FEMINIST REPRESENTATION OF INFERTILITY IN ADEBAYO AYOBAMI’S STAY WITH ME AND LOLA SHONEYIN’STHE SECRET LIVES OF BABA SEGI’S WIVES

ABSTRACT This study offers a feminist literary analysis of infertility narratives in Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀'sStay with Me and Lọlá Shónẹ́yìn'sThe Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives, filling acritical gap in existing scholarship. While previous studies have examined themes of marriage, patriarchy, and women's agency in these texts, the specific feminist engagement with infertility and its impact on female identity construction remains underexplored. Employing African feminism, particularly Molara Ogundipe-Leslie's STIWANISM (Social Transformation Including Women in Africa) as its theoretical framework, this study adopts a comparative literary methodology. STIWANISM is particularly valuable for analyzing how African women negotiate the tensions between traditional motherhood expectations and modern self-definition aspirations. Through close feminist readings of both novels, the analysis demonstrates how Adébáyọ̀ and Shónẹ́yìn subvert conventional narratives of childlessness, transforming infertility from a marker of failure into a platform for feminist resistance and self- reinvention. The study makes three significant contributions to African literary and feminist studies. First, it expands critical conversations about reproductive politics in women's writing by centering infertility as a legitimate subject of feminist discourse. Second, it reveals how contemporary Nigerian literature challenges biocultural determinism by imagining alternative pathways to female identity beyond maternity. Finally, it demonstrates the continued relevance of STIWANISMin analyzingthe complex negotiations African women face in post colonial societies. These findings suggest productive avenues for future research, particularly in exploring how other African women writers engage with reproductive justice and bodily autonomy in their works. Keywords: African feminism, infertility narratives, reproductive politics, STIWANISM, Nigerian women's writing