Depiction of Polygamous Marriage as an Absurd Social Institution in Shoneyin’s The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives and Nyathi’s The Polygamist
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Abstract
Polygamous marriage remains culturally sanctioned across many African societies, yet contemporary African fiction often presents it as an institution marked by contradiction, repetition and emotional strain. This study comparatively analyses Shoneyin’s The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives (2010) and Nyathi’s The Polygamist (2012) to show how both texts represent polygamy as an absurd social institution. Drawing on Absurdist Theory, the study examines how Shoneyin and Nyathi use characterisation, irony, satire, multiple narrators, silence and fragmentation to expose the gap between institutional promise and lived experience. Using a qualitative, comparative and interpretive approach, the study finds that rivalry, silence and emotional endurance are structurally produced rather than incidental, and that polygamous marriage is shown to generate insecurity and unresolved conflict for both wives and patriarchs. The study argues that Absurdist Theory offers a useful framework for reading the philosophical and narrative incoherence of polygamy in contemporary African fiction.
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