Motherhood Without Joy: Patriarchy, Sacrifice and Female Dispossession in The Joys of Motherhood

Sanobar Haque

Motherhood Without Joy: Patriarchy, Sacrifice and Female Dispossession in The Joys of Motherhood

Author(s)	Ms. Sanobar Haque
Country	India
Abstract	Abstract: In The Joys of Motherhood through Nnu Ego’s journey, Emecheta highlights the subjugation of women’s identity in disguise of being a careful mother and an ideal wife. Nnu Ego in the novel is a daughter of the tribal leader of Ibuza, who never leaves her home. Yet, in the later part of the novel she moves to the farthest land to be a mother, distorted by the loss of her child, she travelled and suffered of hunger and endured endless sacrifices, but her worth is not measured by her identity and perseverance, but only through her capacity of being an ideal mother of her sons. In the novel, Nnu Ego’s tragedy is quieter. She sacrifices all and gets the forgetfulness in return as a reward. When her children go away and the world passes away, she passes on all by herself. Her women are in the same breath living in patriarchy and the colonial aftermath, and there is no easy way out there but simply a survival. African feminism is significant in this context not because of western patterns of liberation but because it is experienced in real-life situations. The feminism of Emecheta is developed on the basis of kitchens, crammed flats, and worn-out bodies. It is not anti-mothers, but poses an unpleasant question of who gains by it. Thus, this study looks at one of her most significant novels, The Joys of Motherhood, not just as a clean feminist text, but rather as a lived reality of a black African woman, their subjugation, struggle, and the aftermath of their ignorance towards their own resistance and rights.
Keywords	Keywords: Feminist Texts, Subjugation, Resistance and rights
Field	Arts
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 2, March-April 2026
Published On	2026-03-07

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Motherhood Without Joy: Patriarchy, Sacrifice and Female Dispossession in The Joys of Motherhood

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