'The Joys of Motherhood' and the women's fiction shelf

The two novels that recently brought me to rethink the categorisation of women’s fiction are good stories exceptionally written. They just happen to have a female protagonist and to be written by a woman.

‘The Joys of Motherhood’, by the late Buchi Emecheta and ‘Nervous Conditions’, by Tsitsi Dangarembga take the reader with them on the sweep of a life’s journey. So what if the life is that of a woman? The story and its telling is what matters.

Let me explain, by focussing on Emecheta’s ‘The Joys of Motherhood’.

It is set in pre- and- post- independence Nigeria and tells the story of Nnu Ego. She is the daughter of a great Ibo chief and hunter Nwokocha Agbadi and Ona, a rebellious woman who refused to marry him.

Nnu Ego herself is twice married, having been cast aside the first time round for her alleged barrenness (in this instance, not having a child within nine months of the nuptials).

Remarried to Nnaife, who serves as a washerman to a white couple in Lagos, Nnu Ego lives a life that c…