The Complete Woman, By David Kane

“The Complete Woman”

~David Kane

(11/4/11)

At the beginning of Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood, I was expecting an optimistic romp; the story is set in post-colonial Africa, so while I didn’t think I would be reading a thoroughly happy story, I didn’t think it would make me think about how dire the situation was for characters like Nuu Ego and her mother, Ona. They face the challenge of attaining the mantle of “the complete woman.” It is a standard against which they are constantly judged.

For most of Chapter 2, the narration focuses on Nwokocha Agbadi’s haughty, indomitable mistress named Ona, “who managed to combine stubbornness with arrogance.” (pg. 11). At first, she appears to be whom the author sets up as “the complete woman,” an intellectual equal who “refused to be dazzled by his wealth, his name, or his handsomeness.” (pg. 11). Ona confounds not only Agbadi, but also his many wives, who could not understand how he could love “a woman who openly treated the man they all worshipped so badly.” (pg. 21).

Chief among these objectors is Agbadi’s senior wife, Agunwa, described by her husband as “a good woman. So unobtrusive, so quiet,” when she falls ill not long after Agbadi is injured. (pg. 22). Suddenly, all that Ona wasn’t becomes all that is to be praised and lauded. A fiery and tempestuous woman being presented a “complete woman” was a progressive juxtaposition against the African tribal setting, yet upon Agunwa’s death, it becomes clear that even the village of Oboli is subject to the same hierarchy that is so prevalent in stories penned by European authors. Agunwa was submissive and bore sons to Agbadi, while Ona was disobedient and bore a daughter.

Perhaps the idea of completeness is less black and white than we think. Agunwa dies with Agbadi’s reverence, where Ona dies with Agbadi’s respect. What, as a woman is more important?