Imatge de l'autor

Buchi Emecheta (1944–2017)

Autor/a de The Joys of Motherhood

24+ obres 2,377 Membres 51 Ressenyes 5 preferits

Sobre l'autor

Buchi Emecheta was born in Lagos, Nigeria on July 21, 1944. She emigrated to London, England in 1960. She received a sociology degree at the University of London. She worked as a social worker for a number of years and contributed a column to the New Statesman about black British life. She wrote 20 mostra'n més novels during her lifetime including The Joys of Motherhood, The Rape of Shavi, Second Class Citizen, Into the Ditch, The Bride Price, and The New Tribe. Her first play, A Kind of Marriage, was screened on BBC TV in 1976 and was adapted into a novel in 1986. Her autobiography was entitled Head Above Water. In 2005, she was made an OBE for services to literature. She died on January 25, 2017 at the age of 72. (Bowker Author Biography) mostra'n menys

Sèrie

Obres de Buchi Emecheta

The Joys of Motherhood (1979) — Autor — 822 exemplars
Second Class Citizen (1974) 402 exemplars
The Bride Price (1976) 273 exemplars
The Slave Girl (1977) 152 exemplars
Kehinde (1994) 108 exemplars
Double Yoke (1983) 85 exemplars
In the Ditch (1972) 81 exemplars
The Family (1989) 76 exemplars
The Rape of Shavi (1983) — Autor — 73 exemplars
Head Above Water (1986) 65 exemplars
Destination Biafra (1982) 40 exemplars
The Moonlight Bride (1980) 34 exemplars
The Wrestling Match (1981) 29 exemplars
The New Tribe (2000) 21 exemplars
Adah's Story (1983) 14 exemplars
Naira Power (1982) 6 exemplars
Nowhere to Play (1980) 3 exemplars
Titch the Cat (1979) 1 exemplars
A Kind of Marriage (1986) 1 exemplars
Ciudadana de segunda (2022) 1 exemplars
NO FUNDO DO POÇO 1 exemplars

Obres associades

The Pleasure of Reading (1992) — Col·laborador — 188 exemplars
Granta 7: Best of Young British Novelists (1983) — Col·laborador — 91 exemplars
Unwinding Threads: Writing by Women in Africa (1983) — Col·laborador — 73 exemplars
The Virago Book of Wanderlust and Dreams (1998) — Col·laborador — 36 exemplars
Women: A World Report (1985) — Col·laborador — 30 exemplars
African Literature: an anthology of criticism and theory (2007) — Col·laborador — 23 exemplars
IC3: The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain (2000) — Col·laborador — 16 exemplars

Etiquetat

Coneixement comú

Nom normalitzat
Emecheta, Buchi
Nom oficial
Emecheta, Florence Onye Buchi
Data de naixement
1944-07-21
Data de defunció
2017-01-25
Gènere
female
Nacionalitat
Nigeria
Lloc de naixement
Lagos, Nigeria
Lloc de defunció
London, England, UK
Causa de la mort
dementia
Llocs de residència
Yaba, Nigeria
London, England, UK
Calabar, Nigeria
Educació
University of London (sociology)
Professions
writer
professor
Organitzacions
Ogwugwu Afor Publishing Company
Premis i honors
Granta's Best of Young British Novelists (1983)
OBE

Membres

Ressenyes

Nnu Ego, filha de um grande líder africano, é enviada como esposa para um homem na capital da Nigéria. Determinada a realizar o sonho de ser mãe e, assim, tornar-se uma “mulher completa”, submete-se a condições de vida precárias e enfrenta praticamente sozinha a tarefa de educar e sustentar os filhos. Entre a lavoura e a cidade, entre as tradições dos igbos e a influência dos colonizadores, ela luta pela integridade da família e pela manutenção dos valores de seu povo.
 
Marcat
Saladeleitura.ern | Hi ha 19 ressenyes més | Aug 24, 2023 |
Nnu Ego is the daughter of an Ibo chief and his favorite mistress, a headstrong woman who refuses to marry him or live in his compound. On the night that Nnu Ego is conceived, a horrible incident occurs which will overshadow Nnu Ego's life, for an angry spirit becomes her chi, a spiritual force that influences her life for good or ill.

Nnu Ego is raised lovingly and is married to a kind man whom she loves. Unfortunately, she is unable to conceive, even though many sacrifices are made to try and appease her chi. She returns home in disgrace when her husband takes another wife. Her father makes another match for her, sight unseen, with the son of a local family, although he lives in Lagos. When she shows up at the white man's compound where her new husband lives, she is dismayed to find that he is nothing as advertised.

Life with Nnaife is difficult from the beginning, but the one bright spot is that she soon becomes pregnant. This is the goal that she has been taught to strive for: motherhood. Her self-worth, societal standing, position in the family, everything, depends on her having children, especially boy children. Boys will grow up to take care of the family, the younger siblings, and her when she is old. Girls are helpful around the house, cheap because they don't need much education, and bring a handsome bride price at a young age. But the joy of motherhood is short-lived. Child mortality is high, poverty and malnutrition are constants, and her husband is neither supportive nor a good provider.

World War II brings great changes, none of them good. Throughout everything, however, Nnu Ego struggles to keep the boys in school. They are the future of the family and her social security. But as the years pass, traditional customs become alien to children raised in the city, and Nnu Ego finds herself struggling to understand how her life has turned out as it has.

The Joy of Motherhood is a most ironic title, both in the personal and societal sense. Nigeria undergoes tremendous change between the 1930s and 1950s, and traditional supports are undermined before new societal structures have been built. Nnu Ego is stuck between her traditional rural upbringing and the modern city in which she finds herself. While some women are able to navigate the changes, she is left behind. The novel is focused both on the micro, the life of one woman, and the macro, the place of women in Nigerian society. This is a book that I will be thinking about for a while.
… (més)
½
 
Marcat
labfs39 | Hi ha 19 ressenyes més | Mar 20, 2023 |
A finely crafted novel set in the 1930s to 1950s following the life of a young woman Nnu-Ego in an evolving Nigeria. Moving from a rural village to Lagos where traditions slowly evolve.

In a tradition where women are seen as chattels and were the position she would hold in the rural village is lost in the hubbub of a buzzing, modernising city.

A novel not for the faint hearted as Nnu-Ego's life is hard and harsh. I shal certainly return to Emechetia's work.
 
Marcat
Caroline_McElwee | Hi ha 19 ressenyes més | Nov 1, 2022 |
The setting is colonial Nigeria, before, during and after WWII. Villagers from tribes in the interior come to Lagos, on the coast, where they may not make as much working for themselves as farmers, but the pay is steady and the work is not so demanding.

The protagonist, Nnu Ego meets her husband, arranged in marriage by her father:
P.42
Nnu Ego was grateful for it, and was just falling asleep with a full stomach when in walked a man with a belly like a pregnant cow, wobbling first to this side and then to that. The belly, coupled with the fact that he was short, made him look like a barrel. his hair, unlike that of men at home in Ibuza, was not closely shaved; he left a lot of it on his head, like that of a woman mourning for her husband. His skin was pale, the skin of someone who had for a long time worked in the shade and not in the open air. His cheeks were puffy and looked as if he had pieces of hot yam inside them, and they seem to have pushed his mouth into a smaller size above his weak jaw. And his clothes - Nnu Ego had never seen men dressed like that: khaki shorts with holes in an old, loose, white singlet.

He gives her so many children, and barely makes any money when he does work, that she has to hustle to make pennies to feed their children. She picks up pieces of wood dockside and chops them, tying them in bundles to sell. When Nnaife's brother dies, he brings the junior wife home to Live with them. Too bad if Nnu Ego doesn't like all the noise her husband makes having sex with his new wife, in the Same room. He is the man and he rules. Towards the end, he acquired a 16-year-old for yet another wife.

P.162
Nnu Ego was like those not - so - well - informed Christians who, promised the kingdom of heaven, believed that it was literally just around the corner and that Jesus Christ was coming on the very Morrow. many of them would hardly contribute anything to this world, reasoning, "what is the use? Christ will come soon." They became so insulated in their beliefs that not only would they have little to do with ordinary sinners, people going about their daily work, but even pitied them and in many cases look down on them because the kingdom of God was not for the likes of them. Maybe this was a protective mechanism device to save them from realities too painful to accept.

P.206
Nnaife is an ignorant, macho husband:
"I have a mind to tell you and your brats to leave this house immediately. I was not created to suffer for you till I die."
Understanding was gradually dawning on Nnu Ego. She could guess that his anger was connected with the children. She was becoming Fed Up of this two-way standard. When the children were good they belonged to the father; when they were bad, they belonged to the mother. Every woman knew this; but for Nnaife to keep hurling it in her face at the slightest provocation was very unfair. She decided to have her own back, not caring that Okpo the young wife was there watching and listening.
"I didn't bring the children from my father's house. You gave them to me. Leave your house? What house have you got? How many people live in mud covered houses in Lagos? I am only waiting for my share of your pension money. I worked for it as well. After that, if you don't want me, I can go back to my people."

Needless to say, the title is tongue-in-cheek. The culture this book was written about is so patriarchal, it made me feel sick to my stomach for the women characters that this book reflected.
… (més)
 
Marcat
burritapal | Hi ha 19 ressenyes més | Oct 23, 2022 |

Llistes

Premis

Potser també t'agrada

Autors associats

Estadístiques

Obres
24
També de
9
Membres
2,377
Popularitat
#10,800
Valoració
½ 3.7
Ressenyes
51
ISBN
178
Llengües
13
Preferit
5

Gràfics i taules