49 pages • 1 hour read
Buchi EmechetaThe Joys of Motherhood
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1979A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 16-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary: “A Mother of Clever Children”
Three months later, Nnu Ego and her family move to a mud house in Onike, an area without electricity or indoor plumbing. Nnu Ego purchases a sewing machine to enable her to begin selling clothes.
On the day that Oshia leaves to attend an expensive secondary school in Warri, Adaku and Mama Abby come to see him off. Adaku reveals that her girls are attending a convent school, and she plans to educate them further. Nnu Ego’s older set of twin daughters are no longer in school as she needs their help to pay for her sons’ educations, and she plans for them to marry in a few years.
A few years pass. Okpo, who is good-natured and submissive to Nnu Ego, gives birth to a girl. Adim, now 11, asks to attend secondary school like Oshia. Nnu Ego explains that Oshia, as the firstborn son, receives special treatment; at best, they can afford to send Adim to a local secondary school. Meanwhile, Oshia announces his intention to attend university after secondary school, delaying his potential to support his parents financially.
At the age of 40, Nnu Ego becomes pregnant once again. One day, while her children are away, she gives birth to a girl who is stillborn. Afterward, Nnu Ego falls ill for several days. She feels mixed sadness and relief and wonders if part of her wanted the baby to die, since she doesn’t feel that she can support another child.
Around the same time that Adim announces that he was accepted into a local secondary school, Okpo announces that she is pregnant. Nnu Ego is struck by their “youthful optimism.”
Chapter 17 Summary: “A Daughter’s Honor”
The 1950s bring personal and social change. Ubani shares rumors of Nigerians governing themselves instead of remaining under British rule.
Oshia accepts a position as a research scientist at a technical institute; a few months later, he accepts a scholarship to continue his studies at a university in the United States. Angry at Oshia’s choice to continue his studies instead of providing for the family, Nnaife disowns Oshia and announces his retirement. Nnu Ego gives up on the idea of ever receiving material or financial support from her children. Instead, she hopes that they will enjoy better lives than she did and perhaps even become leaders.
Nnu Ego’s twin daughters, Taiwo and Kehinde, turn 15 and begin to attract suitors. Following the traditional pattern, Nnaife matches Taiwo with Magnus, a young, intelligent clerk. When Nnaife hints at a husband for Kehinde, however, she rejects his offer and tells him that she intends to marry Ladipo, a Yoruba man who is the son of a local butcher. Nnaife, who is prejudiced against Yorubas, becomes angry.
After her announcement, Kehinde leaves the house, and Nnaife begins to drink. He swears at Nnu Ego when she asks him what is wrong, blaming her for their children’s disrespectful behavior.
When Kehinde fails to return by bedtime, Nnu Ego begins to search for her discreetly. At around two in the morning, she wakes up Nnaife to tell him that Kehinde is missing. Grabbing his cutlass, Nnaife heads for the butcher’s house; Adim arrives before him and warns the butcher’s family to protect themselves. With Adim’s help, they manage to restrain Nnaife, though one young man is injured.
Nnaife keeps insisting that he intends to kill the butcher. When the police arrive, Kehinde appears and explains that she intends to marry Ladipo. The police take Nnaife to jail.
Chapter 18 Summary: “The Canonized Mother”
As Nnaife faces expensive legal proceedings, Nnu Ego counsels Adim to persevere in his education. Adim reveals that he blames Oshia for Nnaife’s instability. Nnu Ego explains that society is changing, and Nnaife doesn’t know how to adapt.
At Nnaife’s hearing, the prosecuting attorney draws attention to Nnaife’s heavy drinking and implies that he was mostly interested in marrying Kehinde to the man he selected to secure a large bride price. The prosecutor also questions Nnu Ego to demonstrate that she, and not Nnaife, is the responsible provider and caregiver in their home. As a result, Nnaife is sentenced to five years in prison. Adaku expresses her sympathies to Nnu Ego and explains that men can no longer claim ownership over their wives and children.
At home that night, Nnu Ego wonders where she went wrong. Nnaife’s lawyer, Nweze, visits and explains that he had arranged a deal for Nnaife to be released after only three months in prison, although he would have to go directly to Ibuza afterward. Unable to pay rent, Nnu Ego also plans to return to Ibuza. Before leaving, she makes sure that Taiwo is married as planned in a simple ceremony, which Kehinde, who is now pregnant, attends with her Yoruba in-laws. Nnu Ego also arranges for Adim to live with a friend so he can continue his education in Lagos.
A week later, Nnu Ego prepares to leave for Ibuza with Nnamdio and Malachi, as well as Okpo and her children. She reluctantly leaves her daughter Obiageli behind with Taiwo and Magnus. As she waves goodbye, Nnu Ego is “happy to see her children happy” (222). They take care to make sure Nnu Ego is seated in the front of the truck, despite the extra expense.
Arriving in Ibuza, Nnu Ego finds that Nnaife’s family disowns her, so she lives with her own relatives. When Nnaife returns, Nnu Ego finds that he is a “broken man.” Meanwhile, Nnu Ego gradually weakens and is disappointed that she never hears from Oshia and Adim, who live in the United States and Canada, respectively. She hears a rumor that Oshia has married a white woman.
One night, Nnu Ego lies down by the side of the road, where she dies alone. Following her death, all of her children, even Oshia, come to Ibuza to give her an extravagant burial.
Although several people pray to Nnu Ego in the hope that she will help them conceive, they find that she does not answer their prayers.
Chapters 16-18 Analysis
These final chapters return to the theme of The Challenges and Rewards of Motherhood. Although Nnu Ego consistently prioritizes her children at her own expense, she finds that they, particularly her sons, do not reciprocate her affection and thoughtfulness, even in adulthood. The evolution of Nnu Ego’s feelings about motherhood becomes clear in her ambivalent reaction to her final pregnancy—she is torn between her social responsibility to bear as many children as possible and her honest realization that she is not in a position to provide a happy life for another child. Nnu Ego’s arc sees her becoming disillusioned with the system that treats women as a means to an end. Although she does briefly find some happiness in seeing her daughters happily married, Nnu Ego is disappointed at the lack of communication from her supposedly successful and important sons. The title of the final chapter, “The Canonized Mother,” hints at a discrepancy between the way that Nnu Ego is disregarded in life but celebrated as a saint following her death. The novel ends on a note of irony as Nnu Ego’s spirit makes it clear that she does not wish motherhood on anyone else, in sharp contrast with her own spiteful chi.
These chapters also focus on the theme of Tradition and Change in Colonial Nigeria, highlighting the ways in which such changes can lead to misunderstandings and resentment across generations. After shifting educational norms lead Oshia and Adim to delay their entry into the workforce, even as they relocate overseas, Nnaife feels that he has been robbed of an expected windfall; in reality, it was Nnu Ego who did the lion’s share of the work to raise the boys. Meanwhile, Kehinde’s assertion of her right to choose a husband, and a Yoruba man at that, proves to be too much for Nnaife. The containment of his violent response through official legal channels, as well as his subsequent banishment to Ibuza, demonstrates that, for all his time in Lagos, Nnaife was not ultimately able to adapt to the city’s environment. Similarly, Nnu Ego’s confusion at the hearing to determine Nnaife’s sentence shows how out of step she is with modern reassessments of patriarchal norms: She unintentionally outs Nnaife as a demanding, possessive, and lazy father figure.
In fact, Nnu Ego and Nnaife demonstrate contrasting modes of response to bewildering social changes. Whereas Nnaife lashes out at anyone who fails to live up his traditional expectations, even severing ties with Oshia and Adim, Nnu Ego calmly accepts the reality that “parents only get reflected glory from their children nowadays” (213). Nnu Ego also expresses regret that she was not able to fund her daughters’ education as well as her sons’. Finally, Nnu Ego asks remarkably little from her children, as she would be happy simply to hear about her sons’ lives from time to time. The fact that they fail to meet even that low bar shows the extent to which her contributions as a mother are undervalued. On the other hand, Nnu Ego does takes some pleasure and satisfaction in her daughters’ happiness, which constitutes a mild form of resistance to patriarchal norms. Although Nnu Ego’s potential to absorb and reflect change is limited, she successfully sets the stage for marginal improvements in the quality and equality of life for her children and grandchildren.
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