Assignment:1 Decolonizing African Economic Structure: A Gendered Lesson from Flora Nwakpa's Efuru and Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood

 

This blog is part of an assignment for Paper 206 - The African Literature - Sem - 4, 2025.

 Decolonizing African Economic Structure: A Gendered Lesson from Flora Nwakpa's Efuru and Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood

TABLE OF CONTENTS: -


❍ Personal information

❍ Assignment Details

❍ Abstract

❍ Keywords

❍ Introduction

❍ Contemporary Economic Structure in Africa

❍ Sociological Consequences of Post-independence Economic Structure

❍ Efuru: A Synopsis

❍ Flexible Economic Structure in Efuru

❍ Inclusive Economic Framework

❍ Joys of Motherhood: A Synopsis

❍ The financial struggles of Nnu Ego and Adaku

❍ Conclusion

❍ work cited

PERSONAL INFORMATION: -

Name: - Priyanshiba Kanaksinh Gohil

Batch No: M.A. Sem 4 (2023-2025)

Enrollment Number: - 5108230018

E-mail Address: - priyabagohil7126@gmail.com

Roll Number: - 21

ASSIGNMENT DETAILS: -

Topic: - Decolonizing African Economic Structure: A Gendered Lesson from Flora Nwakpa's Efuru and Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood

Paper & subject code: - Paper 206: The African Literature

Submitted to: - Smt. Sujata Binoy Gardi, Department of English, MKBU, Bhavnagar.

Date of Submission: - 17th April, 2025

About Assignment: - In this Assignment, I try to explore Decolonizing African Economic Structure: A Gendered Lesson from Flora Nwakpa's Efuru and Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood

Abstract

The protruding numbers of scholarly works on feminism in all its inflections reveal that there is a progression of conversations that center on the exploration of gender inequity in the world, and the absurdity it creates. In recent time, that tide of influence has been sweeping the African intellectual space with a form of torrent that necessitates diverging views. Many of the works in this direction argue that Africans undermine their female's economic freedom by distancing from them the means of production, and by implication, their financial access. There is thus the paucity of intellectual engagements that are considered necessary the decolonization of the existing economic structure of Africa, achievable through the knowledge of distributive economies that permeated their system before colonial experience. Consequently, this work concentrates on decolonizing this structure by taking a gendered lesson from two texts, namely, Flora Nwakpa’s Efuru and Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood. To achieve this, Akachi Ezeigbo's snail-sense feminism is used, as its tenets are anchors for situating the contemporary African economic structure within its colonial heritages. The culture of protest demonstrated by the protagonists of the text is an awareness and consciousness of the roles of women in primordial African setting and they appear to be unapologetic about making their voices heard, and their roles count. Role-reversal, and economic restructurings are evident of this adrenaline protest, and the works therefore exemplify economic frameworks useful in revolutionizing the polity.

Keywords:

Decolonizing Economic Structure, Adrenaline Protest, Economic Frameworks of Africa, Financial Access, Inclusive Economy, Gendered Lessens and Economic Restructuring

Introduction

Narratives that African women are systematically disempowered by the available economic systems are usually insensitive to the historical and economic foundations laid by eminent Africans, in their understanding that there was a need for a structured economic framework for the enhancement of a vibrant and virile society that included all. To the extent that such impression has penetrated the intellectual territory of the contemporary African feminists with all their inflections experts, scholars in other disciplines and even public opinion shapers have added their voices. For this reason, quite a number of misrepresentations have been launched and have attracted mostly uncritical remarks, reactions and evaluation. It would be interesting to know that a comprehensive sociocultural framework for the structuration of economic, and even political system is available in the primordial African society, and it was used to develop their civilizations and sustain it for ages. Conceded that literary tradition of a people, be it in its oral or written form, qualifies as a document of history that can be used to trace not only their distant past but also their proximal experiences, to this extent, the texts that have been produced by African writers have given perfunctory remarks about the economic structure that this work has prioritized.

One may not be invested in cultural knowledge to immediately decode for example that Chinua Achebe's reference to Ekwefi's cassava cultivation in that classical work Things Fall Apart, is evidence of economic structuration that conforms to both the biological capability of these sexes and the domestic responsibility that they are each accorded. But then it would be unsavory to not note that such system existed, and it represented a carefully designed socioeconomic framework that is believed to have far-reaching impact on the society where each is practiced. To the Africans of the highlighted period, economic template employed among the people helps in the crystallization of their ideologies in their engagements. For this, the bystander effect of the structure was that political and social systems were reinforced by the economic framework, and everyone became important in the structure (Jeyifo 1990). It was not a master-subordinate framework with mechanism to give recognition to a particular gender above the others. And the fact once again that the plot of the cited work concentrated on the protagonist, Okonkwo, does not become a valid reason to say, for example that it is discriminatory or imbalanced, on the basis of gender.

Therefore, when the popular American feminist, Margaret Bentson, concludes that "the 'woman question' is generally ignored in analyses of the class structure of society," with the insinuation that the relationship maintained by the available gender to their economic and financial powers reveals who controls the means to production, she has a wide knowledge gap as to the distributive economies that characterize civilizations, perhaps, other than that of America. She argues therefore for the most part, for the enhancement of an evenly distributed access to wealth without in the first place understanding the sociocultural interpretation of wealth and the attitudes created for its sustenance. This thus means that, unlike the implied definition of Bentson as represented above, some other social issues take fundamental position in the development or making of a society because these factors when considered cumulatively would determine how ideas are formulated and how philosophical constructs are thus subsequently generated. A cursory look at Africa's approach to wealth in their pre-contact with external cultures, would reveal that they emphasized differently the idea to the accumulation of wealth from what is obtained in the Western world that defined her evaluative comments. What made Okonkwo considered borrowing tubers of yam from elderly kinsman does not stop female participants from doing the same.

Contemporary Economic Structure in Africa

The decline of colonial rule in Africa did not lead to equitable economic development. Women, already excluded during colonization, remained marginalized in the postcolonial economy. Colonial systems had privileged male intermediaries, laying the foundation for gender-based economic inequality. Western critiques often overlook how colonialism disrupted precolonial economic roles where women held substantial power.

Post-independence political leaders failed to revive inclusive precolonial systems, instead continuing exclusionary structures that widened the economic gap between men and women. This imbalance, inherited from colonialism, was further sustained by the neocolonial elite who resisted any economic framework that would challenge their political authority. The economic inequality is not rooted in traditional African systems but in recent colonial history. The modern African economy, especially in terms of gender roles, misrepresents how precolonial societies were structured. Western scholars often misinterpret gender equity in Africa by ignoring oral histories and indigenous systems that show women's significant economic roles as seen in literature like Things Fall Apart and Death and the King’s Horseman.

Contemporary economic structures expose women to harsh conditions, often reducing them to economic dependence or commodification. However, many women like the protagonists in Efuru and The Joys of Motherhood seek self-discovery and resistance in this unequal system. Scholars like Akachi Ezeigbo note that African women are navigating this male-dominated economic jungle with resilience. In essence, Africa's present-day economic inequality, especially for women, is a colonial legacy that continues through neocolonial practices, and any fair analysis must reconnect with Africa’s indigenous past.

Sociological Consequences of Post-independence Economic Structure

Despite over 60 years of independence and more than 50 countries, only one African nation Liberia has had a female president (Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, 2006–2018). This glaring underrepresentation of women in politics and economic leadership is not due to slow political evolution, but rather a continuation of colonial-era segregation structures maintained by postcolonial male dominance.

Excluding women from politics has grave sociological effects. It denies them access to economic decision-making processes that shape their financial and social well-being. Precolonial African systems, such as the Yoruba institution of the Iyaloja ("woman in charge of the market"), reflect a time when women played central roles in the economy. The Iyaloja was effectively a finance minister, overseeing the economic welfare of the entire community both men and women.

However, postcolonial democracy, though seemingly inclusive, has been manipulated to sideline women. Unlike traditional systems that had gender-specific roles with real power, modern systems offer the illusion of participation while maintaining male dominance. This has led to political apathy among women, limiting their involvement and access to financial power.

Buchi Emecheta’s Nnu Ego in The Joys of Motherhood and Flora Nwapa’s Efuru exemplify women’s struggles and resistance against these suppressive systems. Their stories call for a return to the more inclusive economic frameworks of precolonial Africa, where women’s participation was foundational not marginal.

Efuru: A Synopsis

Efuru tells the story of a strong-willed and economically capable Igbo woman, Efuru, who begins her journey supported by a financially stable family. She falls in love with Adizua, a man from a poor background, who lacks both ambition and economic skill. Because Adizua cannot afford the traditional dowry, the couple elopes. Efuru, deeply in love, remains loyal and supportive, even as challenges arise.

Their union produces a daughter, Ogonim, and Efuru gains acceptance within Adizua’s family, especially from her mother-in-law Ossai and Ossai’s sister, Ajanupu. Both women care deeply for Efuru, particularly about her initial struggles with conception.

When Efuru becomes pregnant, she takes a break from her trading, allowing Adizua to handle their business. However, he quickly proves incapable. To keep the household running, a maid, Ogea, is hired, and Efuru returns to trading. Her comeback immediately revives their financial status.

But soon, things fall apart. Adizua begins an affair, and when Efuru seeks counsel, Ossai encourages her to stay in the marriage. Efuru, though hesitant, agrees proclaiming,

“To suffer for a truant husband… is to debase suffering. My own suffering will be noble” (Efuru, p. 73).

Tragedy strikes when their daughter Ogonim dies. Eventually, Efuru leaves Adizua, and though reluctant, Ossai accepts her decision. She returns to her father’s house, where she meets Gilbert (formerly Eneberi). Love blooms again, and they marry, but the new marriage too is tested by childlessness.

Turning to tradition, they consult a dibia (diviner), who reveals that Efuru has been chosen by the goddess Uhamiri. Following the spiritual instructions given, Efuru gains immense wealth and material success, though she never bears a child for Gilbert.

Flexible Economic Structure in Efuru

Efuru vividly reflects the Igbo socio-cultural and economic system, where economic success isn't defined by gender but by individual effort and capacity. In this indigenous setting, roles are fluid, and anyone regardless of sex can transform their condition through hard work and determination.

This flexible system is rooted in the Igbo people's republican values, where centralized authority was absent, and everyone had a chance to thrive. Such a background explains the strong economic agency seen in Efuru, who chooses trading over farming, despite her husband Adizua's lack of ambition. She excels in business because of her financial intelligence and clarity of purpose.

Flora Nwapa, through Efuru, highlights how Igbo women long before colonial disruptions were active participants in the economy. Even in a postcolonial narrative, Efuru breaks through limiting expectations. Though she struggles with fertility, this is never seen as a social or political failure. Instead, she focuses on what she can control: her economic success.

Efuru even contributes to her own bride price after eloping with Adizua, showing her independence. Her determination is captured in key lines:

“If you like… go to the farm. I am not cut out for farm work. I am going to trade” (p.10)
“She is trading instead… and I don’t blame her. She is beautiful… You would think the woman of the lake is her mother” (p.12)
“The individual freedom of choice fostered by the Igbo culture allows innovation… and admiration for success” (p.19)

These lines reflect her refusal to be confined by tradition. Even as a wife, she doesn't let her husband's farming ambition derail her business vision. Efuru’s journey reinforces the Igbo belief in economic democracy, where success depends on consistent pursuit, not gender roles. Ultimately, Efuru chooses trade not just as a means to survive but as a deliberate, empowering path to achieve her dreams.

Inclusive Economic Framework

In pre-colonial Igbo society much like many African communities the economy revolved around two main pillars: farming and trading. Individuals naturally leaned into the area that matched their physical strength or intellectual ability. While men often took to farming due to their physical strength, this was never rigid. Over time, even many Igbo men, especially in contemporary times, have come to prefer trading, proving that the economic system is flexible and evolving.

Contrary to Eurocentric assumptions, there wasn’t any economic subjugation in this structure. The Igbo economy, unlike the colonial model where the state controlled production and distribution, was community-driven and inclusive. In Efuru, Flora Nwapa highlights this inclusiveness by portraying Efuru’s success in trade a path she chooses independently, and one in which she thrives.

Nwapa contrasts this with colonial restrictions, as reflected in Efuru’s frustration:

“Why the government does not allow us to drink our homemade gin, I do not know…. If they must stop us from cooking gin, then the white man’s gin and his schnapps should be sold cheap” (p.104)

This moment reveals how colonial policies disrupted indigenous practices by imposing foreign structures, thereby marginalizing local production. Indigenous gin, once common and celebrated, is now sidelined simply because it isn’t part of the colonial economy.

Despite these shifts, the Igbo system upheld individual achievement. Success translated into social and political recognition. Efuru’s mother, for instance, earned titles for her business acumen, and Efuru follows in her footsteps earning respect and influence through her contributions to the community. Thus, the inclusive nature of the pre-colonial Igbo economic framework open to all, driven by effort and innovation forms the backbone of Efuru’s story and her remarkable journey.

 Joys of Motherhood: A Synopsis

The story centers around Nnu Ego, a woman from Ibuza who moves to Lagos to join her husband, Nnaife, after five years of marriage. Life in Lagos, however, is far from what she imagined. Nnaife works as a washerman for a British couple, the Meers, and the couple lives in poverty in the boys’ quarters. Unlike her village life, Lagos offers Nnu Ego little access to income or food, and she struggles in a system that doesn't support women like her.

To survive, she borrows money from a group of Ibuza women to start a small business. But when the Meers return to their country, Nnaife loses his job, plunging the family deeper into hardship. Nnaife takes a job cutting grass by the railway, but the meager earnings aren’t enough. Amidst this, he marries Adaku, his late brother’s wife, citing tradition more than necessity. Nnu Ego is upset at first but accepts it, though their growing family faces worsening poverty.

As things spiral, Nnaife turns to alcohol and becomes emotionally distant. The wives protest through a hunger strike but end it for the children’s sake. Soon after, Nnaife is drafted to fight in India during World War II. Meanwhile, Nnu Ego travels to Ibuza to bury her father but stays for months, longing for the less stressful village life.

Upon her return to Lagos, she sells firewood to survive. Adaku, on the other hand, starts a business and finds success. With no word from Nnaife, Nnu Ego is left to pay school fees and care for the family. Eventually, Nnaife sends money, allowing her to restart her sons’ education and expand her business.

When Nnaife finally returns, he gets into a fight and is jailed, though later released early. Nnu Ego chooses to live with her family in Ibuza, not her husband. Nnaife later joins her in Ibuza with a new wife, Okpo.

Tragically, Nnu Ego dies alone, with none of her children by her side. Though her children build a memorial for her, praying that she might bless barren women, she never responds suggesting that despite her sacrifices, her joys of motherhood remained unfulfilled.

The financial struggles of Nnu Ego and Adaku

In The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta, the financial struggles of Nnu Ego and Adaku vividly illustrate the shift in women’s economic roles from the pre-colonial to the colonial era in Nigeria. In the pre-colonial period, women like Nnu Ego held significant economic power as farmers, traders, and market leaders. Their labor was recognized and valued in a communal economic system. However, with the onset of colonization and the imposition of a capitalist economy, women were increasingly confined to the domestic sphere, losing access to the means of production that once gave them financial independence.

This transformation deeply affected Nnu Ego’s life when she moved from her native village of Ibuza to the city of Lagos. In Lagos, capitalism had taken root, and the society now recognized men as breadwinners while women were relegated to unpaid domestic roles. Nnu Ego's economic agency was severely limited, and she found herself dependent on her husband, Nnaife, whose income was inconsistent and insufficient. Her inability to provide for her eight children without male support underlines the hardship and disempowerment women experienced in this new economic order.

Despite these limitations, Nnu Ego displayed remarkable resilience. She tried various means to regain financial control by starting small-scale businesses like selling cigarettes, kerosene, and later, firewood. Her efforts to sustain her household reflect a deep desire to return to the economic autonomy she once had in Ibuza. She also found support among a group of Ibuza women in Lagos, who lent her money to start her business, emphasizing the continuation of female solidarity from the pre-colonial era.

Similarly, Adaku, Nnu Ego’s co-wife, took bold steps to secure her financial independence. After facing neglect from Nnaife, she decided to abandon the traditional role of a housewife and started her own business in Zabo market. Her success in this venture highlights the potential of women to thrive economically when given the opportunity, even within a system that seeks to suppress their independence.

Both women’s hunger strike against Nnaife, due to his financial negligence, symbolizes their protest against a patriarchal capitalist system that strips women of agency. This act of defiance, rooted in traditional practices of collective female resistance like “sitting on a man,” demonstrates how women used solidarity to reclaim their voices and challenge systemic oppression.

Thus, through the economic journeys of Nnu Ego and Adaku, Emecheta critiques the colonial capitalist structure that marginalized women and celebrates their resilience and determination to assert agency despite overwhelming obstacles.

conclusion

In conclusion, the exploration of Flora Nwapa's Efuru and Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood offers a powerful gendered critique of the colonial disruption of African economic structures. Both novels foreground how colonial capitalism dismantled indigenous systems where women like Efuru and Nnu Ego once held significant economic power and social autonomy. In the traditional pre-colonial setting, women thrived as traders, landowners, and spiritual figures, with Efuru embodying this legacy through her success in commerce and her choice to serve the goddess Uhamiri. However, in the colonial urban setting of Lagos, Nnu Ego’s experience reflects how the imposition of Western gender roles and economic models rendered women economically dependent and socially constrained.

The comparison of these two protagonists underlines a central theme: the need to decolonize African economic narratives by re-centering women's historical roles and recognizing their resilience and agency. Efuru’s independence and the collective resistance of women like Nnu Ego and Adaku against patriarchal neglect illustrate that African women have long resisted marginalization not only through protest, but through entrepreneurship, sisterhood, and spiritual assertion. These narratives call for a re-evaluation of development models that ignore indigenous gender dynamics and women’s contributions to economic life.

Ultimately, both novels remind us that any meaningful process of decolonization must include the recovery of women’s roles within traditional African economies. By amplifying these gendered experiences, Nwapa and Emecheta not only reclaim forgotten histories but also offer critical lessons for envisioning a more inclusive and equitable postcolonial future.

Work cited:

Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo (2015) Snail-Sense Feminism: Building on an Indigenous Model, Lagos: Wealthsmith Books 

Alix Jansen, (2015) “Feminism, Capitalism and Family: Reflections on Margaret Bentson‟s Political Economy,” in Robert L. Hellbroner Center for Capitalism Studies, 6. 

Darwin Charlse (1859) On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection London: J. Murray 

Emecheta, Buchi. The Joys of Motherhood. London: Heinemann, 2008. 

Nwapa, Flora. (1966) Efuru. London: Heinemann.

Oyedeji, Wale & Adewuyi, Roseline. (2022). DECOLONIZING AFRICAN ECONOMIC STRUCTURE: A GENDERED LESSON FROM FLORA NWAKPA'S EFURU AND BUCHI EMECHETA'S THE JOYS OF MOTHERHOOD. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358637634_DECOLONIZING_AFRICAN_ECONOMIC_STRUCTURE_A_GENDERED_LESSON_FROM_FLORA_NWAKPA'S_EFURU_AND_BUCHI_EMECHETA'S_THE_JOYS_OF_MOTHERHOOD

van Allen, Judith. “‘Sitting on a Man’: Colonialism and the Lost Political Institutions of Igbo Women.” Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne Des Études Africaines, vol. 6, no. 2, 1972, pp. 165–81. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/484197. Accessed 16 Apr. 2025.

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