Buchi Emecheta, a Feminist with a Small ‘f’ or a Motherist with a Big ‘M’?

Amari, Ourida; Maoui, Hocine

المجلة الجزائرية للمخطوطات
Volume 17, Numéro 3, Pages 224-243
2021-12-31

Buchi Emecheta, A Feminist With A Small ‘f’ Or A Motherist With A Big ‘m’?

Authors : Amari Ourida . Maoui Hocine .

Abstract

The present paper attempts to investigate the ‘degree’ of feminism in the works of the prolific Nigerian female novelist, Buchi Emecheta. She, who defines herself as a feminist with a small ‘f’, scrutinises the evolution of the African woman, struggling to break free from the bounds of traditions and to enter modernity. In In the Ditch, Second Class Citizen, and The Joys of Motherhood, that are dealt with in this article, the writer depicts the sufferance of women in traditional patriarchal societies and their battles to get out to modernity, where, unfortunately they face other difficulties. Emecheta defends women, but does not reject men – the father, the brother, the husband; she calls for women’s freedom, but not without their children. She spans the experiences from traditional Ibo life in Nigeria to modern Western milieu in England, stressing more on the status of the mother than on the condition of the woman. So, a feminist or a motherist? Emecheta has rejected the former concept; would she accept the latter?