Western Time, African Lives: Time in The Novels of Buchi Emecheta

Abstract

Describing dilemma of African philosopher, Abiola Irele writes: the professional philosopher in Africa today operates in a of cultural and social tension. For although his mind has been moulded by principles of Western philosophy, he too is confronted by vast body of world views and thought systems which contrive to inhabit consciousness of majority of Africans and to determine a fundamental attachment on their part to a traditional way of life, a that commands his attention and makes demands of his philosophical loyalties. Faced with a dualism both of modes of thought and of modes of existence, philosopher in Africa is compelled to undertake an examination of implications of this dualism for his discipline and for his practice of that discipline with specific reference to African situation (10). Such is dilemma of novelist Buchi Emecheta, Igbo Nigerian, Londoner, and woman. Torn between loyalties of race, culture, and sex, Emecheta writes about a world lost and a world becoming, a world destroyed and a world indestructible. The Africa of Emecheta's novels is a continent reeling in two times: Western diachronicity and traditional African synchronicity. And in these novels, Emecheta chronicles personal dilemma of African confronted and lured by Western time and Western culture. The author herself and her female characters struggle to find their place in this world in these times. In this essay I am specifically concerned with four of Emecheta's novels, The Bride Price (1976), The Slave Girl (1977), The Joys of Motherhood (1979), and The Rape of Shavi (1983). Three of these novels, The Bride Price, The Slave Girl, and The Joys of Motherhood, are set in Lagos and Igbo village of Ibuza. Additionally, each of these three focuses on life of an Igbo woman, documenting problems unique to women at this time of cultural intercourse and confrontation and exploring complexities of female lives in a culture guarded by champions without sufficient powers to save it and challenged by powers bent on its destruction. For everyone, male and female alike, these were unique and difficult times, times that witnessed changes and times that incited controversy. These were times that defied tradition. It is no wonder, there-