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Buchi Emecheta’s work, The Joys of Motherhood, is opposite to the title. In this novel, no joy makes the mother happy except for distraction in Africa. In the Ibo tradition, marriage is an essential ritual for girls and boys. Marriage is a source of Joy for men, but it is the opposite for women. After marriage, people ask women to bear the child. A woman must face many unnecessary questions and complexities if she takes to conceive. Sometimes, she is tagged as barren. Man is free to enjoy life. Nobody dares impose a single question on man to ask about fatherhood. All questions go to women. Man deserts his wife if she cannot bear a child, and man can remarry quickly to grow a family tree. Children are the form of gods in Ibo society. The child is the symbol of happiness, especially the male child. The birth of a child is celebrated with great pomp. Children are considered helpers while the parents grow old. ‘Joys of Motherhood’ represents this reality of life. Women find nothing in the process of motherhood. Nnu-ego is the daughter of Agbadi. Her father gets her married to Amatokwu. However, Nnu-ego fails to conceive. People blamed her as barren and juiceless. So Amatokwu is free to hold the second wife, and Nnu-Ego returns to Agbadi. Nnu-ego re-marries Nnaife Owulum. She hates him on the first night, but he finds the right to have a sexual relationship with her. He brutally raped her at night, but she could do nothing. She soon realizes she is blessed with a child, and Nnaife impregnates her. After birthing, the child cannot survive long. Finally, she is proud of seven children’s mothers (three boys and four girls). But at last, she feels alienated and misses her children. Her children do not care and never return to her. Her whole life was shattered in poverty and the cradle of children. No child has time for her, so she is robbed by her children. Nnu-ego expresses her grief through these words: “God, when will you create a woman who will be fulfilled in herself, a full human being, not anybody's appendage? I was born alone, and I shall die alone. What have I gained from all this? And if I am lucky enough to die in peace.” [1] Successfully, Emecheta picturizes a reality of her contemporary social tradition where motherhood is a symbol of completeness; if married women want a prestigious place or right from their husband, they must be a mother. The lack of a child is a symbol of inadequateness. She never deserves proper respect from her husband or society. In traditional Nigerian Ibo society, women are only trained and confined to grow a family tree. Tradition is a critical web where the survival of women is difficult. No one can be safe from this crucial tradition. It includes a lot of myths, theories, assumptions, affairs, and practices that are to obey without arguing. Nigerian society's rules are the same. Modernity never affects the condition of women. It always dominates women under the shackles of tradition and culture. Emecheta's novels are remarkable evidence of woman’s suffering, problems, and sacrifices. In the Joys of motherhood, Emecheta picturizes her journey from childhood to motherhood. She feels or rejoices the pride of the dearest daughter of Agbadi. Her first husband, Amatokwu, abuses and blames her for not becoming a mother. Gradually, he behaves like an animal to Nnu-ego. One day he remarries, and she returns to Ibuza. Her father, Agbadi, welcomed her. After many years, she remarries Nnaife. She does not accept Nnaife's physical appearance. But she to think that she would get the tag of motherhood by impregnation Emecheta describes how the people expect a woman to be a mother and good wife, sound woman for the society, family, and community. This story focuses on how crucial it is to maintain their people's values. Nnu-Ego also wants to live up to her father's standards by becoming a good wife and mother. A good wife means to obey her husband's command without saying anything. Agbadi says: “Let her go, she is as barren as a desert.” [2] The motive of Ibo males is to suppress their wives using conjugal rights. Buchi Emecheta’s title Joy of motherhood is also a line of Efuru. Both have the same similarity, just the traditional practices of motherhood. Motherhood is just like a boon for conventional Ibo people. But gradually, this boon transforms into curses for the mother. The Joy of motherhood can understand this. Nnu-Ego is pregnant with her first child, but he cannot survive long. Then, she becomes the mother of twin daughters. In this way, she gives birth to seven healthy children: three sons and four daughters. She is on cloud nine after getting the tag of seven children’s mothers. But very soon, she notices that she has engrossed in raising children and doing another homely chorus. Day by day, she feels that she is falling into the pit. But she can do nothing to become a puppet. Her life moves around her children. She thinks about her children's growth and development, but the title of motherhood eats her gradually, which she never sees it. After being a mother, she thinks that she will be prosperous in her coming age because she is a mother of seven children, but motherhood becomes a silent worm that, like a termite, her body and soul. Katherine Frank expresses her view on the Joy of Motherhood, “The complete futility of motherhood that we find in the joy of the motherhood is the most heretical and radical aspect of Emecheta’s vision of the African women."[3]

A lot of research work is done on the patriarchal system. Through this paper, sweet motherhood change into a dig of garbage. This is the reality of society.

She becomes a traditional Nigerian wife and mother without respect for these complications. Emecheta explores the themes of the negation of motherhood. Emecheta tries to search for women's identity in this Ibo culture society. Nnu-Ego is her father's princess, but she has to follow the rules and strict traditions to achieve womanhood and motherhood. Her life is discarded and sacrificed at the altar of ritual, myth, and culture. When Nnu-Ego fails to follow the traditional rules of women (motherhood), her father, Agbadi, also rejects her. The taunting of the childless constantly shivered her soul like an arrow. Emecheta points:

“It is in Ibuza that a childless marriage is not recognized. When a woman is virtuous, it is easy for her to conceive.” [4]

According to Ibo's standards, her compulsion to stay with Nnaife is to prove she is a good wife and mother. She has hated him since the first night. Nobody can escape from the imprisonment of tradition. When she gets the happiness of motherhood, she has to struggle to nurture her children. She must work hard to feed them. She has to perform the double duty of a father and a mother because her husband works under the colonizer. His income is insufficient to provide for the children properly; she works as a street-side peddler. This society exploited her. She wipes the tag of barrenness, but her happiness never comes into her life. She wants to be a good mother/complete mother to children. So, she decides to support her husband in financial matters. She has to face many complications and difficulties to cross all hurdles. Nnu-Ego is entirely devoted to her children. Her life starts with her children, which is why she thinks the future will be full of Joy and happiness, but all her sweet dreams never come true. She has no escaping from her physical as well as internal pain. It seems she remains to bear all pain without expressing uneasiness and unhappiness. When she is with her first husband, he has a sexual relationship with his junior wife. Nnu-Ego has to face the junior wife without complaint. Amatokwu neglects her day by day.

“if I go to Amatokwu hut, they will say I am jealous because he prefers the young nursing mother to me.” [5]

The same condition is in her eyes in the hut of her first husband when he is with his new younger wife. Nnaife throttles her privacy bitterly. It is tough to stay in the same cabin while her husband is with his new wife, Adaku. She has to sleep on the floor with her baby. Emecheta presents a painful condition of society. Nnaife is shameless; he never cares for his child because he has a relationship with his new wife before his child. This act is entirely illicit. Buchi lights the suffering of Nigerian women.

 Nnaife always picks the condition to show his manhood before Nnu-Ego. When pregnant with his first child, she asks Nnaife about her pregnancy. Is he happy or not? Nnaife boasts his manhood before her. She never becomes a mother without him. He has the power to impregnate her. It is not a moment of happiness except to show his power or manhood.

“Of course, I am happy to know that I m a man, yes, that I can make a woman pregnant… Remember, though, without me you could not be carrying that child.” [6]

She never achieved a proper place in the eyes of her husband. He is quite a typical Ibo husband who has no words of praise. Nnaife has too much superiority. He never takes a single step for the welfare of Nnu-Ego and his children. He knows how to spend a little money on drinking. Nnu-Ego is always busy thinking about the welfare of children, especially sons. However, she sends her sons and daughters to school for education. She never touches the book, but she wants them to educate. Her health worsens gradually due to many deliveries, pregnancies, and malnutrition. Her daughter Kehinde goes away without informing anyone. He raises the question of bringing the children to Nnu-Ego.

"All her struggles and efforts to be a good mother, to give all that she could to be her children, etc. went in vain.” [7]  

She is anxious for her children's happiness; she manages everything without Nnaife’s help. She bears beyond all limits. She achieves nothing but humiliation, suffering bandages, and hypocrisy. Now she wants to break all shackles, chains, and obligations. But she knows very well; she never achieves freedom from all applications. She thinks that death gives a piece to her and her soul. Lack of nutrition, she grows old in her adulthood. She is always busy doing work for her children instead of making friends.“She had never really made many friends, so busy had she is building up her joys as a mother.” [8]

1. Emecheta, Buchi. The joys of motherhood: A Novel. (New York: G. Braziller, 1979), pp.186. (Further reference is in parenthesis). 2. https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/joysofmotherhood/quotes/page/5# 3.Frank, Katherine.The death of the Slave Girl: African No mnhood in the novels of Buchi Emecheta.” World Literature in English, 21.2, 1984, p.490. 4. JOM,30-31. 5. JOM,33 6. Ibid,50-51 7. Ibid,215 8. Ibid,224 9. Ibid,222 10.Efuru-221.