AWS Classics The Joys of Motherhood
The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta is a seminal work in African literature that explores the themes of motherhood, its import in a culture that invariably equates a woman’s worth by her ability to bear male children, and what happens when such expectations are confounded by women who not only subscribe to such views but also internalise it and even endorse it.
Set in Nigeria, the plot concerns the life of Nnu-Ego, how she is conceived into existence and how she, in turn, carries forward the gift of life by birthing many children and proving herself to be a true woman according to the Nigerian ethos. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg as Nnu-Ego’s story is every bit as full of pathos as her arrival into the world — her mother, Ona is the mistress of Ibuza’s most powerful man, Nwokocha Agbadi.
The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta is a seminal work in African literature that explores the themes of motherhood, its import in a culture that invariably equates a woman’s worth by her ability to bear male children, and what happens when such expectations are confounded by women who not only subscribe to such views but also internalize it and even endorse it.
Set in Nigeria, The Joys of Motherhood concerns the life of Nnu-Ego, how she is conceived into existence and how she, in turn, carries forward the gift of life by birthing many children and proving herself to be a true woman according to the Nigerian ethos. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg as Nnu-Ego’s story is every bit as full of pathos as her arrival into the world — her mother, Ona is the mistress of Ibuza’s most powerful man, Nwokocha Agbadi.
About The Author
Florence Onyebuchi “Buchi” Emecheta OBE (21 July 1944 – 25 January 2017) was a Nigerian-born novelist, based in the UK from 1962, who also wrote plays and an autobiography, as well as works for children. She was the author of more than 20 books, including Second Class Citizen (1974), The Bride Price (1976), The Slave Girl (1977) and The Joys of Motherhood (1979). Most of her early novels were published by Allison and Busby, where her editor was Margaret Busby.
Emecheta’s themes of child slavery, motherhood, female independence and freedom through education gained recognition from critics and honours. She once described her stories as “stories of the world…[where]… women face the universal problems of poverty and oppression, and the longer they stay, no matter where they have come from originally, the more the problems become identical.” Her works explore the tension between tradition and modernity. She has been characterized as “the first successful black woman novelist living in Britain after 1948”
