Our Wives Have Gone Mad

'Our Wives Have Gone Mad' an interesting play by Joseph Ochie is a story of Wole, a husband of three women, Ojuola, Obidia, Amina, who returns home to be told by his servant Saeed that a young man, campaigning for the entrenchment of gender equality in their male-dominated society of Iloma, came to sensitize his wives. The servant further tells him that the young scholar left a message for Wole with an instruction that, as everybody is expected to gather, Wole must allow his wives to come to the village square to discuss the fate of women as it relates to that of their male counterparts. Wole goes to the square with the hope of opposing the move for gender equality like his fellow men, but for reason unknown but time will tell, changes his mind and then supports the struggle for gender equality. As providence might have it, he becomes the only qualified man to head the newly created council, which the Federal Government, according to the young man, promises to give people of Iloma if they should allow women to participate in the political system of the enclave.Wole tentatively, and in order to get power, accepts the proposed equality with the hope of suppressing his women at home as their culture dictates. Wole is wrong, as the eyes of his wives and the entire village women open like the eyes of Eve after she had eaten and given the forbidden fruit to her husband. Wole regrets his decision as his wives embrace Western culture, which sets them at liberty at the expense of their being at the beck and call of their husbands. The village women together rejoice in a triumphant ululation in the aftermath of that social reorganization to the disappointment of their husbands.