SECRET LIVES

This study explored the use of irony and feminine craftiness as survival strategies in Lola Shoneyin’s, The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives. It analysed how wives in polygamous households utilize their cunning ways to navigate their complex personal dynamics and marital competition, thereby securing their survival. The study adopted a qualitative approach, as Sociological and feminist theories were used to highlight the societal injustice faced by women in polygamous homes. The study also purposively sampled relevant examples from the play to determine the effective ways of addressing this social injustice inpolygamous homes The study found that irony is used to expose social ills, hypocrisy and power dynamics that characterise polygamy in Nigerian homes. It also revealed that women adopted different forms of feminine craftiness for survival in polygamous marriages including marital, sexual, physical, spiritual and conception craftiness.