RELIGIOUS PLURALISM AND THE POETICS OF DIALOGUE IN LOLASHONEYIN’S THE SECRET LIVES OF BABA SEGI’S WIVES

Abstract

This paper, titled “Religious Pluralism and the Poetics of Dialogue in Lola Shoneyin’s The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives”, represents the interaction of multiple religious traditions within Nigerian society. The study investigates how the novel portrays religious pluralism and employs dialogic narrative techniques to depict the coexistence, tensions, and negotiations among Islam, Christianity, and indigenous spiritual beliefs. The research adopts a qualitative methodology based on close textual analysis and thematic interpretation of the primary text. The study is anchored on a postcolonial theoretical framework, drawing particularly on Homi K. Bhabha’s concept of hybridity and Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of dialogism. These theoretical perspectives enable an examination of how multiple narrative voices reveal the cultural and ideological dynamics of religious interaction within the novel. The findings indicate that the novel portrays Nigerian religiosity as a hybrid cultural system shaped by historical encounters between indigenous traditions and imported religions. Religion functions both as a source of spiritual meaning and as a mechanism of social authority within the patriarchal household. The multi-voiced narrative structure creates a dialogic space in which diverse religious perspectives coexist, elevating the relationship between religion, gender relations, and strategies of survival in a patriarchal society. The study also reveals that Shoneyin employs religious pluralism as a literary strategy to critique social hypocrisy and expose contradictions between religious ideals and everyday realities. The study concludes that contemporary Nigerian fiction provides an important platform for examining religious diversity and cultural negotiation in postcolonial societies Top of Form.