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Published by Heinemann in 1979 and set in colonial Nigeria, Buchi Emecheta’s Joys of Motherhood is a satirical look at the supposed thrills of motherhood. Her focus is an Ibo woman, Nnu Ego who through endless pregnancies, toil and degradation and a Nigeria in transition, struggles with a motherhood role defined for her by tradition, patriarchy and superstition.
Buchi Emechata tells an award winning story that centers around Ogbanje Ojebeta, a girl sold off by her very own blood into slavery to the house of Ma Palagada and husband.
Ginny as she is fondly called is married to a young curate called Arthur and has no child of her own. She believes her prayer has been answered when a baby girl in a Tesco bag is brought to her and she earnestly presses for adoption. The child is named Julia. Not long afterwards, a black woman, Catherine decides to put up her eighteen month old son for adoption and she chooses Ginny and Arthur. Ginny accepts, though warily and Chester, the black child finds a home in the personage.
Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen, published in 1983 by George Braziller, Inc, deals with Adah’s experiences and her courage to survive as a woman, a wife and a writer.
Born August 14, 1944, Buchi Emecheta is a Nigerian novelist who has published over 20 books, including Second-Class Citizen (1974), The Bride Price (1976), The Slave Girl (1977) and The Joys of Motherhood (1979). Her books mainly focus on women issues, particularly the theme of gender bias. Other themes include racial prejudice and the experience of immigration.
Buchi Emecheta’s The Bride Price covers many themes from bride price to tradition and the caste system in Nigeria. Her book illustrates how cultural norms imprison women, in particular, but it does offer some hope that, someday, these barriers will be broken.
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