Navigating Identity: Estrangement and Cultural Clashes in Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood

Abstract

In this research article, the intricate negotiations of identity in Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood are analyzed, namely the estrangement and cultural dissonance of protagonist Nnu Ego in colonial Nigeria. When the conventional Igbo values are confronted by the imported Western ideologies of colonial domination, Nnu Ego’s role as a mother turns into a site of contested identity, gender, and cultural affiliation that remains challenged. The conflict between native conceptions of womanhood is especially rendered in the novel, with regard to motherhood, fertility, household labor, and conditions of colonial urban life that yield economic deprivation and personal disillusionment. Intensive reading of the novel, the essay analyzes how Nnu Ego’s self-denials symbolize bigger problems of dislocation, cultural disintegration, and the psychic expense of clinging to conventional roles in a new world. This paper also explores how Emecheta critiques the idealized notion of motherhood and discovers how it proves to be a source of identity and alienation. Tracing the changing sense of self in the protagonist, the study shows how cultural conflicts undermine communal certainties and force women to negotiate alone with their identity. Finally, the paper maintains that The Joys of Motherhood is a poignant critique of the alienation occurring when inherited identities are no longer sustainable.