The Untold Story Of How Domestic Violence Led Buchi Emecheta To Become One Of The Greatest Nigerian Writers Of All Time

e Untold Story Of How Domestic Violence Led Buchi Emecheta To Become One Of The Greatest Nigerian Writers Of All Time

A  must read for all literature lovers.

Not many know that Nigerian writer Buchi Emecheta, who wrote books like Second Class Citizen and The Slave Girl, was actually tapping from her own life experiences.

1. Emecheta’s journey to writing against women and girl-child slavery started very early in her life.

2. When she was of school age, Emecheta was kept at home because “she was a girl and would eventually end up in the kitchen of a man” according to her father. So her younger brother was sent to school.

3. She eventually went to primary school after long persuasion but lost her father at age nine.

4. At age 10, she won a full scholarship to Methodist Girls School where she was till 16.

5. At 16, in 1960, she got married to Sylvester Onwordi, who she was betrothed to at age 11.

6. After her wedding, she relocated to London with her husband who furthered his education while she became a baby-making machine. In six years, Emecheta had five children!

7. Her marriage was a turbulent one filled with violence and this made her start writing books to keep her sanity and of course, she started with her life experiences as written in Second-Class Citizen.

8. Her husband was never in support of her writing and as such burnt her first manuscript.
9. Emecheta left her husband when she was 22.

10. Emecheta authored more than 20 books centred on child slavery, motherhood, female independence and freedom through education.

11. Her books include Second-Class Citizen (1974), The Bride Price (1976), The Slave Girl (1977) and The Joys of Motherhood (1979).

12. In 2005, the novelist was honoured with an Order of the British Empire.

13. She was also characterised as “the first successful black woman novelist living in Britain after 1948”.

14. Buchi Emecheta died on Wednesday, January 25, 2017 at the age of 72.

15. Her favorite quotes included: “A hungry man is an angry one”. “Black women all over the world should re-unite and re-examine the way history has portrayed us”. “I work toward the liberation of women, but I’m not feminist. I’m just a woman”.