ANALYSIS OF THE JOYS OF MOTHERHOOD

The Joys of Motherhood is a novel that is written by Emecheta in an attempt to treat the socio-cultural and economic challenges that Nigerian women face in an urban setting. It gives and exposes the obstacle a woman goes through when she is unable to bear children in marriage.

Emecheta in her work of art detail a story of a young Igbo woman who dreams of living a traditional life as a mother of many children. Instead, she spends her life in Lagos, Nigerian, watching as traditional values are eroded and destroyed by Western influence. The hope and dream she has toward being the mother of many children turn out to be misplaced and her entire life is simply a struggle for survival with no reward in old age.

            The story is based on the background of the sound world war. During the period of early colonization in Nigeria, Published in 1979, The Joys of Motherhood is Buchi Emecheta’s fifth novel and one at her most popular novel. The novel centered on the role of women in Nigeria Society. In the novel Nnu Ego the Protagonist stumbles across the Yaba Compound, almost delusional with grief. She makes her way to the front, heading to cater bridge, intent on throwing herself off in the river. The action shifts to twenty-five years previous to this moment in the village of Ogboli, in the Ibusu homeland, Agbudi, the esteemed local chief, is enamored by the one woman he cannot possess, the beautiful and strong-willed Ona.

            The story takes us back to Ibuza town, the place of birth of Nnu Ego, Nnu Ego was a beautiful girl and so captured the interest of many men in her village and even beyond. She was married off to Amatokwu in a Lavish wedding ceremony, but the marriage turns sour because she was not blessed with an issue after three years Amatokwu takes another wife, Nnu Ego was derided and treated as a barren woman. And so, given her experience in the house Amatokwu, the death of her four-weeks-old son to her new husband, Nnaife, shatters the hope and confidence which had come with the birth of the boy. She was consoled-by friends and neigbours, Nnu Ego takes in again and gives birth to a boy named Oshiagu.