Code: 22413:Paper 206:The African Literature
Smt.S.B.Gardi Department of English ,
M.K.Bhavnagar University.
Vachchhalata Joshi
Vachchhalatajoshi.14@gmail.com
Roll no.20
Topic: The Joys of Motherhood: Women’s Portrayal in African Literature
Assignments Submitted to:
Department of English,MKBU
Writer Introduction
Buchi Emecheta was a Nigerian-born British author and activist known for her novels, autobiographical works, and essays. She was born on July 21, 1944, in Lagos, Nigeria, and died on January 25, 2017, in London, England.
Emecheta was the fourth child of nine born to Igbo parents. Her father was a railway worker, and her mother was a homemaker. She was raised in a traditional Igbo household where girls were not encouraged to go to school. However, Emecheta was determined to get an education and taught herself to read and write. She eventually won a scholarship to attend the Methodist Girls' High School in Lagos.
In 1960, at the age of 16, Emecheta married Sylvester Onwordi, and they had five children together. Her marriage was often difficult and abusive, and she eventually left her husband and moved to England in 1962. As a single mother, Emecheta faced many challenges but managed to continue her education and earn a degree in Sociology from the University of London.
Emecheta's writing often explored the themes of race, gender, and identity, drawing on her own experiences as a Nigerian woman living in Britain. Her first novel, "In the Ditch," was published in 1972 and was based on her experiences as a struggling single mother in London. She went on to publish over 20 books, including novels, children's books, and autobiographical works.
Some of Emecheta's most famous works include "The Joys of Motherhood," "Second Class Citizen," and "The Bride Price." Her writing was widely praised for its frank portrayal of the challenges faced by women in Nigeria and the diaspora. She was also a vocal advocate for women's rights and worked as a lecturer and speaker, sharing her experiences and promoting education and empowerment for women.
Emecheta received many honours for her writing and activism, including the Order of the British Empire in 2005. Her work continues to be celebrated and studied for its contribution to African and feminist literature.
“God, when will you create a woman who will be fulfilled in herself, a full human being, not anybody’s appendage? she prayed desperately.”
― Buchi Emecheta, The Joys of Motherhood
The Joys of Motherhood
The Joy of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta, published in colonial Nigeria in the early to mid-20th century, is one of the most intricate Bildungsroman novels ever written. It follows the protagonist over the course of twenty-five years. The progression of the protagonist, Nnu Ego, from a powerful, tradition-bound figure to a feminist has been highlighted by the author. Her attempts to demonstrate the validity of motherhood are sadly frustrated at every point by a complicated and wide-ranging collection of paradoxes that she is unable to reconcile. The first chapter of the book, "The Mother," and the final chapter, "The Canonized Mother," are both dedicated to all moms.
In the rigid and tradition-oriented Ibo society, women were acknowledged as
‘the trees that bear fruits’
The traditions played a vital role in the progression of an idea of motherhood. They believed that motherhood would bring the contended and distinguished life Emecheta employs the technique of mother’s introspection in which the protagonist realised that she has not brought fulfilment in the family. Found herself as a doubly colonised mother, Nnu Ego expresses the sufferings as well as sacrifice in her statement just after the birth of her twin daughters. Being caught in the web of childbirth and complicated situations, she had one such epiphanic moment. The psychological temperament and grief of a mother expressed in the following statement which presents the Nigerian women’s response to the widespread predicament.
In her monologue, she says,
“God, when will you create a woman who will be fulfilled in herself, a full human being, not anybody’s appendage? I was born alone, and I shall die alone. What have I gained from all this? Yes, I have many children, but what do I have to feed them on? On my life. I have to work myself to the bone to look after them. I have to give them my all. And if I am lucky enough to die in peace, I even have to give them my soul. They will worship my dead spirit to provide for them: it will be hailed as a good spirit so long as there are plenty of yams and children in the family, but if anything should go wrong, if a young wife does not conceive or there is a famine, my dead spirit will be blamed. When will I be free?”
In the Nigerian writings, this is something new where introspective female characters give voice to their emotions. The classic novel, The Joy of Motherhood, challenges the extraordinary expectations of women in the name of the ideal mother and helps to solidify an African women’s literary tradition. While articulating this idea from the traditionalist point of view of Nnu Ego, Emecheta gave impetus to the reality that women have the collective accountability to condemn and contribute to the societal order. The novel was given the title borrowed from the closing sentence of Flora Nwapa’s famous novel, Efuru. The closing sentence elevates a paradox about the much consulted childless river goddess Uhamiri: “She has never experienced the joy of motherhood. Why then did women worship her?''
“On her way back to their room, it occurred to Nnu Ego that she was a prisoner, imprisoned by her love for her children, imprisoned by her role as the senior wife. She was not even expected to demand more money for her family; that was considered below the standard expected of a woman in her position. It was not fair, she felt, the way men cleverly used a woman’s sense of responsibility to actually enslave her. They knew that the traditional wife like herself would never dream of leaving her children.”
― Buchi Emecheta, The Joys of Motherhood
The Joy of Motherhood, the tale of a mother, Nnu Ego, is written with subtlety, power and abundant compassion. (New York Times) The theme is closely related with the novel, Efuru. In this magnum opus, the same concerns are articulated but the world of Nnu Ego is darker than Efuru. Her motherhood has failed in birth and death because of the twice colonial situation. The western masters suppressed the native Ibo people; as a result, they started to dominate their women. The colonial forces had changed the visage of self-reliant villages where Nnu Ego found herself trapped. In the unfamiliar city life, she wanted to be a good daughter for her father as she carried values with her, a good mother and a good wife to Nnaife Owulum- a man selected by her father. Even her father, Agbadi who was a great chief and elephant huntsman, and the proud ona, is not different from the other men. When he came to know that Nnu Ego had left for Lagos, he consoled himself as, “Let her go, she is as barren as a desert.” (39) One of the eldest wives of Agbadi, eldest mother of Nnu dies from the strain of pretending to be a ‘complete woman”. Interestingly, the predicament of wives and mothers were not cramped to any specific generation. The very first encounter with her husband gave horrendous shock as she describes him as a “pregnant cow”. Her husband asked his connubial rights at the very first night and raped her without giving a choice to change her mind.
In Emecheta’s novels, rape is a recurring narrative and that becomes a symbol of manhood. The male characters controlled their wives in the name of tradition. She robustly contends that sexual enjoyment is as essential for women and as for men. The present distinctive work of art which analyses the catastrophic insinuations of th experiences of a conventional African female trapped in between the conventional Igbo society and the contemporary industrialised world. It presents a serious study of the unfair treatment and dependence of Ibo women. The author questions the legality of deep-rooted male social liberties and women’s helplessness.
Conclusion
Toni Morrison’s Bluest Eye and Emecheta’s The Joy of motherhood depict truthful and vivid descriptions, blueprint of self-investigation and general perception of the female psyche, consciously unnoticed by the male writers. The inner voice forces the protagonist to shift from the collective realisation to the individual perception. Just after the burst of emotion, Nnu Ego turns to be a feminist as she utters the realistic words, “I am a prisoner of my own flesh and blood. Is it such an enviable position? The men make it look as if we must aspire for children or die. That's why when I lost my first son I wanted to die, because I failed to live up to the standard expected of me by the males in my life, my father and my husband-and now I have to include my sons. But who made the law that we should not hope in our daughters? We women subscribe to that law more than anyone. Until we change all this, it is still a man's world, which women will always help to build.” Without motherhood, Nnu Ego feels empty and struggles very hard to be a mother. Emecheta wants to convey the point that bearing more than five or six children does not mean that a mother is going to be prosperous in her old age. She examines the institution of motherliness, unpleasant experiences mixed up in motherliness, and its shock on the minds of the Nigerian women.
According to Katherine Frank, "The complete futility of motherhood that we find in The Joys of Motherhood is the most heretical and radical aspect of Emecheta's vision of the African Women". The author has ended the novel by giving an ironic title to its chapter as “The Canonized Mother”. Nnu Ego had to experience patriarchal slavery throughout her life and died in solitude. All mothers, Ona, Akadu and Nnu Ego, have been victimised in the patriarchal and traditionally strong Ibo society. But Emecheta’s Nnu Ego challenges the conservative conception that producing numerous children will give a woman much ecstasy.
Work Cited:
Emecheta, Buchi. The joys of motherhood. Penguin UK, 2022.
Kapgate, Laxmikant. (2020). Mother’s Intricacy In Buchi Emecheta’s The Joy Of Motherhood.
Morrison, Toni. "The Bluest Eye. 1970." New York (1994): 751-59.
Nnoromele, Salome C. "Representing the African woman: Subjectivity and self in The Joys of Motherhood." Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 43.2 (2002): 178-190.
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