Title:   OLD TRADITION IN NEW FORM: SIDE CHICK TREND IN NIGERIAN SPACE THROUGH THE LENS OF TWO PLAYS

Abstract
This paper examines the side chick phenomenon and its impact in the society and the family space. Before the emergence of the slang side chick, names like mistress, paramour and concubine have been in existence. From the pre biblical era to the present, extra marital affairs and transactional relationships have continued to generate many discourses, but not much have been written from the perspective of side chick syndrome which has assumed a new garb in the contemporary time. Findings show that side chickism as a phenomenon is fast gaining ground and wider acceptance and the desire to curtail it, reinforced this discourse. Currently, there has been a lot of hue and cry over the deteriorating moral value of people especially young women globally. The paper seeks to examine the prevalence of this phenomenon and its antecedent consequences in Nigerian setting the syndrome, which is one of the trending pop cultures is destroying many relationships and generating several issues of domestic violence, health related challenges and socio-economic upheavals. The paper is predicated on the theoretical framework of Relative deprivation theory, and adopts content analysis methodology for the analysis of Emeka Nwabueze’s A Dance of the Dead and Spokesman for the Oracle. The paper concludes that side chick has negative impact on families and society in general, and recommends that the Nigerian government should initiate bills and sign them into law, which will aim at curtailing the activities of side chicks and at the same time, make available advocacy groups whose jobs will be to sensitize the youths especially young girls and ladies on the negative impact of side chickism, with a view to curtail the threats that this old tradition in new form poses to the Nigerian society and the global community.
Keywords: Side chick, Menace, transactional sex, 21st Century, Infidelity, Wife, side guy

Citations:

Publication Date: 2023-04-06