"The Joys of Motherhood"

The Joys of Motherhood was written by Buchi Emecheta, a Nigerian-born British author, and published by Allison & Busby in 1979. Emecheta has written and published over twenty works, from novels to plays, each of which delve into the complexities of what it means to be a woman and a mother in societies where the morals and traditions are constantly changing. The protagonist, Nnu Ego, has bad fortune with childbearing, and through her life centered on her children, she gains her community’s respect.

As European governments take control of African nations and annex them to turn them into a source of raw materials and labor, the newly colonized nations experience conflict and change in their traditions and tribal values. As the readers follow Ego’s journey, Emecheta forces all to see the conflicts that result from adopting European ideals and traditions and instinctively following age old tradition. The influence of the colonialists erodes the community that the Ibo once held.

Emecheta also criticizes Ibos who use male privilege to their advantage, oppressing women, wives and daughters. Though women can be mothers, bearing children and raising them, the “joys of motherhood” are also painful and anxiety-inducing.

The Joys of Motherhood is one of Emecheta’s most pivotal and well known works, giving criticism on colonialism, tradition, and women’s roles and how they affect one woman, Nnu Ego, and her family.

 "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(Encyclopedia Britannica). She has been characterized as "the first successful black woman novelist living in Britain after 1948"(Dawson, Ashley). The introduction of authors is important because somewhere we find the influence of writers in their works. Now let's see the novel The Joys of Motherhood. 

The Joys of Motherhood is a novel written by Buchi Emecheta. It was first published in London, UK, by Allison & Busby in 1979 and was reprinted in Heinemann's African Writers Series in 2008. As Hans Zell said,

the basis of the novel is the

"necessity for a woman to 

be fertile, and above all to 

give birth to sons" 

(Zell, Hans).

It tells the tragic story of Nnu-Ego, daughter of Nwokocha Agbadi and Ona, who had a bad fate with childbearing. This novel explores the life of a Nigerian woman, Nnu Ego. Nnu's life centres on her children and through them, she gains the respect of her community. Traditional tribal values and customs begin to shift with increasing colonial presence and influence, pushing Ego to challenge accepted notions of "mother", "wife", and "woman". Through Nnu Ego's journey, Emecheta forces her readers to consider the dilemmas associated with adopting new ideas and practices against the inclination to cleave to tradition. In this novel, Emecheta reveals and celebrates the pleasures derived from fulfilling responsibilities related to family matters in child bearing, mothering, and nurturing activities among women. However, the author additionally highlights how the 'joys of motherhood' also include anxiety, obligation, and pain.(Wikipedia)

The title of the novel “The Joys of Motherhood” was ironic. The experiences of the mothers in the story Ona and Nnu Ego proved that though motherhood is a blessing and joyful experience, it is not giving the same joy and happiness for the mothers throughout the novel. She considered motherhood as joy. She felt that when she delivered her first son after so much treatment and shame.

The joy of being a mother was not long lasting. The joy she earned as a mother was less, while comparing to the turmoil she had faced in her life. The motherhood attainment itself was a great challenge for her. The challenge prevailed in bringing up the children. She was expecting a return in her old age from her children’s side. But, that was not offered by her children till her death. After her he death, they had given her a grand burial. It showed the more sorrow ridden motherhood of Nnu Ego and not the joys as it found in the title. So, the title of the novel The Joys of Motherhood is considered as ironic. Emecheta employs the technique of mother’s introspection in which the protagonist realized that she has not brought fulfilment in the family. Found herself as a doubly colonized 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 situation, 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?”(JOM. p.186)

The author has given the novel's final chapter the satirical title of "The Canonized Mother." Throughout her life, Nnu Ego was subjected to patriarchal enslavement and died alone. In the patriarchal and traditionally strong Ibo society, all three moms, Ona, Akadu, and Nnu Ego, have been mistreated. However, Emecheta's Nnu Ego defies the conventional wisdom that having a large family will provide a woman with a lot of ecstasies.