Colonialism has meaningfully participated in the change of many things in African world. Form social degradation to environmental change, African society remains politicized by new colonial settings. These settings are built through the colonial order and continue to impact African people’s lives. In Nigeria, like anywhere in Africa, social phenomena have changed with the effects of colonialism. The present paper explores “Literature” and “Society” as two foundational social and political figures in the exploration of human life. Buchi Emecheta and Helon Habila’s The Joys of Motherhood (1979) and Oil on Water (2010) are special works when talking about Women’s conditions and sociopolitical realities before, during, and after colonial rule. Through close reading and theories developed in relation to the most relevant themes in these two novels, we seek to explore women's conditions, the consequence of oil production, social change, and social struggle. The present work investigates the dynamic relationships between literature and society, examining how literary texts shape and are shaped by the social, political, and cultural conditions. Drawing on the theoretical perspectives from sociological literary criticism, this research paper underscores literature’s role as a mirror and a critique of societal structures, ideologies, and transformations. Helon Habila and Buchi Emecheta give two important representative images of African postcolonial society and politics. They develop in the selected novels African post-colonial social facts in relation to their social and political concerns, more precisely their country, Nigeria. Emecheta explores women conditions while Habila tries to analyze the effects of oil exploitation in postcolonial context. This review is an analysis of social representation of women’s conditions and oil production in Africa.
| Published in | International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 13, Issue 6) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ijla.20251306.17 |
| Page(s) | 168-177 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Literature, Society, Sociopolitical Realities, Colonial Rules, Postcolonial Black World, Cultural Conditions, Transformations
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| [2] | Emecheta, Buchi, The joys of Motherhood. Heinemann, 1979. |
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| [5] | Varde, H. B. Tale of African women: Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood. International Journal of Advanced Academic Studies, 2020, 2(2), 11-14. |
| [6] | Derrickson, T. Class, culture, and the colonial context: The status of women in Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood. International Fiction Review, 2002, 29(1). |
| [7] | Mbembe, A. Necropolitics (S. Corcoran, Trans.). Duke University Press. 2019. |
| [8] | Amadiume, I. Male daughters, female husbands: Gender and sex in an African society. Zed Books. 1987. |
| [9] | Huggan, G., & Tiffin, H. Postcolonial ecocriticism: Literature, animals, environment (2nd ed.). Routledge. 2015. |
| [10] | Nixon, R. Slow violence and the environmentalism of the poor. Harvard University Press. 2011. |
| [11] | Hooks, Bell. Ain’t I a woman? Black women and feminism. South End Press. 1981. |
| [12] | Angela Y. Davis, Women, Race, & Class, New York: Vintage Books, 1981. |
| [13] | Spivak, G. C. Can the subaltern speak? In A critique of postcolonial reason: Toward a history of the vanishing present (pp. 66-111). Harvard University Press. 1999. |
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APA Style
Kanté, L. (2025). Exploring Society Through Literature: A Study of Habila’s Oil on Water and Emecheta’s the Joys of Motherhood. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 13(6), 168-177. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20251306.17
ACS Style
Kanté, L. Exploring Society Through Literature: A Study of Habila’s Oil on Water and Emecheta’s the Joys of Motherhood. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2025, 13(6), 168-177. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20251306.17
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Download@article{10.11648/j.ijla.20251306.17,
author = {Lassana Kanté},
title = {Exploring Society Through Literature: A Study of Habila’s Oil on Water and Emecheta’s the Joys of Motherhood},
journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
volume = {13},
number = {6},
pages = {168-177},
doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20251306.17},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20251306.17},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20251306.17},
abstract = {Colonialism has meaningfully participated in the change of many things in African world. Form social degradation to environmental change, African society remains politicized by new colonial settings. These settings are built through the colonial order and continue to impact African people’s lives. In Nigeria, like anywhere in Africa, social phenomena have changed with the effects of colonialism. The present paper explores “Literature” and “Society” as two foundational social and political figures in the exploration of human life. Buchi Emecheta and Helon Habila’s The Joys of Motherhood (1979) and Oil on Water (2010) are special works when talking about Women’s conditions and sociopolitical realities before, during, and after colonial rule. Through close reading and theories developed in relation to the most relevant themes in these two novels, we seek to explore women's conditions, the consequence of oil production, social change, and social struggle. The present work investigates the dynamic relationships between literature and society, examining how literary texts shape and are shaped by the social, political, and cultural conditions. Drawing on the theoretical perspectives from sociological literary criticism, this research paper underscores literature’s role as a mirror and a critique of societal structures, ideologies, and transformations. Helon Habila and Buchi Emecheta give two important representative images of African postcolonial society and politics. They develop in the selected novels African post-colonial social facts in relation to their social and political concerns, more precisely their country, Nigeria. Emecheta explores women conditions while Habila tries to analyze the effects of oil exploitation in postcolonial context. This review is an analysis of social representation of women’s conditions and oil production in Africa.},
year = {2025}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Exploring Society Through Literature: A Study of Habila’s Oil on Water and Emecheta’s the Joys of Motherhood AU - Lassana Kanté Y1 - 2025/12/19 PY - 2025 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20251306.17 DO - 10.11648/j.ijla.20251306.17 T2 - International Journal of Literature and Arts JF - International Journal of Literature and Arts JO - International Journal of Literature and Arts SP - 168 EP - 177 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2331-057X UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20251306.17 AB - Colonialism has meaningfully participated in the change of many things in African world. Form social degradation to environmental change, African society remains politicized by new colonial settings. These settings are built through the colonial order and continue to impact African people’s lives. In Nigeria, like anywhere in Africa, social phenomena have changed with the effects of colonialism. The present paper explores “Literature” and “Society” as two foundational social and political figures in the exploration of human life. Buchi Emecheta and Helon Habila’s The Joys of Motherhood (1979) and Oil on Water (2010) are special works when talking about Women’s conditions and sociopolitical realities before, during, and after colonial rule. Through close reading and theories developed in relation to the most relevant themes in these two novels, we seek to explore women's conditions, the consequence of oil production, social change, and social struggle. The present work investigates the dynamic relationships between literature and society, examining how literary texts shape and are shaped by the social, political, and cultural conditions. Drawing on the theoretical perspectives from sociological literary criticism, this research paper underscores literature’s role as a mirror and a critique of societal structures, ideologies, and transformations. Helon Habila and Buchi Emecheta give two important representative images of African postcolonial society and politics. They develop in the selected novels African post-colonial social facts in relation to their social and political concerns, more precisely their country, Nigeria. Emecheta explores women conditions while Habila tries to analyze the effects of oil exploitation in postcolonial context. This review is an analysis of social representation of women’s conditions and oil production in Africa. VL - 13 IS - 6 ER -
English Department, University Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, Senegal
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