The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives

Rotimi Babatunde

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781786825520
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives is a scandalous, engrossing tale of sexual politics and family strife in modern-day Nigeria. Lola Shoneyin's bestselling novel bursts on to the stage in a vivid adaptat­­­ion by Caine Award-winning playwright Rotimi Babatunde. "Men are like yam, you cut them how you like." Baba Segi has three wives, seven children, and a mansion filled with riches. But now he has his eyes on Bolanle, a young university graduate wise to life's misfortunes. When Bolanle responds to Baba Segi's advances, she unwittingly uncovers a secret which threatens to rock his patriarchal household to the core.

ACT ONE

1.

A spotlight picks up BOLANLE. There are several suitcases and bags beside her.

BABA SEGI: Bolanle… I remember the day I met her…just over two years ago…

(Pause. The spotlight on BOLANLE goes off.)

BABA SEGI: Bolanle had accompanied her friend Yemisi to my building materials store. Yemisi did small building contracts for the married men she screwed.

(BABA SEGI’s store lights up. BOLANLE and YEMISI are in the store. YEMISI’s phone starts ringing. BABA SEGI enters.)

YEMISI: It’s Chief! I need to pick this call. Excuse me.

(YEMISI exits hurriedly. BABA SEGI observes BOLANLE’s breasts. Silence.)

BABA SEGI: My beautiful lady, may I offer you a drink while you wait for your friend?

BOLANLE: No, thank you.

BABA SEGI: If not, then may I know your name?

(Pause.)

BOLANLE: Bolanle.

BABA SEGI: (Deliberately.) Bo-lan-le. That is a beautiful name.

BOLANLE: Thank you.

BABA SEGI: I believe you’re Yemisi’s good friend.

BOLANLE: We attended the same university and just graduated together.

(YEMISI runs in.)

YEMISI: Bolanle, I have to see Chief immediately. Please wait for me.

BOLANLE: Wait, Yemisi, I don’t –

YEMISI: Please. I won’t be long.

BOLANLE: Okay.

(YEMISI exits. Silence. BABA SEGI coughs.)

BABA SEGI: Now that you and your friend have finished university, are you going to marry a man who will look after you?

(Pause. BOLANLE brings out a book from her bag and begins reading it.)

BABA SEGI: Am I not an entertaining host?

(BOLANLE snaps the book shut. Pause.)

BABA SEGI: Back to my question…about you marrying a man…

BOLANLE: When I find one.

(Pause.)

BABA SEGI: (Whispering.) Tell me when you will come this way again. (Pause.) Come tomorrow, come the day after. Anytime I see you again, I will know the gods have favoured me.

(Silence.)

BOLANLE: And will your wives not come and drive me out with a broom?

BABA SEGI: My wives do not visit my workplace. Why should they? They are well taken care of.

BOLANLE: Okay…okay…

BABA SEGI: When?

(Pause.)

BOLANLE: Tomorrow afternoon?

BABA SEGI: Please do and see me dance with joy.

(BABA SEGI does a little jig. BOLANLE laughs. She exits.)

BABA SEGI: That was how it started. She came the next day, and then the next, and then every weekday until I had to bask in palm wine at weekends to make time pass quickly. My friends told me: Baba Segi, Bolanle is only after your money. She will leave you for a younger, educated man after she has gotten what she came for. I laughed at them. Eventually, they came to terms with their own inadequacies.

(BABA SEGI laughs. He does another little jig.)

2.

BOLANLE’s family house. Her suitcases and bags are placed as they were in the opening scene.

MAMA BOLANLE: So you want to marry that overfed orangutan?

BOLANLE: Mama, let me explain…

MAMA BOLANLE: Explain what? You want to marry a polygamist and be part of a big, ugly family?

BOLANLE: Baba Segi is a kindly, generous soul.

MAMA BOLANLE: I wish for nothing more than to claw out the eyes of that dirty old man that misled you.

BOLANLE: Mama, Baba Segi may be much older than I am, but he is a real man.

MAMA BOLANLE: Have you lost your brain? After I scraped my salary together, month after month, to put you and your sister through university, you want to betray me?

BOLANLE: He is not like those insecure younger men. I feel comfortable in his company.

MAMA BOLANLE: Enough! You’re driving me crazy!

BOLANLE: But Mama, I am doing what is best for me.

MAMA BOLANLE: I won’t hear any more of this. You’re an embarrassment to your bloodline…a disgrace to your family… (MAMA BOLANLE hisses. Pause.) You ingrate of a daughter! I wash my hands of your hopeless case.

(MAMA BOLANLE exits.)

BOLANLE: (As she walks towards her luggage.) How could I have told her that I am marrying Baba Segi because of the filth that followed me? (Pause.) Somehow, it all made perfect sense when I met Baba Segi. I would be with a man who accepted me, one who didn’t ask questions or find my quietness unsettling. Baba Segi is not like those younger men who demand explanations for the faraway look in my eye. He is content when I say nothing. (Pause.) I will marry Baba Segi. If I don’t, one day Mama will enter my bedroom and find pools of blood at my wrists.

(BABA SEGI enters.)

BABA SEGI: My driver, Taju, will take your luggage to my pick-up. Taju! Taju!

(TAJU enters.)

BABA SEGI: (Pointing to the suitcases.) There they are. Be quick!

TAJU: Yes, sir.

(TAJU exits with the luggage.)

BABA SEGI: Everyone is prepared for your arrival. Tonight you will sleep in your own bedroom.

BOLANLE: I am eager to meet my new family.

BABA SEGI: (Whispering.) And I am eager for my body to meet yours.

(BABA SEGI laughs.)

3.

Ayikara. In the vicinity of TEACHER’s shack.

BABA SEGI: That was two years ago, when I took Bolanle away from her parent’s house to become my wife—two long years without any fruit from her womb.

This morning, when I awoke with a bellyache for the sixth day in a row, I knew I had to do something drastic about her childlessness. I decided to pay Teacher a visit at Ayikara.

(Habitués of Ayikara—layabouts, drunks, skimpily-clad women flaunting curves, etc.—move around.)

BABA SEGI: Ayikara…when you ask for directions to the place, people look away from their twirling wrists. No one wants to admit knowing where Ayikara is.

There is Teacher’s shack, sandwiched between ...