Book Review: Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta

Have you ever read a book when you were much younger and then when you got much older and you reread the book and you got more clarity? I experienced this when I reread Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta a few days ago. It was a recommended reading in my Secondary School days and I decided to reread it a few weeks ago and it feels like scales fell off my eyes.

Synopsis: This is a novel written by Buchi Emecheta and published in 1979. It spins a tragic tale of a Nigerian woman, Nnuego raised in the village of Ibuza. When she is ripe for marriage, she is married off to one of the village’s eligible bachelors and successful farmer, Amatokwu. This marriage fails because she is unable to produce a child. She is then married off again to Nnaife who lives in Lagos and serves as a washerman to a white family. She soon begins to have children in quick succession and devotes her life to bringing them up with the hope that they would take care of her in her old age. Unfortunately, things do not turn out as she desired and her husband is no help at all. She ends up with nothing but harsh solitude and dies feeling like a failed woman.

Thoughts: When I was younger I don’t know if I was as incensed as I was when I read this book as I am now. I found it highly irresponsible and a great show of lack of judgment, Nnaife kept fathering children and insisting on inheriting the wives of his dead elder brother even when it was glaring he did not have the means to sustain them. I found it mind-blowing the way they (Nnaife and Nnuego) recklessly spent money whenever there was huge inflow of funds only to end up gnashing their teeth in abject poverty and penury.
I did not so much as blame Oshia (her first son) who could care less about his family when he insisted on going to America to further his education (note, I don’t support his actions but I can’t blame him) when his father expected him to take care of the children he (Nnaife) irresponsibly brought into the world whilst he (Nnaife) retires into a life of indolence. Although I did not now understand why Oshia decided to showcase he was a good son by borrowing so much for a befitting burial (which took him three years to pay off) when he could have cared more whilst his mother was alive.
The title is ironic but what fun would it be if it had been named the woes of Motherhood or perhaps the woes of Nnuego. Maybe Nnuego would have thrived if she had been born in her father’s time. I believe part of the failings of Nnuego was applying the rules and principles of her Father’s time to her present day and age when things were changing with the influence of colonialism.
Buchi Emecheta’s writing in this book was enjoyable and I intend to read more of her books.

Have you read Joys of Motherhood? Kindly share your thoughts in the comment section below.