Buchi Emecheta: A Literary Force That Pierced The Thick Fabric of Patriarchy

A biography of Florence Onyebuchi "Buchi" Emecheta, a Nigerian writer who lived between 1944 and 2017.

A Literary Force That Pierced The Thick Fabric of Patriarchy 

Possessing an analogous representation of an African female character held tightly under the suffocating pressures of overwhelming patriarchal systems, classism, and the unyielding cultures of the African and Western societies, Buchi Emecheta was revered as a spectacle; a literary force that depicted in rawness the hardships, stigma, spites, and struggles of an African woman who dared to defy the system. Although she was grazed and scathed by the oppressive systems, her literary works pierced through even deeper into the very fabric of patriarchal oppression. Her consistency in portraying these realities poignantly in her works positioned her among the earliest African writers who criticised and challenged the century-old traditions—preceding the likes of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It also earned her the "feminist" label—a label she preferred not to be strongly associated with. Instead, she distanced herself from conventional feminism and portrayed herself as a feminist with the short "letter F", aligning more with the ideology of negofeminism (Negofeminism prioritises focus on the assertion of African women's individuality and strength within the overwhelming patriarchal structure).

Florence Onyebuchi "Buchi" Emecheta was born on July 21, 1944, in Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria, by Alice Ogbanje Ojebeta Emecheta, her mother, two months earlier than the expected birth month. Ogbanje Emecheta was formerly sold into slavery by her brother to a relative in another town to raise money for silk head ties for his coming-of-age dance. Her mother's harrowing experiences later became a significant source material for Buchi's 1977 novel, Slave Girl. Upon her mistress's death, Ogbanje Emecheta gained freedom and trained to become a seamstress. Later, she got married to Jeremy Nwabudinke, a railway worker who was aptly described as a supportive father to her children. The couple had another child, Adolphus Chisingali Emecheta (Buchi's younger brother). Being a family deeply rooted in ancestral culture and traditions, they often went back to Ibusa (their hometown) during the holiday, where Buchi spent most of her childhood.

Buchi's family's financial struggle further reinforced early Africa's societal norm that restricts formal education to the male child. Due to this, only Buchi's younger brother, Adolphus, was allowed to go to school. However, Buchi's desire for knowledge sustained her. Her first spark in storytelling was ignited by her grandmother's folktales about Igbo history and culture. Although the folktales were intently narrated to suppress any raging desire, they instead made her radically sensitive and in-depthly aware of the antagonising structure of the African culture against the independent minds, desires and free will of women and female children—that which she eventually became a victim of. But in her case, she navigated her way through the storm, deeply scarred and scathed, yet victorious, thereby representing a necessary shift in the portrayal of women as mere instruments of domestication and materials of inheritance in the African societies.

Driven by this earthly interest to be educated at a time when it was largely reasoned absurd and a waste of money to send the female child to school, Buchi broke through the unnerving trials of becoming recognised as different, enigmatic or "traditionally unbecoming", with a radiant spark and stern determination often tainted by the ignorant perspective of a blindfolded, rigid society that women are only trained to serve the purposes of their men through intense domestication as mothers and wives. Buchi sneaked off to Lady Lak Institute without the knowledge of her parents, where their neighbour taught. Captivated by Buchi's intellectual curiosity, the neighbour convinced her parent to allow her to go to school. There, she learnt how to read and write in English.

Sadly, the new phase of her intellectual adventure faded quickly just as it had appeared following her father's death in 1958. Subsequently, her mother was married off on a cultural basis to her father's brother in Ibusa as inheritance. There, she later gave birth to another son. This resulted in Buchi and her younger brother being separated from their mother. They were both sent to relatives in the different parts of Lagos, thereby halting her education. Her intellectual journey was further resuscitated by a sheer "force within her", one she described as "The Presence", causing her to rely on herself as she charted through the struggles. Buchi later applied for a scholarship to a secondary school with the two shillings from the family's food money. Fortunately, she passed the entrance examination and was awarded the scholarship to Methodist Girls' High School, a missionary school where she gained full exposure to the outstanding literary works of writers like William Shakespeare, John Keats and Rupert Brooke. This also temporarily rescinded the possible fate of marrying her off at the age of 12.

All Dreams, Though Subtle, Young and Strange, Are Valid 

A rather significant moment in her intellectual journey was the enigmatic encounter with a particular Miss Humble, an Oxford-educated English missionary who taught as a teacher of English literature in Methodist Girls' School. The event unfolded after she precisely stated her interest in becoming a writer. Her disclosure was met with sharp, disconcerting rejection—one from a self-righteous priest to a naive sinner: "Go there and pray for God's forgiveness". But Buchi never prayed. She held on to her sturdy dream, never revealing it to anyone, lest it invite more troubles. This encounter was revealed in her 1986 autobiography, Head Above Water, thereby reflecting the subtle discouragements young naive students tend to face in such exposed settings by authority figures. An attempt that subtly says, "not all dreams are valid". In the autobiography, Buchi writes:

‘Pride goeth before a fall!’ Miss Humble said in a hoarse, low voice, and her protruding teeth looked as if they were going to fall out. Then she stretched herself, standing on her toes as if she was determined to reach the ceiling, and pointed at me stiffly…’

‘…I said I would like to be a writer.’

‘Go out, out and straight to the chapel. Go there and pray for God’s forgiveness.’

Buchi's mother died a year after she won the scholarship. Buchi later graduated from high school at the age of 16 and eventually got married in 1960 to Sylvester Onwordi, a student to whom she had been betrothed at the age of 11. This arrangement halted her educational pursuit. Even more ironic, in Sylvester, she had hoped she had hit the jackpot of marital and soulmate chase. In their early marriage, Buchi worked at the American Embassy, where she earned good money, while Sylvester travelled to England to attend London University. At this time, they had two children, who were, along with Buchi, left behind in Nigeria with the hope of meeting Sylvester in England later on. Eventually, this long-awaited dream became a reality when the family were joined together in England. However, during this time, the family lived in poor conditions to finance Sylvester's education.

Catastrophe: Birthing a New Identity!

The marriage was catastrophic, as Buchi witnessed several instances of violence and abuse from her husband. Their marriage got hit with the final, fatal, stumbling blow following the disclosure of Buchi's first manuscript, The Bride Price, to her husband. The disclosure was met with opposition and discouragement from Sylvester, causing him to burn the manuscript. This resulted in their separation. Narrating the attachment Buchi had with her first manuscript and the resulting incident, Buchi told BBC that:

"I was the typical African woman; I'd done this privately. I wanted him to look at it and approve it, and he said he wouldn't read it. And later he burnt the book ... and that was the day I said, I'm going to leave this marriage, and he said, 'What for, that stupid book?' and I said, 'I just feel you just burnt my child.'”

After their separation, Buchi took up a job as a library officer at the British Museum. By 1966, they had three more children. These events were preceded by Sylvester's efforts in coercing Buchi into sex on her way to work, where her refusal was near impossible; subsequent rape by locating where she lived after she moved out with the children; setting all the marriage legal documents, which served as evidence that they were married, on fire; and his denial of their children to fault the proof of marriage in court.

At the age of 22, she struggled to support her children on her own. She received an honours degree in sociology at the University of London between 1970 and 1974, thereby offering a promising transition in her lifestyle. She merged the lifestyles of a social worker, a single parent and a writer. During this time, Buchi published In the Ditch (a series of passages with The New Statesman magazine) into a novel in 1972. The novel served as a chronicle of a Black woman having difficulties raising five children as a single parent while straddling two cultures. The novel was depicted as a semi-autobiography by Charlotte Brunner because the main character, Adah, shares some striking similarities with Buchi. Even more precisely stated by Chukuma in her essay, Nigerian Female Writers, cultural trends before Buchi were described as such that:

Female characters’ trained ambition revolved around marriage and procreation. Her other female obligations ranged further to cooking the family meals, honouring her husband’s bed, on invitation, and other times merging with the home environment peacefully.

Buchi also published her second novel, The Second Class, which was subsequently pieced together in 1983 as Adah's Story. Subsequently, Buchi published at least 20 more books, which include The Slave Girl (1977), The Joys of Motherhood (1979), The Rape of Shavi (1983), Destination Biafra (1982) and several works of children's and teenage fiction which also radically explored the themes of racism, classism, sexual discrimination and sexism as experienced by an immigrant in Britain.

Buchi: Africa's Foremost Eloquent Female Writer

Between 1972 and 1982, Emecheta served as a visiting lecturer and professor at universities in the United States, England and Nigeria. In 1982, she founded Ogwugwu Afor, a publishing company in London and Nigeria, managed by her and her journalist son.

In 1992, Emecheta was awarded an honorary doctorate of literature from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, New Jersey. She was also awarded the Order of the British Empire Award and was a member of the Arts Council of Great Britain. At the peak of her career, she received many critics of her works, especially from Africans, which stirred controversy. In spite of this, she was regarded as one of Africa's foremost eloquent writer feminists.

Buchi Emecheta has been characterised as "the first successful Black woman novelist living in Britain after 1948." Her works continue to be celebrated for their insightful portrayal of African women's experiences and their critique of societal norms. She passed away in London on January 25, 2017, aged 72, after developing a stroke in 2010, causing her health decline.

Buchi Emecheta was easily considered an important, imaginative writer expertly experienced in writing about African women's experiences in Africa and in Great Britain.

— Adedeji Adebusuyi Raphael, Ajayi Oluwabukunmi