Chinua Achebe / Buchi Emecheta in Buchi Essay

Chinua Achebe / Buchi Emecheta

In Buchi Emecheta's book, The Joys of Motherhood, colonialism is already instituted and through the main character, Nnu Ego, we are able to see what post-colonialism looks like from a woman's perspective. The reader has the knowledge of hindsight and what colonialism did in Africa, the major impact of it, however, the story that Emecheta creates completely avoids anachronism. The characters in Emecheta's book only know what they know is going on in their society at that time; they don't seem to know what we know now about colonialism. Chinua Achebe's book, Things Fall Apart, on the other hand, tells the tale of life before colonialism and when the white man came to a Nigerian village and the events that ensued after and how life changed for Nigerians. We understand through reading Achebe's work that colonialism came into Nigerian culture in a slow but constant way, and the Nigerian culture would never be the same afterwards. The Joys of Motherhood picks up where Achebe left off and gives the reader insight into what took place before colonialism so firmly placed itself in the Igbo community.

In The Joys of Motherhood, we see the importance of gender in the Igbo society. In Nnu Ego's town, polygamy is the custom and the worth of a woman is completely related to her ability to have children, or not to have children. In fact, Nnu Ego's first marriage to Amatokwu fails because of her difficulty to conceive. The customs are definitely limiting in the Igbo culture and we see Nnu Ego struggling to fulfill these expectations constantly.She becomes the object of her husband's ridicule (as well as his people) and is then brought back to her village much to the shame of her family. Because of this shame to her family, Nnu Ego must marry Nnaife who lives very far away from the comforts of her own village. However, women are not the only ones who are bound by their culture in Emecheta's novel, men also have certain things that are demanded of them and colonialism complicates their gender roles as well.

Achebe, in his book, Things Fall Apart, illustrates the gradual process of colonial imposition, however, Emecheta focuses solely on the aftermath. Yet, despite the differences in time, Nnu Ego and Okonkwo go through a very similar journey. Achebe sets up the colonial environment in his book and in Emecheta's novel we see how the characters are influenced by the post-colonialist world in which they live. We see that colonialism has forced native populations to adopt and adhere to systems and beliefs that are not familiar to them. Such things as capitalism, religion, and ideas of education and conduct impose on the Igbo culture. Religion is one of the biggest elements that tears away at the structural fabric of the Igbo society. In Achebe's novel, it is Christianity that begins to divide Okonkwo and his son. However, the Igbo people don't immediately acknowledge that the white religion is driving a wedge between them; in fact, in the beginning, the Igbo are not concerned with the white religion at all -- or at least they do….....