as class, family, community, and power—and social problems—such as crime and abuse—influence society (Ezinwanyi Adam, 2015; Winifred Bulus, 2014). However, Sociological criticism is literary criticism directed to understanding social interaction, or the responses of individuals to each other, and is perhaps the basic sociological concept, because such interaction is the elementary component of all relationships and groups that make up human society. This interaction or response is represented in works of literature. This critical approach directs the understanding of writers as a part of the society who makes meaningful contributions to that society by adding credit to their social vision. In addition, it is the representation of these social interactions and events of real lives in fiction that Mary Kolawole (1997) refers to as meta-fiction. According to Adams Hazard in Literature as Equipment For Living (1971:13) works of art including literatures are strategic naming of situations that allow the reader to better understand and gain control over societal happenings through the work of art. Pieces of art and literature are, therefore, systematic reflections of the society and societal behaviour. This analytical tool is used to evaluate events of betrayal and its impact on humans and society in Lola Shoneyin’s The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives. Review of Literature A search of existing literatures reveals a robust discourse on betrayal, its types and impact on lives, including victims in different settings but scant attention to how twenty-first century African female literary authors, like Lola Shoneyin, portray same subject with the use of meta-fiction. Some critics and literary scholars have also reviewed Shoneyin's debut novel, but from different perspectives and theoretical frameworks. For example, according to Ayodele Oyebanji (2011), the novel reveals the feminist views of the writer. In his review, Oyebanji discussed the events and actions of the characters from a feminist point of view. He further explained that the issue of emancipation arises in the novel as the feminine folk are seen as mere sex machines other than the able humans they are. Ununuma Edwin (2015) considered the issue of intra-gender conflict among the wives of Baba Segi and its influence on the Alao's family. In addition, Ezinwanyi Adam (2016) reaffirmed the negative effects of conflicts and violence among women, particularly co-wives and female siblings on homes and societies. Like Oyebanji, many critics have studied the selected novels from the theoretical or conceptual views of feminism, psychoanalysis and cultural constructions. The present study, as earlier explained, takes a different approach; it applies social criticism to unveil the portrayal of events of betrayal and its impact in Shoneyin's The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives. Betrayal in Family and its Impact in Shoneyin's The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives Lola Shoneyin's debut novel portrays a Yoruba society - the city of Ibadan and the subject of family betrayal, especially in polygamous homes. The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives mainly discusses 71 Ebonyi Journal of Language and Literary Studies 1 (2) April 2018 issues of secrecy and betrayal in a polygamous family setting. Baba Segi betrays his first wife, Iya Segi, by marrying a second wife, Iya Femi. Meanwhile, she had married Baba Segi when he was young and very poor; Iya Segi's money was used for the traditional marriage and Baba Segi used some of the money to start a business in Ibadan. When he informs her of his intention to marry another wife, she is more worried about her money and the fact that another woman is coming to eat the fruit of their labour. Meanwhile, Iya Segi has been having an affair with her husband’s driver, who consequently, becomes the biological father of her children. At some point in their marriage, she understood that her husband might not be able to get her pregnant and she does not want to be far from her money (Baba Segi), she is out to keep the man who has her money. Therefore, she comes up with the plan of sleeping with someone else for the singular purpose of procreation. This is because of Baba Segi’s infertility. She wants to remain with Baba Segi in order to have access to her money, which Baba Segi controls as the head of the Alao's family. Marriage in the Alao's home has little to do with love. For Baba Segi, it was rather a show of his wealth, power and 'manhood'. Ironically, his wives ridicule his manhood as the events in the novels unveil. Majority of the people who practice polygamy are the rich, influential and the powerful. Dominant groups in the society are mostly the ones who decide the culture of that society. Polygamy is a way of showing off ones accomplishment in the society. Baba Segi adopts this culture because he happens to be a rich man who loves younger women. Therefore, he considers his number of wives to be of great importance to his image and personality in the society. The second wife, Iya Segi has a different feeling towards Baba Segi’s decision to marry a third wife after her, since she had thought she was his last.