The Emotional Well-being of African Wives: Perceiving the Generalised Resistance Resources (GRRs) in Stress Management by Co-wives in Lola Shoneyin’s Novel The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives

Abstract

Summary Although it is oppressive to women, polygamy is still relevant in many contemporary African societies, where the culturally acceptable identity of a woman is as a wife and mother, as demonstrated in Lola Shoneyin’s The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives (2015). To overcome the challenges of their daily lives, polygynous wives must search for resources elsewhere, since mental health facilities are comparatively few in Africa, and that seeking professional help is often the exception. At the end of her novel, Shoneyin keeps Baba Segi’s three uneducated wives in the repressive marriage she has depicted, even though their husband permits them to leave. Bolanle, the educated, fourth wife, decides to divorce. While the man’s domination is customary in a patriarchal culture, the woman’s freedom and emotional well-being are subject to conditions laid down by her society, but ones which she can control through her response to subjugation. This article uses Aaron Antonovsky’s theory of salotugenesis and its principles of the Generalised Resistance Resources (GRRs) to demonstrate how Iya Segi and Bolanle, respectively Baba Segi’s first and last wives, cope or crumble in the face of stressors. Emphasis is on the GRRs of ego strength, co-wife bonding, co-wife rank, joy in children, economic freedom, and education and skills.