Questioning the Patriarchal Politics of (M)Othering: Re-reading Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood

Abstract

Knowledge is constructed through questioning. In line with this, Nigerian feminist author Buchi Emechet a questions the traditional methods of stereotyping the role of motherhood, which overtly demonstrates how deliberately political it is to confine a woman merely within her role as a mother, even if she possesses every possible potential to construct her own multifaceted ‘self’ as an independent entity in the mainstream of society. Nnu Ego, the female protagonist of The Joys of Motherhood, is deserted by her first husband for her inability to produce a child and her second husband, too, though she produces several children by him, objectifies her by disregarding her individual human 'self.' She exhausts herself for educating her children and ultimately dies unheard and unattended. But the traditional patriarchal paradigm defines her success and failure in terms of her children’s success and failure, and thus in general, it hinders women in general from developing their agency and transforms them into 'Other.' This qualitative research will address the research question—how does patriarchal politics work behind the process of transforming a mother into an ‘Other’? This paper will borrow the theoretical framework from the Marxist feminist theorists, such as Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and the Afro-American feminist bell hooks.