Buchi Emecheta (1944-2017) was a revolutionary Nigerian novelist. Her work centered on Black women and girls, and their fight for equity, education and dignity.
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Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan and this is Encyclopedia Womannica.
Today’s storyteller was a revolutionary Nigerian novelist. Her work centered Black women and girls, and their fight for equity, education and dignity. Often, she drew on her own experiences.
Here’s the story of Buchi Emecheta.
Florence 'Buchi' Emecheta was born on July 21st, 1944, in Lagos, Nigeria. Her family was Igbo, one of the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria.
Buchi, a sickly child with a curious mind, was doted on by her father, Jeremy. But when Buchi was eight years old, Jeremy died.
Buchi’s mother, Alice, couldn’t see the value in keeping her daughter in school. What good was a bright mind if the family had no money? Alice tried putting Buchi to work selling oranges in the market. But a benefactor saw the potential in the little girl with big eyes, and provided the necessary support for her to continue her education.
In 1954, Buchi won a scholarship to the prestigious Methodist girls high school, in Yaba, Lagos. During her first year there, her mother died, too. Buchi’s guardianship was then passed around among relatives, but she continued to study at the same school. On holidays, when her classmates would return to their mansions, Buchi stayed in the dorms, reading and retreating into her imagination.
By the time she was 11, Buchi had met Sylvester Onwordi, another student. Five years later, they married. In 1960, at just 16, Buchi had their first child, a daughter. A year later, they welcomed a son.
Shortly after the birth of their second child, Buchi’s husband, Sylvester, immigrated to London to attend university. In 1962, Buchi joined him. By 1966, she’d had three more children, another boy and two more girls.
Married life in London was not a happy time for Buchi.
Buchi would later use her literary alter ego, Adah, to chronicle her early life with a violent husband. Adah, amid squalid living conditions, dreams of becoming a writer. Buchi did, too. After Sylvester burned what would have been the manuscript for her first novel, Buchi took their five small children -- and left.
Buchi found work as a library assistant at the British Museum, and attended night school. She began writing about her experiences as a single, Black mother in London for the New Statesman, a progressive cultural and political magazine. In 1972, her semi-autobiographical novel was published, titled In the Ditch. Two years later, in 1974, Buchi earned a sociology degree from London University.
Buchi’s second published book, Second Class Citizen was another documentary novel. In it, she detailed the challenges Buchi faced as a Black single mother, whose family had been deemed a “problem” by the welfare system. Later, In the Ditch and Second Class Citizen would be compiled into a single volume: Adah’s Story.
Within this pair of novels, three major themes of Buchi’s work emerged: the search for equality, self-confidence and dignity as women.
Over the next three decades, Buchi would go on to publish nine more novels and an autobiography, entitled Head Above Water. In 2005, she was named an Officer of the British Empire.
In her lifetime, Buchi Emechetawent from fighting for a grade school education to seeing her books featured in school curriculums. She mined her own life -- its challenges, its pain -- for inspiration. She saw that her story was not unique — that in her writing about her own struggles, millions of women and girls would recognize themselves, too.
Buchi died on January 25th, 2017, after a years-long struggle with dementia. She was 72 years old.
All month, we’re talking about storytellers.
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