Polygamy Real World Issues Under

Polygamy

Real World Issues Under the Scrutiny of Literature: Polygamy in Emecheta's the Joys of Motherhood

The world, as history has shown, is not exactly a kind place for many people. There is an endless litany of historical, social, economic, and political events and circumstances that has led to the degradation and subjugation of large populations of human beings, stretching back as far as recorded history and occurring to this day. From the current civil unrest occurring in many African and Middle Eastern countries as a result of the oppressive regimes that have been endured for decades, to the enslavements and genocides depicted in the Bible (many of which are substantiated in other historic records), the history of civilization can largely be seen as a history of man's cruelty to man. or, in another perspective, one might say that most civilizations contain storied of man's cruelty to woman.

While civil war, slavery, and other inter-cultural atrocities might have impacts on populations and individuals that are largely gender-neutral, there is no society in existence that does not have some amount of differentiation between the genders -- the values they are perceived to have, the roles and responsibilities they are expected to fulfill, and the authority they have within society always differ to some degree. The differences are larger in some areas than others depending on the specific culture, and can also be more minimal overall in certain cultures. In many cultures especially in the developing world, however, these differences remain extreme and can have profound effects on the ability for the dominated gender's ability to survive.

In almost all of these cultures, of course, females are the dominated sex, and men control many of their actions and decisions. This is definitely the case in many of the tribal cultures in Nigeria, such as those explored and encountered in Buchi Emecheta's novel the Joys of Motherhood. The title of this novel is largely ironic; the life of the novel's protagonist, Nnu Ego, is hardly joyous, and though she loves her children very much and ultimately is rewarded in some sense for this love, the fact that she ends up with so many children really ends up being a burden to her. The system of polygamy that exists in Nnu Ego's culture makes it very difficult for her to scrape together enough resources for she and her children to survive, and creates a variety of other social and psychological problems. This paper will explore these issues as they appear in the novel and in current research literature.

The Decline of Women in Islam

Many tribes in Nigeria practice some form of Islam as their primary religion, and though religion is not a major focus of the Joys of Motherhood it seems fairly clear that this is the religion that Nnu Ego and her husband Nnaife subscribe to. Certain incidents in the book refer to customs that exist in parts of the Islamic world, such as Nnaife's inheritance of his brother's wives when his brother dies. In the novel, this illustrates to some degree the manner in which women were considered more like property than individuals with their own wills and capabilities according to some interpretations and applications of Islam. This is not necessarily the best understanding to take away from this, however.

Mashour (2005) points out that the role of women in many Islamic countries has been in decline during the course of the modern era, not necessarily because of the rules of Islam, but because these societies are also heavily patriarchal and are becoming more so. While religion might relegate women to certain roles and place limitations on them that would still be considered unfair and unjust by modern Western perspectives, they were not treated as abysmally as they are now during the previous heights of the Islamic civilization (Mashour 2005). It is as religious doctrine has been used to take away economic and political rights that the plight of women has truly suffered, and thus it is to the economic and political imbalances that leaders must look if they hope to change the situation these women find themselves in, rather than to the actual religious laws or customs (Mashour 2005).

There is definitely some credence to this argument; in the novel, only one of the wives is actually obedient enough to come and live with her new husband, though it is hinted that the others would have accepted Nnaife if he had moved to where they lived. What this practice really meant, though, was that the same amount of income was now expected to support two Nnaife, both of his wives, and all of their children, and especially when the household wasn't operating as a single unit, this caused a great deal of hardship, tension, and imbalance. In addition, it caused emotional and psychological grief for Nnu Ego, who had to listen to Nnaife consummating his new marriage only feet from where she lay trying to fall asleep. Truly nothing was hers after this marriage -- not even the love of her husband.

The Women of Nigeria

This is not actually the first time that Nnu Ego experiences the hardships of polygamy in the novel. She had previously been married to another man, and after a short time of her failing to become pregnant by him he took a new wife, and Nnu Ego had to work in the field and ultimately care for the new wife's child. After showing true attachment to the child by breastfeeding it while it was hungry, however, Nnu Ego is beaten and decides to leave that marriage. There is really very little that she can do, however, until her father finds her another husband -- Nnaife. This illustrates quite clearly that degree to which women in Nnu Ego's culture were essentially the property of the men in their lives.

At the same time, the hardships that women must endure due to the vagaries and prevalence of polygamy in this culture have created a sort of independence and a unique brand of what might be termed feminist thought, wherein women insist on the right to work and earn money because families would truly crumble and be destroyed without this income (Ogundipe-Leslie 1994). This is far from an ideal system, of course, but unlike the oppression of women in Western cultures that was viewed solely as a weakening and limiting force, this subjugation in Nigeria and other regions has the effect of empowering women to some degree, and showing the resolve and determination that they possessed (Ogundipe-Leslie 1994). Polygamy, in a sense, gave women more latitude and economic liberty due to the fact that the economic hardships and increased independence of the system demanded it.