Teresa Ramoni, Rutgers University
Vol. 44, No. 1 (Spring 2025)

ABSTRACT: Buchi Emecheta’s most studied work, The Joys of Motherhood has garnered a significant amount of critical attention lauding the novel as a feminist project that indicts patriarchal and colonial forces through the story of its protagonist, Nnu Ego. What has not adequately been commented on, however, are the novel’s depictions of sexual violence. This essay asserts that Emecheta’s depictions of sexual violence, while subtle compared to her representations of motherhood or the economic repercussions of colonialism, are crucial parts of the novel’s feminist mission that ought to be restored to the forefront of the critical conversation. As a novel that describes but does not label sexual violence, I contend that The Joys of Motherhood provides readers with the unique opportunity to encounter rape and interrogate the ways in which it is personally, legally, and societally defined. By closely reading three sexual encounters from the novel and placing Emecheta’s work in dialogue with contemporary scholarship on sexual violence in Nigeria, this essay argues that The Joys of Motherhood holds a unique ability to contribute to Nigeria’s anti-rape movement and to anti-rape activist discourse as a whole.