fiction - Oluwakemi Esho

BOOK REVIEW: THE SECRET LIVES OF BABA SEGI’S WIVES

Baba Segi is a middle-aged man who acquires wives like tubers of yam, at least that was how he got his second wife Iya Tope. Bolanle is a graduate who to the dismay of her mother marries Baba Segi, a polygamist. As with many polygamous settings, she’s faced with fierce rivalry and stiff hatred. Despite the attempt of two of the wives to get her out of the house so they could reclaim their positions in Baba Segi’s lives, she stays despite Iya Segi’s saying that ‘… these educated types have thin skins; they are like pigeons. If we poke her with a stick, she will fly away and leave our home in peace.’

TONY’S DIARY – EPISODE 3

My grades began to dwindle. I had lost concentration in school. When my teachers are teaching, all I see is Aunty Halimah’s naked body and Mr. Kola’s image in my head. He told me to close my eyes when he was doing what he was doing but I have a mental image.

TONY’S DIARY – EPISODE 2

I was dad’s favourite. He’d come home every day with different things he bought for me. Candy, Ice Cream, Pizzas, mention it. I got anything I wanted. I remember one time mum joked that they were going to remove my teeth because of the junk I ate. They had already removed two of my teeth

TONY’S DIARY – EPISODE 1

It had been two months since Tony’s death, and Andrew and Shalom barely exchanged words, each locked up in their worlds licking their wounds. Halimah moved around the house walking on eggshells.

EATING WITH TEN FINGERS

Kikelomo’s eyes shone brighter than the moon-design table lamp sitting next to her on the mahogany table. She looked forward to evenings like this when she could gather her grandchildren around, passing on stories she’d heard from her father like it was a cherished family heirloom. She flashed back to when she was five years […]

AND THE ELEVATOR DINGS

And the elevator dings, reminding me of all the places I’ll have to be that I’ll rather not be. I step out and draw in two quick breaths before releasing air from my tight chest. Rosaline, we have to see first thing tomorrow. That was the text I received from my Operations Manager yesterday. That […]

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF ANTHONY

Yaba, Oyingbo. Yaba Oyingbo. Wole pelu change o. O ni change ma w’ole o. A pudgy boy who looked to be in his teens hung at the entrance of the moving, yellow danfo bus. His white singlet was marked with brown and yellow stains, and his ragged blue jeans had faded into a greyish look. […]

Tags: fiction