Ashley Nichols

Jennifer Donahue

LIT3383-2

14 October 2012

Traditional and Unconventional Class Division in Slave, by Mende Nazer, and The Secret Lives

of Baba Segi’s Wives, by Lola Shoneyin

Honore de Balzac once said that “equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth

can ever turn it into a fact.” He’s right, equality is an important privilege that every man, woman,

and child has, but certain cultures cannot utilize it due to class division. In Slave and The Secret

Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives, there are three main types of class division: master-slave, rich-poor,

and familial hierarchy. In both novels, there is a sense of traditional class division in which the

differing cultures maintain beliefs and standards based on ancient systems; the people behave in

adherence to these traditional class divisions out of force or habit. The other type of class

division makes an appearance in each novel and is unconventional in the sense that it strays from

traditional culture beliefs and branches out into more modern and specific individual beliefs.

Traditional and unconventional portrayals of class division are seen in Slave, by Mende Nazer,

and The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives, by Lola Shoneyin, as powerful tools that are meant to

inspire American readers to understand the abstractness of foreign cultures.

“Slavery is a weed that grows on every soil”- Edmund Burke. Every nation has

experienced slavery, but in the 21st century, many Americans don’t understand what it means to

be enslaved by another human being; several Africans, however, have never known anything

else but enslavement. The master-slave class division is most prevalent in the novel Slave.

Mende, the main character, is kidnapped as a young child and thrown into a new life of slavery.

She no longer had an identity and was degradingly referred to as Yebbit, “an Arabic insult,

which literally means ‘girl worthy of no name’” (Nazer 139). She was suddenly made inferior to

the Arabs, because of her color and culture. Mende was placed at the bottom of the class totem

pole and was treated “worse than an animal: even dogs were patted and stroked” (Nazer 148).

All she ever got from the Arabs were scars, bruises, and mental degradation, not even the

simplistic love a dog would receive. This concept of master-slave class division is a foreign

concept to many Americans, not because America hasn’t experienced slavery, but because

America no longer experiences slavery in the way Africa still does.

There are masters and slaves, those who exploit and those who are exploited (Engles). In

The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives, the idea of master-slave class division is seen primarily

through Iya Femi. She was tossed into slavery, similarly to Mende, at a young age. Iya Femi

worked for a family for fifteen years, “they pillaged the most fruitful years of [her] life” and

treated her as an outcast (Shoneyin 138). She experienced the traditional master-slave class

division, because she was forced into an inferior role and made to work her life away for a

family not her own. She, and the other wives also experienced an unconventional twist on

traditional slavery; they willingly offered themselves up to Baba Segi, at the end of the novel, as

‘slaves’. He told his wives “you can stay if you promise to be the wives I want you to be”

(Shoneyin 278). They succumbed to a voluntary type of slavery, so they could personally atone

for their sins against him. Both Mende, in Slave, and Iya Femi, in The Secret Lives of Baba

Segi’s Wives, were pawns in the nasty game of traditional slavery and all of Baba Segi’s wives

took part in an unconventional form of slavery.

“Wealth is a tool of freedom, but the pursuit of wealth is the way to slavery” – Frank

Herbert. This idea that wealth leads to a form of slavery is a more modern idea. In America,

having money means having a superior status, it means being above poverty, but as the saying

goes, ‘money can’t buy love,’ and in the case of both novels, money can’t buy happiness either.

In Slave, the division of the rich and the poor is huge. Those who were rich, the Arabs, ruled

over those who were poor; there was no arguing this, it was just the way things were. In the

Nuba area everyone was equal, until one day “Arabs came from far away and took [their] lands

and ruled over [them] and they became rich men” (Nazer 77). The Arabs sought after power

seeking money and worshipped money desiring power. In Khartoum the rich women “looked

like princesses” (Nazer 126) and the Arabs lived in a city with “beautiful, glittering lights in

many different colors” (Nazer 115). To Mende, at first, the wealthy Arabs were royalty, people

that she looked up to in awe, but never felt like their inferior until they made her a slave. On the

opposite side of the spectrum, the Arabs automatically saw themselves as superior to the

Africans, because of skin color and culture, but mainly because of money, which was a symbol

of status.

“An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailments of all” –

Plutarch. This fatal imbalance is something that the women in The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s

Wives knew too well. Iya Tope was traded off by her own father as a “compensation for the

failed crops” (Shoneyin 91); the poor gave to the rich, they were even willing to give up their

own children, because it was part of their African traditions. Bolanle was also a victim of the

rich-poor division. Her family’s landlord kept a fence around her house as a means to keep the

poor tenants away. When the landlord’s husband died and the poor people wanted to pay their

respects, they weren’t allowed in because she “didn’t want paupers dirtying up their Persian

rugs” (Shoneyin 209). Even the landlord’s son Segun was embarrassed by Bolanle because she

was poor, and he was having a secret love affair with her. Bolanle became pregnant with his

child, but because of his status she had to have an abortion. He couldn’t be caught with someone

like her; it would be completely humiliating for his entire family. The same type of rich-poor

lover relationship took place with Iya Femi and her master’s son Tunde. Iya Femi was a sort of

prostitute, unknowingly; she just enjoyed the love and desire she felt with Tunde and he kept

paying her. Iya Femi “wasn’t sure if he was paying [her] for the sex…or if he was just petrified

that [she would] confess [their] trysts to his mother” (Shoneyin 143). Iya Femi found solace in

this relationship with Tunde and took pride that her children were of rich blood, a family of

wealth, even if they would never taste that world. She couldn’t wait for the day of vengeance

when she could tell Tunde’s mother that Iya Femi’s children were her grandchildren (Shoneyin

153). In both novels, the wealthy men treated the poor women as objects of disposal; they used

them for sex, allowing them to feel loved, even if it was just a rouse. The wealthy manipulated,

degraded, and controlled the poor.

In the familial hierarchy seen in both novels, there’s a mix of modern and traditional class

division. In Slave, Mende’s family was traditional in the American sense of a familial hierarchy,

but different from her culture’s norm. It was normal for the Nuba to marry many wives, but her

Ba “only ever had one wife” (Nazer 20). Differing from American culture, the Nuba “lived in a

very close-knit community;” (Nazer 12) they would never eat alone, “anyone who [was] in

hearing distance [was] welcome” (Nazer 11). In Slave, there was equality among the family,

while each person maintained their certain roles and traditional chores. The unmarried men all

slept separately from their families, while the women/girls stayed with their parents. In the Nuba

culture everyone “always respected [the] elders” (Nazer 135). In some American families, the

elders that are living with their families are respected and loved, but usually treated as fragile

creatures; in other families, elders are put in nursing homes, because, for whatever reason, the

family can’t or won’t care for them, which is much different from the African culture. The Arab

familial hierarchy is also a bit deviant from American culture. When Mende is taken as a slave to

live in Khartoum, she sees how Rahab, the wife, controls the household and how Mustafa, her

husband, fears and obeys her.

The familial hierarchy in The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives is interesting; it appears

that everyone has traditional roles, but as the wives begin to reveal more, it becomes apparent

that the Alao family is unconventional. Baba Segi is under the illusion that he is head of the

household and, to an extent, he is. The wives serve Baba Segi and do what they must to please

him. However, it is the wives that truly govern the family. Iya Segi is the house mother and she

lays down the law for all the new wives, she decides who gets what and how much they get. Iya

Segi wants Baba Segi to “think he controls [the] household and [she] lets him believe that,” so

that their fragile familial hierarchy stays intact (Shoneyin 116). Each wife knows their role

within the family and knows it’s crucial to follow so that they can maintain their secrets. Iya

Femi adheres to Iya Segi, but sees herself as a leader of the house as well; she views herself as

higher than the other wives because of her beauty and fine clothes. Iya Tope accepts her role as

an inferior to both Iya Segi and Iya Femi; she quietly fulfills each command she is given.

Bolanle, being new to the family, still hasn’t really found a role within the family; she is the

educated wife, of whom the others despise or fear. Baba Segi, of course is key to the entire

hierarchy; he is the head of the household, because he is what keeps the well-oiled machine

running.

In many cultures there are traditional and unconventional class divisions. Traditional

class divisions are the roles in which certain cultures have always lived by, usually out of

religious beliefs or simply habit. Unconventional class divisions are a more modern way of

living, where the traditional roles are flip flopped based on individual needs. In both Slave and

The Secret Lives of Baba Segi, the opposing class divisions are portrayed through three

reoccurring divisions: master-slave, rich-poor, and familial hierarchy. The characters in each

novel adapt to these differing class divisions as a means of survival or achieving personal

desires. The class divisions found in Slave and The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives are

characterized in a way that inspires American readers to comprehend the diversity found in

African cultures, a way of life extraneous to them.