Mothering Performativity in Buchi Emecheta’s "The Joys of Motherhood"

Abstract

In the novel The Joys of Motherhood, author Buchi Emecheta demonstrates how motherhood emerges from a patriarchal society characterized by a homogeneous system of oppression. Motherhood is closely intertwined with gender, where women’s roles are often determined by traditional hierarchical norms. In Nigeria’s Igbo culture, a woman is not only restricted to male dominance and domestic space but also to coercive mechanisms, such as polygamy, son preference, and widow inheritance. Although all are subjected to the same cultural and gendered background, the novel introduces the reader to Ona, Nnu Ego, and Adaku, women who develop their identities differently. Sometimes, these fictional characters follow the traditional Igbo views on womanhood, and other times, they subvert them by providing a new performative model. Applying Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity to Nigeria’s Igbo culture, this article argues that mothering performativity is a way of (de)constructing traditional Igbo views of womanhood. Using the method of a critical textual analysis of The Joys of Motherhood, I examine how the characters Nnu Ego, Ona, and Adaku internalize or subvert cultural tradition by liberating themselves from gender expectation. Butler’s framework explains the possibilities of subversion and displacement within the dominant structure. Moreover, the power of performativity is articulated with the ideology of mothering in which mothers exercise agency by determining their routes through life. In contrast to the apolitical and oppressive institution of motherhood, mothering performativity transforms women’s daily practices into a source of power.