Commodification and Exoticization of Motherhood in Selected African Texts: The fetishization of Motherhood in Slavery Discourses.

Motherhood is an identity, an experience, a concept and an institution, a discourse produced by both hegemonic and subversive discursive practices. Therefore, motherhood is an identity constantly negotiated by both normative and non-conforming gender identities. This study proposes that considering the perversion of normative ideas of motherhood that regulate how motherhood is conceptualised and performed, motherhood should be deconstructed to uncover how dominant and hegemonic constructions of motherhood marginalise non-conforming identities. Not only do heteronormative constructions peg maternal identity on heterosexual women, but on patriarchal assumptions that all women must ascend to biological maternity. The objective of this study was to analyse the fetishization of motherhood in slavery discourses. The study will adopt a qualitative research approach. It involved a critical reading of Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1997) and Sula (1973). Secondary data was obtained through library and desktop research of critical texts. The target population was African mothers. Analysis of the data was done by organizing information in a logical sequence and eventually presenting it as themes. These themes were presented and discussed according to the findings from the research question in line with the tenets of Gender, New Historicism and Commodification theories.

Motherhood, commodification, fetishization, slavery discourses

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