Buchi Emecheta (1944–2017)
Author of The Joys of Motherhood
About the Author
Buchi Emecheta was born in Lagos, Nigeria on July 21, 1944. She emigrated to London, England in 1960. She received a sociology degree at the University of London. She worked as a social worker for a number of years and contributed a column to the New Statesman about black British life. She wrote 20 show more novels during her lifetime including The Joys of Motherhood, The Rape of Shavi, Second Class Citizen, Into the Ditch, The Bride Price, and The New Tribe. Her first play, A Kind of Marriage, was screened on BBC TV in 1976 and was adapted into a novel in 1986. Her autobiography was entitled Head Above Water. In 2005, she was made an OBE for services to literature. She died on January 25, 2017 at the age of 72. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Buchi Emecheta
Associated Works
Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient… (1992) — Contributor — 157 copies
The Pleasure of Reading: 43 Writers on the Discovery of Reading and the Books that Inspired Them (2015) — Contributor — 82 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Emecheta, Buchi
- Legal name
- Emecheta, Florence Onye Buchi
- Birthdate
- 1944-07-21
- Date of death
- 2017-01-25
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- Nigeria (birth)
UK - Birthplace
- Lagos, Nigeria
- Place of death
- London, England, UK
- Cause of death
- dementia
- Places of residence
- Yaba, Nigeria
London, England, UK
Calabar, Nigeria - Education
- University of London (Sociology)
- Occupations
- sociologist
poet
playwright
novelist - Organizations
- Ogwugwu Afor Publishing Company
- Awards and honors
- Granta's Best of Young British Novelists (1983)
OBE
Members
Reviews
Lists
AP Lit (1)
Read These Too (1)
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 24
- Also by
- 9
- Members
- 2,377
- Popularity
- #10,800
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 51
- ISBNs
- 178
- Languages
- 13
- Favorited
- 5
Nnu Ego is raised lovingly and is married to a kind man whom she loves. Unfortunately, she is unable to conceive, even though many sacrifices are made to try and appease her chi. She returns home in disgrace when her husband takes another wife. Her father makes another match for her, sight unseen, with the son of a local family, although he lives in Lagos. When she shows up at the white man's compound where her new husband lives, she is dismayed to find that he is nothing as advertised.
Life with Nnaife is difficult from the beginning, but the one bright spot is that she soon becomes pregnant. This is the goal that she has been taught to strive for: motherhood. Her self-worth, societal standing, position in the family, everything, depends on her having children, especially boy children. Boys will grow up to take care of the family, the younger siblings, and her when she is old. Girls are helpful around the house, cheap because they don't need much education, and bring a handsome bride price at a young age. But the joy of motherhood is short-lived. Child mortality is high, poverty and malnutrition are constants, and her husband is neither supportive nor a good provider.
World War II brings great changes, none of them good. Throughout everything, however, Nnu Ego struggles to keep the boys in school. They are the future of the family and her social security. But as the years pass, traditional customs become alien to children raised in the city, and Nnu Ego finds herself struggling to understand how her life has turned out as it has.
The Joy of Motherhood is a most ironic title, both in the personal and societal sense. Nigeria undergoes tremendous change between the 1930s and 1950s, and traditional supports are undermined before new societal structures have been built. Nnu Ego is stuck between her traditional rural upbringing and the modern city in which she finds herself. While some women are able to navigate the changes, she is left behind. The novel is focused both on the micro, the life of one woman, and the macro, the place of women in Nigerian society. This is a book that I will be thinking about for a while.… (more)