JOURNALS

ABSTRACT

The joy and burden of motherhood have predisposed women to taking life-saving responsibilities, especially at critical times such as emergencies and crisis periods. Crises erupt and usually disrupt the existential equilibrium, especially during war situations. Crisis such as war precipitate famine, hardship, malnutrition, sickness or eventual death. At such moments of trauma and torture, children are the major victims of the negative impact, which can be hunger, many times leading to malnutrition, sickness, all sorts of hardship. Such situations have left the women distraught, especially the child's mother having to seek help from a fellow woman. Nigerian literary texts have records of issues of child malnutrition, kwashiorkor, and severe illnesses as a result of war. Chimamanda Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun and Ada Okere Agbasimalo's Forest Dames depict the Nigerian-Biafran war, replete with children with debilitating health challenges as a result of the war. Researches done on these texts have various thematic issues; which though are not yet exhaustible give vent to this study which is done using a qualitative methodology of fictional analysis of the selected texts. The research is anchored on the feminist epistemology of the concept of motherhood as it x-rays women performing their maternal roles. Specifically, the study shows how some key female characters, such as Olanna, Kainene and Dora, navigate through the war, saving children whose health are in jeopardy. The paper showed women as compassionately responding to critical life situations and calls for it to be sustained for the global future.