Traditions, polygamy and Education in Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood (1979)

Abstract

This research paper studies the issues of Traditions, Polygamy and Education in Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood (1979). To achieve our goal, we have relied on Alice Walker’s theory of Womanism. Our work is made up of three chapters. In the first chapter, we have studied the issue of the conservative nature of the Igbo traditional culture that discriminate women and oppresses them. We have then shown the conditions of women and how the author liberates them from all kind of imprisonment. In the second chapter, we have analyzed the issue of polygamy or multiple marriages and men’s authority over women. Inthe third chapter, we have exposed the educational system of the Nigerian society that condemns women and how the author defy gender inequality and oppression.After the provided analysis of The Joys ofMotherhood, we have attained a conclusion that it represents all the elements that oppress women. Theauthor struggles for the emancipation to give them a self- fulfillment and rehabilitate their position.