Nnu Ego’s Struggles and Triumphs Amidst Col...

Nnu Ego’s Struggles and Triumphs Amidst Colonial Nigeria in Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood

Author Name : Saba Perween

DOI: https://doi.org/10.56025/IJARESM.2024.1209242087

ABSTRACT A major issue in Emecheta's literary works is the victimisation of black women in the racist and sexist American society. The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta tells the tale of Nnu Ego, a black woman who is aware of who she is and how having numerous children—especially boys—completes her identity. The novel confirms that African women were disproportionately disadvantaged during this period of change. Colonialism was an expensive reality for those who had to balance what their village communities and the regulations of a European political regime required of them, as the protagonist's situation throughout the novel makes evident. Emecheta really highlights the ways in which colonial patriarchal regimes and capitalist politics contribute to the marginalization and control of women in the Third World. Emecheta deftly illustrates in the novel how changes are brought about by colonial discourse. In the novel, repressive forces based on race, gender, and class victimize female characters on multiple occasions. In general, Emecheta makes an effort to examine how much racism, colonialism, and patriarchy impacted the lives of Third World women in her novel. She does, in reality, reveal that fighting for Third World women's rights and gender inequity inside patriarchal societies is feasible while also addressing the fight against racism and decolonisation. Emecheta challenges the impact of the colonial patriarchal discourse on the native patriarchy by exposing the violent methods used by the colonial patriarchal society to subjugate and suppress the female figures in Lagos.