Oppression of The Girl- Child In Buchi Emecheta’s The Bride Price

Abstract

Emecheta's writing gives an impression to readers that specifically, Nigerian culture is passive and patriarchal and that she does not see a suitable position for women in such a depressing male dominated society. The pivotal issues in the novel are slavery, motherhood, marriage and African traditions over its influence of the modern world.  According to the popular saying ,”The home is the foundation of the society”, meaning, destroy the home, the society collapse. However,  the unwitting behavior of  “The Girl-Child”  in the society could be traced to the home front, perpetuated by Mothers, knowingly or unknowingly. Therefore, this paper explore  the role of mothers to an age long suffering and untold horrors oppression of the Girl-Child in the home This is wholly due to intimate closeness to the mother figure which tend to reflect, the kind of up-bringing that she dishes out to her girl-child or female children under her care. It is therefore on this ground, this paper is anchored to unravel the oppression of the Girl Child in the homes.