THE STRUGGLES OF MOTHERHOOD IN THE AFRICAN NOVELLA AND NOVEL: MARIAMA BA’s SO LONG A LETTER AND BUCHI EMECHETA’S THE JOYS OF MOTHERHOOD

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the challenges women encounter in motherhood as well as the position of women in their societies, credibly displaying both the truth as well as the strengths of women in modern setups. The fundamental issues of motherhood for the key characters in Bâ’s and Emecheta’s work are related. Nonetheless, regardless of which level of society they fit in or what level of difficulty they suffer, these characters really experience shockingly related feelings just as offer the challenges at any rate somewhat or not molding the occasions of their family's lives. This study will analyze how the position of a woman contributes to the struggles of motherhood, identify the different stylistic strategies used to characterize the struggles of motherhood, and determine how the constraints of motherhood raise gender issues in the selected texts. This research is limited to the selected texts because the authors have come from societies where women struggle under polygamous marriage. In these patriarchal societies, women are made subjects to the men who are their superiors. The study will use West African texts by feminist authors, which clearly illustrate these challenges. In addition, the societies which the authors have come from are victims of these issues. Hence, this study aims at creating social awareness of the challenges that women are still facing in most African countries and credibly displaying both the truth as well as the strengths of women in the modern setup. The findings of the study will be of benefit to the ministry of education in the formulation of policies that relate to the challenges of motherhood. The study will be premised on formalist and feminist literary theories. The research will be carried out through textual analysis of the two selected novels; Mariama Bâ’s (So Long a Letter) as well as Emecheta (The Joys of Motherhood), and relate the data to the objectives of the study. The researcher will make relevant conclusions and propose recommendations to address the challenges women encounter in motherhood and the position of women in their societies, convincingly displaying both the truth as well as the strengths of women in a modern setup.

Keywords: Struggles of Motherhood, Stylistic Strategies, Constrains of Motherhood So Long A Letter, The Joys of Motherhood