Domestic Servitude and the Exploitation of Girlhood in Emeka Ukwuaba’s Benign Pain

The phenomenon of child domestic labour remains one of the most pervasive yet least prosecuted forms of exploitation in Nigerian society, affecting hundreds of thousands of girls annually. This study investigates the literary representation of this practice in Emeka Ukwuaba's Benign Pain (2021), focusing on how the novel constructs the experiences of young female domestic workers as a site where class power, gender inequality, and sexual vulnerability intersect. The study is anchored on feminist literary theory, particularly the strand concerned with the politics of embodiment and the gendered dimensions of domestic space, as articulated by scholars such as bell hooks and Oyeronke Oyewumi. A qualitative close-reading methodology is adopted, supported by contextual data on child domestic labour in Nigeria from recent literature published within the last five years. Findings reveal that Ukwuaba's portrayal of Lebechi in the Okafor household exposes the contradictions of middle-class domesticity in Nigeria, where the female domestic worker is simultaneously indispensable and disposable. The novel further demonstrates how the girl's body becomes a contested terrain on which the anxieties of the employing household are projected. The study concludes that Benign Pain functions as a work of feminist social protest that renders visible the invisible labour and suffering of Nigeria's domestic girls. It recommends that English and Literary Studies curricula integrate such texts into broader conversations about gender justice and child rights.

Keywords: Domestic servitude, Girlhood, Emeka Ukwuaba, Feminist criticism, Nigerian fiction