Gender-Relations in Igbo Society: A Study of Buchi Emecheta’s The Bride Price and The Joys of Motherhood

Early twentieth century is the hall-mark of socio-cultural upheavals in the country of Nigeria, populated by three major tribes— Igbo, Yoruba, and Hausas. Caught between two cultural worlds—African and European, social structure of Nigerian Igbo society, primarily patriarchal, takes different turns in its disordered state. Emecheta’s narratives graphically picture socio-cultural changes taking place in the Igbo society. They specifically focus on emerging women’s issues that relegate women in the Igbo social hierarchy; however, she also delineates those sects of the Igbo social life that are not accepted in their society. This chapter explores how power-structure of Igbo social life disturbs gender-relations and existing relegated status of the “osu slaves”; it also explores how Igbo society gets entangled with innovative conventions of the western life-style.  It also investigates how power-structure of the European and the Igbo society intersects with each other, how gender relations of the traditional Igbo society comes under the influence of European culture which starts curtailing women’s rights and privileges available in the traditional Igbo society, and how the Igbo society re-establishes certain “deteriorating” practices such as slavery, that have been destroyed by the European world. It discusses Emecheta’s two prominent novels—The Bride Price (2013a) and The Joys of Motherhood (2013b)—to establish arguments.