The Joy of Motherhood book review

The Joy of Motherhood book review

The Joy of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta is a book that represents and functions of the African Fatale. The book is about a protagonist woman who stumbles to a Yaba compound with a lot of grief. She intends to throw herself in a waterfront(Emecheta). The book focuses on the traditional state of Ibo society. The paper discusses the different practices that carried out in this society that harm women. The conventional ways view a woman who is supposed to caretake of their offspring. Ememcheta writes this book intending to expose the gender politics that happen in most African countries. The joy of motherhood is a book that helps people understand women’s experiences during historical time. Currently, most people living in these African developing countries do not know what the African woman had to go through during the traditional times. It talks about the role of women in families and al the impact of political movements on women’s lives, their role and also participation. Such campaigns also show how they affect the relationship between males and females. Emecheta’s book takes us back to the colonial period in the Ibo community and how it impacted the lives of women. I believe that the problems the women in the Igbo community faced did not come from the traditional practice of the community of Igbo village. These women’s hardship emerged from the colonial tradition of the traditional cultural values to the British values and practices of the British people. Most women in the Igbo village were forced to decide which prices to follow, those of the African people or those set up by the European colonists. The woman of the Ibo community was subjected to new roles that were under a new economic system that was different from the native system that they were used to. This transition brought a lot of hardships as they tried to adapt to the new settings.

Efuru is the title of a Flora Nwapa, a book that tells the troy of a beautiful young woman, Efuru that always seems to have bad luck with women. The village described her as an outstanding successful woman, “she was a remarkable woman. It was not only that she came from a distinguished family. She has distinguished herself” (Nwapa, 1). Efuru manages to escape with adizua causing her family to be angry and disappointed. However, Efuru still manages to maintain a close relationship with her family and her inlaws. However, as the days go on, she gets a child, but her husband Azidua starts to disappear from her home. The child falls ill and dies. She also finds out that her husband had gotten married to another woman. She decides to go back to her family and get married to another man. However, the second husband also leaves, and she ends devoting her life to the goddess of the lake. In this literature, one can understand the role of femme fatale. Efuru shows how women can be independent during the colonial empire. Through her independence, he also shows the power of a feminist woman who can face any challenge that comes her way. By leaving her first husband, she became free and independent from the abusive marriage and neglectful husband and her disappointing second husband. The colonial power is represented by the abusive Aduzai, who had married her without paying for her bride price. And her second husband, who had gotten his education from a colonial school. Thye second husband did not value the principle of marriage and chose to leave her alone. Efuru how that she has a bright mind by understanding and believing in her traditional beliefs and accepting them. Through her community’s traditional culture, she is s able to find strength, comfort and empowerment that enables her to view the world differently.

The Concubine is a fictitious novel by a Nigerian author Elechi Amadi, the Concubine is the main character of the book known as ihuoma. The author depicts life in the traditional cultural rural Nigeria. The book focuses on religion and how it is meant to enlighten its followers about their beliefs and other factors, such as the reason for our existence. Many traditional societies in African countries are described by their beliefs and cultural traditions. These societies also show male dominance and its impact on women’s lives. The Concubine discusses the effects of the traditional religion of the Igbo society and the beliefs that they followed and took seriously. They believed in many gods who brought the blessings. Men showed dominant from getting advice for men elders to being treated by male medicine men. They also made sacrifices to the people the spirits and offered gifts to all their spirits. The book describes how to show how the Igbo community valued their spirits. They presented a woman, Ihuoma to be the wife of the gods of the sea. Ihuoma was only meant to be Concubine to the ruling spirit of the sea. The medicine man ensures that no man would come close to her. This showed that em n had more power in the Igbo society; they also practiced polygamy and women could not make comet about the matter. Women had to share their husband s and live together in harmony by taking care of their children and the homesteads. Women in the traditional Igbo society were considered to be inferior and did not have any rights. They were sacrificed to the gods and had only one job on society to take care of their families. Most of the things that women went through during this time we’re human; they Fowle everything that their husbands told them to do. The women in this society seemed to be more slaves than wives. Traditional beliefs undermined their rights and potential to perform better in the society.