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Chika Unigwe Gives a Breakdown of Buchi Emecheta’s Biography in a Twitter Thread
Buchi Emecheta is one of Nigeria’s most celebrated writers. She was the author of more than 15 books including The Joys of Motherhood, Second Class Citizen, The New Tribe, Head Above Water and others. Buchi Emecheta was born in Lagos in 1944 but later moved to the UK. In 2005, she was made an OBE, a Member of the British Order. She died in 2017.
In a Twitter thread, Chika Unigwe, author of On Black Sisters’ Street, writes about the inspiring journey of Buchi Emecheta from her life in Nigeria before moving to the UK. Chika’s rendition of Buchi’s life exposes how Buchi was a courageous woman with strong determination, even in the face of troubles and despair.
There’s much to learn from this. Enjoy!
2/When her mistress died, Ogbanje Emecheta returned home to freedom. Ogbanje Ojebeta, like her alterego in the novel she inspires, trained as a seamstress. She married Jeremy Nwabudinke, a railway worker.
— chika unigwe (@chikaunigwe) January 26, 2023
4/Like many in their situation, they went back to Ibusa during the holidays so their children could stay rooted to their culture, their values and their ancestors’ way of life. In Ibusa, Buchi and her brother helped on the farm and listened to folktales.
— chika unigwe (@chikaunigwe) January 26, 2023
6/She lived with a family who did not treat her well. She appropriated two shillings from the family’s food money to pay for a scholarship application and entrance examination to high school.
— chika unigwe (@chikaunigwe) January 26, 2023
8/ In an Eng. Lit. class taught by an English missionary, Miss Humble, Buchi shared her dream of being a writer. She writes of this in her auto. Head Above Water, ‘Pride goeth before a fall!’ Miss Humble said .. ‘Go.. to the chapel.. and pray for God’s forgiveness.’ (21)
— chika unigwe (@chikaunigwe) January 26, 2023
10/ At sixteen, Buchi graduated from Methodist High and succumbed to pressure to get married. She refused to marry any of the men picked for her. If she must marry, it had to be to someone who shared some of her dreams.
— chika unigwe (@chikaunigwe) January 26, 2023
12/In 1961, Sylvester went ahead of his family to England while Buchi earned good money working at the American Embassy and saved up enough to join him in 1962 with their two children.
— chika unigwe (@chikaunigwe) January 26, 2023
14/her husband lived in a rented one room apartment where their 3 children slept on the couch he had bought with part of the money Buchi had sent him to buy her a coat (the rest of the money he spent on a coat for himself);
— chika unigwe (@chikaunigwe) January 26, 2023
16/Refusing to settle into a menial job, she got a job at the British Museum. Threatened by her growing independence, and dissatisfied with burning her manuscript, Sylvester sought ways to break her. He found ways to coerce her into sex, cornering her on her way to work
— chika unigwe (@chikaunigwe) January 26, 2023
18/When she took him to court, he denied that he was the father of the children, denied that he and Buchi were married and as he had burned all legal documents, there was no way of proving otherwise. Buchi, not yet 22 and eight months pregnant, was now free of him.
— chika unigwe (@chikaunigwe) January 26, 2023
20/A student of Sociology at the Polytechnic of Central London and a single parent, she wrote for four hours every Saturday and Sunday, writing what would become In the Ditch. First serialized in the New Statesman, it got her the attention of agents and publishers
— chika unigwe (@chikaunigwe) January 26, 2023
21/Semi-biographical, or ‘lightly disguised autobiography,’ as Charlotte Brunner terms it, Adah’s resilience and determination to get her family out of the slums of London and out of the ditch pays off.
— chika unigwe (@chikaunigwe) January 26, 2023
23/The Joys of Motherhood (1979) ; The Rape of Shavi (1983) a dystopian sci-fi novel and Destination Biafra (1982), one of the earliest and one of the few fictionalized accounts of the Biafran war by a woman author
— chika unigwe (@chikaunigwe) January 26, 2023
24/ Emecheta was made an OBE – Officer of the British Empire- in 2005. Predeceased by 2 of her 5 children, she died on January 25, 2017 in London, UK after an illness. #Hero
— chika unigwe (@chikaunigwe) January 26, 2023
Buchi Emecheta’s name will forever be remembered in African literature.
