In The Joys of Motherhood, Nnu Ego and her husband, Nnaife, give up everything so that their eldest son, Oshia, can have the benefit of an education. The leftover money, if there had been any, would go to educate their second son, Adim. There was never any thought given to educating their daughters. Daughters were looked at as an investment. Hopefully, they would marry well and bring in a good bride price which would most likely go towards their brothers' education.
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Nnu Ego assumes that her sons will come home to live and will care for her as she ages. Nervous Conditions, although it takes place in an entirely different area of the African continent, reflects the same values of gender education. Nhamo, the only male heir, was selected by the elders of his family to receive an education. He was then expected to get a good job and provide for his family.
When Nhamo dies, the family eventually decides that it will be acceptable for Tambu, the eldest daughter, to receive an education since there were no more male sons. Tambu is also expected to provide for her family after she graduates and there is quite a bit of discussion among her family members about the worthlessness of her education since she would eventually only be helping out her husband's family and not her own.
Both of these books seem to reflect the experiences women have had all over the world as they fought for their independence and equality. We have a difficult time accepting that these beliefs are still being practiced in some areas of the world. Adeola James goes so far as to suggest that "the real reason for the tragic disruption of society depicted in Things Fall Apart [by Chinua Achebe] is because the female principle is neglected whilst the male principle, with its strong-headedness and inflexibility, is promoted above all else" James In her interview with James, Buchi Emecheta responds to James' assertion: At the end of that rape we find it is women who bring things together.
Whereas, if they had allowed women to take part all along, maybe the rape would not have taken place" James Through their writing both of these authors attempt to bring to light the unfairness that still exists between genders regarding education in Africa. Although both writers were able to eventually receive an education, they realize that many of their African sisters do not and will not have the same opportunities unless someone speaks up for them--at least until they learn to speak for themselves.
Time to Start Writing About Ourselves. We forget that some of us have been independent for more than two decades. It is about time we started writing about ourselves now" James.
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In Her Own Voice: The following are several comments taken from an interview by Adeola James with Buchi Emecheta. Her comments may help us to better understand the conflicts faced by African emigrants as they attempt to preserve their cultural heritage. Although Emecheta left Nigeria and has been living in England for most of her adult life, she still feels a deep emotional attachment towards Nigeria. She comments on the frustrations she feels when she visits her homeland, however, especially with the women.
She feels that Nigerian and African women in general need to band together to support each other instead of "bitching about each other" James The forthrightness that Emecheta is well-know for often gets her in trouble in Nigeria. She learned to speak her mind through the influence of her British culture, and this goes against her native culture. You learn to laugh or not to laugh too loudly" James Emecheta knows that her Africanness is becoming diluted.
The Joys of Motherhood
One of her publishers has even stopped putting her books in the African section because they feel that she has lost her African perspective and voice. Emecheta feels that Africa needs to do more to support African writers. She says that Africans would rather read cheap American novels than novels by African writers.
Because of this, African writers end up moving to Europe out of necessity because Europe will support them by accepting their books. When writing about women, Emecheta says she tries ask the following: Why are they so pathetic? When you hear about traditional women who were very strong, you wonder, why are we today so pathetic, so hypocritical? Recurring Themes in Stories about Colonization.
The following theme pages may further develop your understanding of post colonial literature as it relates to Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood. The question of assimilation is omnipresent in post colonial literature. How has being colonized affected the colonized? When is someone "assimilated" into a new culture? How do they influence the culture they are assimilated into? The audience an author has in mind for a written work inevitably influences the way in which the author writes it.
Here we will start to look at how authors' intentions can be discussed in relation to the audience they address. Books fit into the evolution and progression of a preexisting body of literature. Where do they fit? How have they been influenced by previous literature?
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How do they influence literature to come? Many authors utilize written material to influence social and political currents. Over the course of her life, she gives birth to nine surviving children. Her husband, a laundryman for a white man, is drafted into the army during wartime, but on her own Nnu Ego can barely manage to feed them. When her husband's brother dies, he inherits his four wives and moves the youngest and prettiest, into the home.
Nnu Ego enjoys a bitter rivalry with this new wife. In the midst of the war, the new wife leaves to become a prostitute while Nnu Ego devotes her life to providing for her children. She scrimps and saves to provide a secondary school education for her oldest son, in the hope that he will help support the rest of the family.
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After he graduates, he expects more support so he can study abroad. Her second son wants the same thing. Her third child, a girls, runs off with a Yoruba butcher's son.
When Nnaife gives chase, he injures a man and is taken to court where he is put in jail. Nnu Ego's fourth child marries the lawyer who pleaded Nnaife's case, and offers to rear the fifth child. Nnu Ego returns to the village, where she is feted as a great woman because with two married daughters, and two sons abroad the second son emigrates to Canada , she is expected to be filled with the joys of motherhood. It is suggested that her children's success should be enough for her. She dies a lonely death in the village, and is regarded as a mad woman.
Only after her death do her children arrive to throw a lavish funeral for her; they spend time and money on her funeral which they did not spend in her life. It is noted that Nnu Ego never gives children to women who pray to her for them. The reviewer in West Africa wrote: She looks at things without flinching and without feeling the need to distort of exaggerate. It is a remarkable talent Wilson in The Observer said: This reputation will surely be enhanced by The Joys of Motherhood. Agbadi named his daughter Nnu Ego, which means a priceless jewel. Nnu Ego typified the conventional role of young women at that time, in the late s and early s, to bear and raise children.
Her first marriage ended in disaster because she could not bear children. Motherhood is the most important aspect for women and having sons pre-eminent in Nigeria. She relocated to Lagos, Nigeria, for her second marriage to Nnaife Owulum, with whom she conceived. Nnaife had no sense of direction. Nnaife appeared selfish and indolent. Adaku, the more astute and enterprising left Nnaife, during his five-year conscription into the British Army. Nnu Ego had to fend for herself and their children.
Nnu Ego, proud and conscientious, was self-critical of herself, and often reflected social standards learned from her father. Before having more children, she too, considered enterprising, sold cigarettes and other sundries, but became defeated after producing so many children. Changes had already taken place in West Africa. Colonial rule coerced Christianity, European beliefs of education, and behavior. With a scholarship, he completed his higher education in America and married a European. All seemed lost when the love, respect, ordinariness and intimacy of family fell apart and its end the terrible pain of aloneness.
I enjoyed reading this five-star book. One person found this helpful. The Martins Top Contributor: I read this book cover to cover in just a few days, so gripping was the story. I am not sure if this is a cautionary tale about the dangers of living for anyone, even one's children, a parable intended to encourage parents to invest equally in girls as in boys in order to enable women to achieve true happiness and independence, or nothing more than the fascinating saga of one woman and her family.
Perhaps the book is all of these things. It is a worthy read indeed. Let Nnu Ego be happy for five minutes I came to this thinking it would just be a book about a Nigerian mother. From chapter 1, it becomes clear that this is an emotional roller coaster. There were times I had to put the book down, because life can't let Nnu Ego, a woman who struggles against adverse conditions, be happy for five minutes. I'm unashamed to say that my eyes were watering at the ending.
This woman writes the stories that Chinua Achebe didn't write because these women had lives very different from his. The title is bitterly ironic and the book contains experiences that are chilling and tender and horrifying. I cared deeply about all the characters, especially the woman who struggles the most. It is on my lifetime list of great novels, although it feels too true to be fiction. But Reality Is Something Else. Although it is set in colonial Nigeria pre and post World War II the struggles of its female protagonist, Nnu Ego, are really the struggles of all womenwhich are: Patriarchal and sexist societies rarely view women as having any role greater than that of baby-makers.
And even worse, almost all of them are culturally biased to value male infants more than females. They hypocritically proclaim to value motherhood, but devalue women, and even the mothers themselves.
The Joys of Motherhood
They proclaim a great love for infants, then reject adequate societal care for the children this is particularly true in the U. We might think that only primitive and indigenous societies are guilty of such blatantly sexist practices, but as a by-product of male patriarchy it remains standard practice around the worldfor all religious fundamentalists, all pro-life fanatics, and for all arranged marriages.
The women and daughters get no respect They get cultural B. But, given adequate alternatives, most women would probably see right through this along with the practice of their men having multiple wives as being exactly what it is