Title: The Joys of Motherhood
Author: Buchi Emecheta
Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
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This was a reread for me, after first reading this book in my early teenage years. I have always had a special place in my heart for this book, because it had such a huge impact on me as a young reader. Without even knowing it at the time, this book shaped and heavily influenced my feminism. When I was rereading, I discovered that while I remembered a number of key points and major events in the story, I had forgotten some parts. It was amazing to read and experience it all over again, and see things from a new perspective as an adult reader. I read this book along with @itan.ile on Instagram, and out conversations about some events and the ending of the book made the reading experience even better for me.
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Buchi Emecheta writes the most powerful stories. I have read two other books of hers this year – Second Hand Citizen and The Bride Price. She has a very interesting way of writing women and ending their stories (trying super hard not to post spoilers LOL). This is a story of motherhood, but don’t be deceived by the title – there’s hardly anything joyful in Nnu Ego’s story. Emecheta takes us through Nnu Ego’s journey in search of children, and her journey after she finally gets her much sought-after children. She toiled and labored and suffered, living for some time as a single mother in a Lagos that was dealing with the second-hand effect of British wars.
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She explored so many themes over various settings in Ibuza and Lagos. She paints a vivid picture of marriage, motherhood, strife, and reaping the fruits of your labor (one thing Nnu Ego was so sure she’d get more than anything). This book made me really sad, angry, and I felt a lot of raw emotions. I loved it so much, and I doubt I’d ever stop!
Synopsis
Nnu Ego is a woman who gives all her energy, money and everything she has to raising her children – leaving her little time to make friends.
The Author
Buchi Emecheta OBE was 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 themes of child slavery, motherhood, female independence and freedom through education have won her considerable critical acclaim and honours, including an Order of the British Empire in 2005. Emecheta once described her stories as “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.”
From 1965 to 1969, Emecheta worked as a library officer for the British Museum in London. From 1969 to 1976 she was a youth worker and sociologist for the Inner London Education Authority, and from 1976 to 1978 she was a community worker.
Following her success as an author, Emecheta travelled widely as a visiting professor and lecturer. From 1972 to 1979 she visited several American universities, including Pennsylvania State University, Rutgers University, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
From 1980 to 1981, she was senior resident fellow and visiting professor of English, University of Calabar, Nigeria. In 1982 she lectured at Yale University, and the University of London, as well as holding a fellowship at the University of London in 1986.
From 1982 to 1983 Buchi Emecheta, together with her journalist son Sylvester, ran the Ogwugwu Afor Publishing Company.
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