Review of Arts and Humanities

Moral Issues in Recent Nigerian Novels: a Reading of Lola Shoneyin’s The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives
Niyi Adebanjo

Abstract
The novel form has been deployed, over the ages, as a tool of propagating moral issues that have been the basis for defining the human person in his relationship with both terrestrial and celestial forces. The human person is accepted or rejected on the basis of the moral codes set by and with which man lives his life. Every society holds its individual member accountable and subsequently demands compliance to its moral laws. Relying on the Yoruba moral principle and through character analysis of Lola Soneyin‟s The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives, the paper examines the author‟s radical departure from the moral norm, through which the Yoruba view their world. It is established that, most female characters provide justification for their sexual escapades outside their matrimony. Consequently, the author has impliedly sanctioned moral vices, especially adultery, within the context of constant threat, as a result of inability to have children. I have argued that, the justification provided by the author of the novel for extra marital escapades, especially by her female characters, is unacceptable. I concluded that, virtuous act should never be sacrificed on the altar of any radical ideology. This is because literature, in my view, is the most important and richest source of insight into moral codes and as such should be in favour of the best moral standard.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/rah.v6n2a3