CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.0 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Traditionally the experience of marriage and motherhood dominates the
life and identity of women in Africa.Women were left behind to mind the
home and children.Traditionally it is believed that the life of a woman
is distinct,pure and counted to be unstained.She could be classified as
peaceful,without and within as an entity.She was economically
dependent,as she only fulfills her role as a wife, a mother and a
builder of home. It is believed that an African woman should be
involved in domestic duties like farming task and skilled craft
production.
Raising your children and being the best you can be,so
that you know your child will grow up to make u proud,is what the
African society has pumped into the meaning of Motherhood.It is believed
in a contemporary African society that Motherhood is one of the most
wonderful titles a woman can experience. Mothers have historically
fulfilled the primary role in raising children. The African society
feels that the best thing a woman can do is to give birth to children,
stay at home to breast feed them, take very good care of them and even
follow the husband to the farm or take the products to the Market. She
is respected for this because this proves her as strong and hardworking
Woman. The efforts made by each sex are subordinate.Each sex has equal
condition. The contribution made by African women in the provision of
both financial and social facilities is equal.Upon all the works a woman
involves herself, the woman is still considered as not equal to man in
traditional African society.In some societies in African only the male
children are counted in a family during census,because they believe
female children cannot stay long in the family,they will get
married.Some husbands count their wives as possessions.Women in a
typical African society are placed second to men.It is due to the
conception held from creation story,since the first woman was said to
have been created from the first mans rib,she is believed to be a
subordinate to the first man.The African society feels that a woman’s
problem cannot be solved without the help of a man.An African woman who
is without a husband is looked down upon and has no protection from any
in dignity.The assumed psychological belief that women are second to men
has made women to be deprived equal political post with men in the
society.
However women has rebel and created personal lives within
the framework of possibilities and limitations set by structure and
culture.These days women are striving hard to have a say in the
society.Gone are the days when you have the women being relegated to the
background.The notion of the education of women ending in the kitchen
does not apply to the women of this age,as they combine Motherhood with
their respective careers.They are able to do these successfully without
one affecting the other.Indeed the women of this age have successfully
survived and they are found at the top in the society.
The contribution of women to the progress of the society
can’t be put aside.This range from the economic growth like
marketing,weaving,manufactured products and also household affairs.The
society however did not pay keen attention to the great contribution of
women to the growth of the society and this has gone a long way to
dampen their morals and make their effort fruitless.Vladimir
Lenin(1997:94) asserts the importance of women in the society and says
“We cannot go forward without Women”,in spite of the efforts of women to
strive to the higher place in the society,they are still at great
disadvantage and seen as inferior by their male counter parts.The male
see them as second Fiddle and as such did not recognize their immense
contribution towards the growth of the society.This notion is supported
by Fela Anikulapo(1986) and he says “Definitely a woman’s place is in
the kitchen.That is a fact unless you want us to take your job from
you”.
Women are no more left behind in the affairs of the
society.They now identify themselves with the societal affairs,they form
associations which pursue their common interest.They have stood up to
take important roles in the socio economic development of their
societies.
1.1 THE ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTION OF WOMEN IN NIGERIA
Across the different Africa regions Women have stood up to agitate on
the importance of the roles of women in the society.Such women include
the likes of Madam Tinubu of Egbaland in the western part of Nigeria.She
was a notable trader,who also had political power.She use to safe guard
her Economic Empire against the invasion of the British,Brazillian and
Saro traders.Due to her success as a business woman and a politician,she
was given the title of Iyalode of Egbaland.
As Marketers of the farm product,the contribution of
women to the economic well being of Nigeria is enormous and much greater
than they are acknowledge for.Some women do help their Husband on the
distant Farm to plant Cassava,while their husband plants Yams.The women
are largely responsible for the harvesting of Farm product and they
carry it to the Market to sell.Nigerian women are economic assets to
their family and Society.
The role of women in Nigerians economic sector cannot be
over emphasized,as they engaged in weaving,Pot making,and dyeing to
assist themselves financially. The role of Women in the family units
made them indispensable entities in the struggle to survive against the
harsh realities of time and tended to endow women with significant
influence in their society.
Nigerian women are sensitive,compassionate understanding empathetic.They are givers and nurturers of life.
1.2 THE SOCIAL CONTRIBUTION OF WOMEN IN NIGERIA
Findings have shown that women are understanding,givers and nurturers
of life.Their roles in child bearing and raising children are
indispensable in any given society.It is through her that the child
learns the first rule in the social life:Good manners and acceptable
behaviours,until the child is weaned.A Mother does not only take care of
the education of the children,but also instruct her Family member on
how to have good manners and etiquettes which are habit and acceptable
social behaviour.
Despite woman’s contribution in both financial and
Educational sectors,they are not treated as equals to the men in some
African societies.Women in most African communities are placed second to
men,since creation they are believed to be subordinate to men.Although
these women are economically independent,they are submissive in nature.
Women in Africa have joined women in other nations in their quest for
rights,opportunity,relevance and recognition.Various women in the world
stood against all area of life endeavour.Happily today we have an
Avalanche of female writers in Africa.The list include Stella
Oyedepo,Zaynab Alkali,Ifeoma Okoye,Mable Segun,Adaorah Lily-Vlasi,Remi
Adedeji,Folashayo Ogunrinde,Flora Nwapa,Helen Ovbiagele etc.
The emergence of women writers on the literary scene in
Nigeria marks the beginning of female centered novels.Akachi
Adimora-Ezeigbo trilogy The last of the Strong ones,House of symbols and
Children of the Eagle have succeeded in gaining wide readership.Ezeigbo
is a feminist writer that believes that when a woman writes,she writes
based on her personal experiences which tend to be more of things
experienced by the gender in terms of injustice done to them.
Female writers like Maya Angelou,Magret Atwood,Susan
Brown Miller,Simon de Beauvior,Mariam Ba,Judith Butler,Buchi Emecheta
and so many more,have risen to fight for their belief in the
Social,Political and Economic equality of the sexes.This they called FEMINISM.
Feminism can be defined as the movement aimed at establishing and
defending equal Political Opportunities for women.Much has been written
by critics concerning the definition of Feminism as a concept but
perhaps no view has identified its outstanding Tenets more aptly than
that which links it to the social disabilities under which women lived
for most of the time Human History.To this extent therefore,Oliver Banks
has defined feminism as a Historical phenomenom,which started from:
A sense of dissatisfaction with the conditions of women’s live
andOpportunities coupled with the beliefs that women’s disabilities
rise not from nature itself,nor indeed from any ills which afflict
mankind but from the way in which woman’s desire and abilities
have been made subordinate to their needs,desire and interest of men.
This explains why the concept of Feminism incorporates the belief and
faith that a solution could be found to the problem their proving for
not only an ideology but also a programme of action.
Emecheta’s central idea in The Joys of Motherhood is
feminism.She fights against exploitation and pursue the cause of women
in her text.
1.3 STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM
The African society believes that,no matter how well a woman
works,she can’t be considered as being equal to a man,because a man is
stronger physically than a woman.
With no doubt men are stronger physically and is the head
of the family,but does this fact create room for the oppression of
female gender? Does this mean that women should only be called upon,when
her husband is hungry or when the time for child bearing comes? Does
this also give room for women to be trampled upon by men? Most
importantly should this deprive women the opportunity of contributing to
the development of Nigeria?
African tradition has stereotyped the woman.Marriage and
Motherhood are used by the society as the measuring instrument to gauge a
woman’s social development and success.The laws,rules and regulation of
culture in Nigeria allot the authority,respect and power of a community
to a man.
This research work has being embarked on,in order to
state the relevance of women in the society and Nigeria at large and
also help in the rise of women in seats of power without being looked
down on or given a hostile treatment.
1.4 PURPOSE OF RESEARCH
The research entails the role played by women in the text The Joys of
Motherhood written by Buchi Emecheta.The purpose however is to
critically analyze the texts i.e.examine the feminist issues,in the
texts that aligns with the contribution of women to Nigeria and to know
how Buchi Emecheta use the Female character in the novel to portray how
women confront the challenges mated on them by the male,in the male
domineering society.
Another purpose is to appraise the Nigerian women for
their contribution towards the socio-economic growth of Nigeria.
1.5 JUSTIFICATION
It has been identified that Feminism is a word that evokes strong
reactions from different people.Politically and Culturally Feminism is
seen as an important ideology which is alien to African society.
Some works have be done in the past in relation to
Feminism and they have been done well for example The Feminist
Perspective in Flora Nwapa’s Efuru Oyebiyi Oyebanji
Isreal,(2008).Feminism in African Literature,A Case Study of Mariam
Baa’s,So Long a Letter and Zaynab Alkali’s The Stillborn and so many
Feminist related work.
However this research work aims at tracing women’s
participation in seeking solution to the Political,Social and Economic
problems in Nigeria.
African women,most especially Nigerian women will benefit
immensely from this research work.This research work will wield a new
spirit of liberation from sexual,social and political constraint that
has inhabited women.It will also help blaze a new trial of female
consciousness in Nigeria women who has been brain washed that women are
irrelevant in the society.
1.6 SCOPE OF THE WORK
This research work titled “The Role of women in the socio-economic
development in Nigeria is The Joys of Motherhood”,will only be limited
to the way through which Buchi Emecheta,in her novel portrays the extent
to which woman can go as to function and influence their community
positively in spite of all odds.
This research won’t cover the stylistic analysis of The Joys of Motherhood in order to avoid over clumsiness.
1.7 METHODOLOGY
The method adopted in achieving these aims and objectives is by
appraising the primary text to be used in this study.Since Feminism Is a
Political and socio-Economic concept,a sociological reading of the
primary text will be done,to establish their effect on the women,in the
Nigerian society.It is believed that the sociological approach will best
explain the socio-economic contribution of women to the Society.
The Secondary source will consist of library research in which textbook article and journals will be considered.
1.8DATA DESCRIPTION
The Joys of Motherhood is an eighteen chaptered novel,with Two
hundred and Twenty Four pages.It was first published by Allison and
Busby (1979).This Fictional work is Buchi Emecheta Fourth novel to be
published.The Fictional work is a story set during the period of early
colonization period of Nigeria.
This novel treats the socio-cultural and economic
problems of the Nigerian women in an urban setting.It pictures the
difficult situation and obstacle that a woman goes through,when she is
not able to bear Children in marriage.
A substantial portion of this work is devoted to Nnu
Ego’s conception of the Joys and responsibilities of Motherhood.Nnu Ego
whose life had long been predicted and pre-destined for her as a result
of the consequences of a harsh tradition.Nnu Egos life is one filled
with travails as she,all through her life suffered for what she knew
nothing about.She experienced shame and segregation due to her inability
to bear children for her husband.Her cause of destiny is however
changed as she is manipulated to travel from her hometown (Ibuza) to a
more modernized city Lagos.
Nnu Ego finally settles in Lagos,she faces many
challenges in her matrimonial home such as excruciating poverty ,death
of her so-much loved first child(son),addition of more wives by her
husband,the forcing of her husband into army,malnutrition in her and her
children and finally she dies a lonely and forsaken Mother.All this is
however in contrast of her reason for going to Lagos.She hoped that she
will marry and settle there and her Chi may have mercy on her and give
her prosperous children,who will take care of her.She does not like the
role allotted to the women,in the scheme of things.Traditionally the
women bears the burden of bringing up her children against the
background of standard set by men by male children.This text expose
women’s trivails.It also talks about the complex twist and
dilemmas,women find themselves in.
1.9 BIOGRAPHY OF BUCHI EMECHETA
Buchi Emecheta was born on August 14, 1944,in Lagos State Nigeria.She
was born to jeremy Nwabuchike and Alice Okwelekwo,Emecheta.Her Father a
Railway worker died when she was young, she attended Methodist Girls
High School,Yaba Lagos .At the age of 16 ,she got married and had a
child.
At 19 Emecheta followed her husband to London,where he
was a student.Her writing career which she started,got her husband
Sylvester Onwordi upset,that he burnt her first novel.She however
chooses her career,over her husband,thereby divorcing him after six
years of Marriage.She was appointed a senior research fellow in
department of English and Literature studies,in University of Calabar
Nigeria.In 1980 on her arrival to Nigeria;she was given an award of the
best black writer in Britain in 1978.
She has written many novels Plays and Children books,they
include .The Bride Price (1976), which was her first published
Novel.She also wrote The Ditch (1972), Second Class Citizen (1974),The
Slave Girl (1977),The Joys of Motherhood (1979) and so on.All her novel
depict that Emecheta is a Nigerian Feminist Writer,that portrays the
virtue of women.
Her work also reflects the Three Major places,She has
lived in her life i.e Lagos,England (London) and Ibuza.Ibuza is a little
Igbo town where strict Igbo customs abound with keen regard to the
place and position of the women in the home and in the society at
large.It is a community where women in the midst of men,keep their mouth
shut.
Her themes of child Slavery,Motherhood,Female
independence and Freedom through Education has won her considerable
critical acclaim and honourary awards,including an order of the British
Empire in 2005.
END NOTES
PRIMARY SOURCE:
Buchi Emecheta,1979.The Joys of Motherhood:Heinemann Educational
Books (Nigeria) Ltd: Ibadan.
SECONDARY SOURCE
Banks Oliver,1986.Becoming a feminist:The Second Origin of First Wave
Feminism.Great Britain:Wheat Sheaf Books,Ltd.
Duile Patricia Alaba,2002:Feminism in African Literature,A Case Study of
Mariam Baa’s So Long a letter and Zaynab Alkali’s The Stillborn.
Oyebiyi Oyebanji Isreal, 2008.The Feminist Perspective in Flora Nwapa’s
Efuru.
Vladimir Lenin, 1977. “Women in the Society” in The Women Question.New
York International Publishers.p.94.
INTERNET SOURCE
Benecia L. Williams 1997.Biography of Buchi Emecheta http:/www.English memory.ed.