One of Nigeria's most celebrated writers of our time, Florence Onyebuchi Emecheta may be dead but her clamour for the liberation of the girl child and
One of Nigeria’s most celebrated writers of our time, Florence Onyebuchi Emecheta may be dead but her clamour for the liberation of the girl child and women who have been relegated to a life of child-bearing, servitude, unfair gender stereotypes and victimization in a male oriented even though contemporary Africa, through her written works lives on.
An author of over 20 books including written plays, Buchi was often regarded as a feminist writer, despite not wanting to be associated with the word, as she was constantly illustrating in her works, the value of education and self-determination for aspiring young women who struggle against sexual discrimination, racism, and unhappy marital arrangements to achieve individuality, self assertion and independence.
Widely recognized as a leading female voice in contemporary African literature, she was considered the first successful black woman novelist living in Britain and for this was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 2005. Some of her most profound works which will keep resonating and through which which would hopefully be a are
In the Ditch: An autobiographical account of her early life and marital difficulties as the fictionalized protagonist Adah. It begins with Adah’s separation from her husband and relates her demoralizing experiences while working, writing, and raising her five children on public assistance in a London tenement. Her economic privations are exacerbated by prejudice against her as an impoverished single mother and black African immigrant.
Second-Class Citizen: It recounts Adah’s childhood struggle to obtain an education in Nigeria, her emigration to England, and her determination to write despite the demands of motherhood and her tyrannical student husband who physically assaults her. Adah finally abandons her husband after he callously burns the completed manuscript of her first book, marking a defining moment in Adah’s growing self-awareness and confidence.
In The Bride Price: It illustrates the injustice of male chauvinism and caste restrictions in Nigeria. Set in Lagos and Ibuza during the 1950s, the protagonist is Aku-nna, a young Nigerian girl whose father dies when she is thirteen, leaving her in the charge of her father’s brother. Aku-nna manages to remain in school only because her uncle believes it will increase her bride price. However, she falls in love with her teacher, Chike, a descendant of slaves whose social status prohibits their involvement. Despite the protestations of her family and a potential suitor who kidnaps her, Aku-nna elopes with Chike and deprives her uncle of her dowry. In the end Aku-nna dies in childbirth, fulfilling the fateful superstition that a woman whose bride price is unpaid will not survive the birth of her first child.
The Slave Girl: This similarly depicts the limited opportunities and property status of women in Nigeria. The female protagonist is Ojebeta, a young girl who is sold into domestic slavery by her brother after her parents die in an influenza epidemic. Stripped of her rights, Ojebeta is moved from her village to a busy town where she is converted to Christianity and taught to read and write. She is later married to a man who pays off her owner, drawing attention to the parallel institutions of slavery and marriage as Ojebeta is simply transferred from one master to another.
The Joys of Motherhood: It describes the circumscribed existence of protagonist Nnu Ego, a dutiful Nigerian wife and mother who suffers poverty and humiliation in a traditional polygamous marriage. Rejected by her first husband for failing to produce a child, Nnu Ego subsequently marries Naife, a cruel city man she finds unattractive but resigns herself to, and eventually bears several children. Exhausted by years of servitude and domestic conflict with her co-wife, Adaku, Nnu Ego finally returns to her village alone and unappreciated for her sacrifices, reflected in the novel’s ironic title.
In Double Yoke: Emecheta relates the disillusioning experiences of a female college student, Nko, whose personal relationships and educational goals are compromised by sexual politics on a Nigerian campus. Nko is scorned by her boyfriend for permitting premarital sex with him, then seduced by a manipulative professor with whom she becomes pregnant. The title refers to Nko’s double bind as she realizes her equally degrading choice between prostitution as a traditional wife or as a liberated academic woman.
Gwendolyn: Chronicles the difficult life of the title character, a young Jamaican immigrant who endures rape, incest, and racism on the way to independence. Gwendolyn flees Jamaica, where she is molested by a family friend, to live with her parents in a poor London neighborhood. At age sixteen she becomes involved in an incestuous relationship with her father, bears his child, and, after her father’s suicide, tentatively reconciles with her mother and boyfriend.
Kehinde: Involves a middle-aged Nigerian woman who relinquishes a professional career in England to return to her native land with her husband. When Kehinde arrives Nigeria after staying behind to sell their house, she discovers that her husband has taken a second wife, reducing her to insignificance despite her status as an educated woman and senior wife. Kehinde eventually leaves her polygamous marriage, returning to England where she gains new perspective on her life.
