Vol. 6, Issue 1, Part D (2024)

Buchi Emecheta, a prolific Nigerian diasporic woman writer was a sociologist, poet, novelist, playwright and children’s story writer. Most of her novels are semi-autobiographical accounts of her life in Africa and London, wherein she delineates the unjust discrimination and subjugation of women in the name of orthodox tradition. She questions the relation between oppressive African traditions and issues like motherhood, marriage, polygamy gender relations and colonial and neocolonial facets which oppress women in various ways. Buchi Emecheta in her novels The Bride Price, The Slave Girl, The Joys of Motherhood, represents the dilemma of women who are caught between men and tradition. In her representation of African womanhood, Emecheta has woven her novels around oppressive facets like bride price, obligatory motherhood, marriage, racism and migration. Buchi Emecheta in her two novels, Destination Biafra and The Rape of Shavi reveals that the ideology of woman as mother Africa does little to lessen the exploitation of either mother Africa or the African woman. Buchi Emecheta articulates the definition of subjugation and the journey of women, both traditional and modern. Emecheta’s portrayal of women represents a unique phase of African society in each of her novels, where women amidst innumerable pressure visualize change and accomplish it.