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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 9, No. 6
Publication Date: June 25, 2022
DOI:10.14738/assrj.96.12538. Gbaguidi, C., Amouzou, L., Tossou, M., & Adjavounvoun, M. (2022). Social Representation of Women in Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys
of Motherhood and Flora Nwapa’s Efuru. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 9(6). 270-280.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Social Representation of Women in Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of
Motherhood and Flora Nwapa’s Efuru
Célestin GBAGUIDI
Département d’Anglais, Université d’Abomey-Calavi
République du Bénin
Lonlonyo AMOUZOU
Département d’Anglais, Université d’Abomey-Calavi
République du Bénin
Mathieu TOSSOU
Département d’Anglais, Université d’Abomey-Calavi
République du Bénin
Maxime ADJAVOUNVOUN
Département d’Anglais, Université d’Abomey-Calavi
République du Bénin
ABSTRACT
An analysis of the African fiction in the South of the Sahara shows a bias in the
depiction of male and female characters. The purpose of this article is to explore the
social representation of African women in post-colonial Africa as hardworking and
intrepid characters, man’s companion, support and shield, and eventually as
educators. Contrary to the distorted social perception society has of women in
Africa, female novelists like Buchi Emecheta in The Joys of Motherhood and Flora
Nwapa through Efuru, have deconstructed the social established norms giving
masculine roles to their female characters. Nnu Ego, Adaku and Efuru – characters
in these novels – have reversed the roles by working hard, protecting their families
and by educating children and societies. Through the use of post-colonial criticism
as backdrop, this paper deconstructs the negative representations that patriarchal
societies have of women highlighting the predominant roles that female characters
play. A qualitative data analysis and feminism approaches have been used to better
explore the social representation of women in African patriarchal settings in this
work.
Key words: representation, masculine roles, female characters, feminism, patriarchy.
INTRODUCTION
For many years, African societies were organised in a way that constantly deteriorated
woman’s image. Women were subjugated to any sort of degrading treatment. On this score, in
“a patriarchal society, women are faced with all sorts of dehumanisation ranging from
deprivation, negligence, maltreatment, marginalisation, oppression, subjugation, exploitation,
humiliation and even isolation, all of which emanate from aspects of people’s culture. In such a
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Gbaguidi, C., Amouzou, L., Tossou, M., & Adjavounvoun, M. (2022). Social Representation of Women in Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood
and Flora Nwapa’s Efuru. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 9(6). 270-280.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.96.12538
society, for instance, women are seen, but not heard” (Capo-Chichi, Gbaguidi & Djossou 2017:
113). These words exemplify the evil done to women in phallocentric societies. Indeed, women
in male-dominated societies are in a total confinement and have no access to good social
conditions. This state of things is fuelled by men’s writings which have tended to diminish
women folk as a result of a distorted portrayal. Women have been portrayed as dependent upon
men – who have historically been the heads of the family and the only bread winners.
Subsequently, Kaboré (2020) posits that African literature “shows variations in literary
portrayal of men and women” (32) and often to women’s detriment. This depiction of women
in their household and society justifies the position of triviality and uselessness they are given.
Ouadrago (2016) buttresses these traditionally assigned female tasks when he points out that:
“culinary activities and ― the collection of firewood and water is seen [...] as female tasks”.
Chukukere (1992) confirms that the ideal female character created by male writers often acts
within the framework of her traditional roles as wife and mother. In this wake, Kaboré (2020)
contends “To be a wife and mother stands first and foremost in woman‘s role” (33) in African
patriarchal societies. This means that women’s representation in their society is limited to
these two roles whereby they should learn to become good wives and mothers. Oddly enough,
as “Achebe justifies the writing of Things Fall Apart, arguing that African pre-colonial history
must be written by African people to avoid distortions” (Booker 2003: 65), only women can
work to restore their true image. Aiming to repaint women’s image and buttress the pivotal
roles, which reveal their true representation, women writers like Buchi Emecheta, Flora Nwapa,
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, Amma Darko, Ata Aidoo, to mention only
a few of them, assign masculine parts to their female characters. In The Joys of Motherhood and
Efuru respectively by the first two female writers, the characters Nnu Ego, Adaku, Efuru and
Nwabata show that women are not so different from men and that they can also do everything
that men can.
Using a socio-critical approach, this article presents African women as they are depicted in the
aforementioned novels. How do Buchi Emecheta and Flora Nwapa describe women in their
works?
WOMEN AS HARDWORKING AND INTREPID CHARACTERS
In traditional Africa, women are believed to be useful only for domestic tasks and child bearing.
Kaboré (2020) confirms this patriarchal stance on the traditional African woman when he
opines that “Begetting children is also presented as a key to woman‘s self-realization” (35). This
image of women has proved wrong when we consider the actions and the works many of them
truly perform. African women’s daily fights for self-sufficiency and self-autonomy or
empowerment are largely sufficient to attest to their paramount position in society. In Buchi
Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood, the practice of levirate is still rife whereby the female
character Adaku has been ‘inherited’ by Nnaife after the death of his elder brother.
Interestingly, though Adaku has been open-heartedly welcomed by the senior wife, Nnu Ego,
she eventually leaves the household in search for a better life not only for herself but also for
her fatherless daughter. In the absence of their husband Nnaife, she becomes a public woman
who trades in various food crops. She sells beans and peppers whose profits help her to buy a
larger stall for herself. This idea of using one’s business profits to better develop one’s business
is the strategy of intelligent businesspeople. Adaku’s entrepreneurial skills and commitment to
succeed show women’s cleverness. When she happens to acquire a larger stall, she decides to
sell abada material for lappas. This new business is more profitable than the former.
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Subsequently, Adaku’s social standing has changed. This sudden improvement of the
committed woman’s fortunes fascinates the senior wife, Nnu Ego, and this is shown in this
passage:
On that day Adaku was living up to the meaning of her name: ‘the daughter of wealth’. She told
Nnu Ego that she was giving up selling beans and peppers, she was buying a larger stall on
which she would have abada material for lappas. She smiled to see the wonder and surprise on
Nnu Ego’s face. She would have passed on her former stall to Nnu Ego, she said, but she was
leasing it to someone who would pay her yearly. ‘That will take care of my rent at least’ she
finished laughing. ‘You mean you won’t have to depend on men friends to do anything for you?’
‘No’, she replied. ‘I want to be a dignified single woman (Emecheta, 1979: 190).
It appears that the narrator in Emecheta’s novel published in 1979 highlights the African
woman’s entrepreneurial and innovative skills enabling her to be entirely self-sufficient from
men’s bondage. As a result, one can see through Adaku that female characters are capable of
achieving great things in many fields contrary to the domestic and traditional limit which is set
for them.The success Adaku has achieved in her trade is illustrative of the fact that a woman
can work hard to make money and provide herself and her children with all the necessary
comforts in case a man’s support is missing.
In addition to Adaku, Nnu Ego – the protagonist of the novel – shows much effort to survive
without her husband’s back up. She works very hard as well. She is ready to do whatever
possible to feed her children and herself and even sometimes pay the rent. Even other women
acknowledge that Nnu Ego is a distinguished woman. Though her husband is at war, she does
her best to compensate for the duties of the head of the family. Buchi Emecheta uses the
character of Mama Abby to show that Nnu Ego is a very strong character, a man-like woman
who does all she can to satisfy her family’s basic needs. Talking about Oshia (Enu Ego’s elder
son’s) schooling, Nnu expresses her thankfulness to Abby’s mother for all she has done to her.
The conversation of both women goes thus: “Putting her baby to her breast Nnu Ego said
gratefully, 'I do thank you for taking all this trouble over him, Mama Abby. The older woman
[Mama Abby] laughed. ‘You know I'm no better off than you, but at least a man pays my rent’”
(Emecheta 119). It stands out that Nnu Ego is in the position of a man. The role of providing
shelter and food is dedicated to men. This way, Nnu Ego is doing the masculine role which
Nnaife should do as husband. By raising the point in their conversation, Mama Abby recognises
that some women are so strong physically that they can even do without men. Nnu Ego’s effort
and determination are openly acknowledged by Mama Abby. The eponymous heroine, Efuru, in
Flora Nwapa’s Efuru is another enterprising woman who has made herself a name in the male
dominated society in which she lives.
In addition to Adaku and Nnu Ego, Efuru is also a hardworking woman whose intelligence and
entrepreneurial skill are even beyond her husband’s. She is the initiator and leader of the
business she and her husband run. She refuses to follow her husband for farm work, as she
firmly thinks that she is not cut out for farm activities. The narrator counts: “Efuru refused to
go to the farm with her husband. ‘If you like,’ she said to her husband, ‘go to the farm. I am not
cut out for farm work. ‘I am going to trade’. That year the man went to the farm while his wife
remained in the town” (Nwapa 1966:10). In this case, one can clearly see that Efuru as a woman
in a more masculine role, has decided on what she thinks can be profitable, not only for herself
but also for her husband whose farm activities have revealed to be unprofitable and