Buchi Emecheta

Florence Onyebuchi "Buchi" Emecheta OBE (July 21, 1944 – 25 January 25, 2017) was a Nigerian-born novelist.

Quotes

• In all my novels… I deal with the many problems and prejudices which exist for Black people in Britain today.
  • On her major themes in “Interview with Buchi Emecheta” (Philip Emeagwali)

• I believe it is important to speak to your readers in person... to enable people to have a whole picture of me; I have to both write and speak. I view my role as a writer and also as an oral communicator.
  • On speaking to readers in “Interview with Buchi Emecheta” (Philip Emeagwali)

• I work toward the liberation of women but I'm not a feminist. I'm just a woman.
  • On rejecting being called a feminist (as quoted in “Buchi Emecheta: Nigerian author who championed girls dies aged 72” in BBC News; 2017 Jan 26)

• Black women all over the world should re-unite and re-examine the way history has portrayed us.
  • On how Black women should challenge historical representations (as quoted in “Buchi Emecheta: Nigerian author who championed girls dies aged 72” in BBC News in BBC News; 2017 Jan 26)

• But who made the law that we should not hope in our daughters? We, women, subscribe to that law more than anyone. Until we change all this, it is still a man's world, which women will always help to build.”
  • On the female gender (as quoted in [1]).

• Few things are as bad as a guilty conscience.
  • Speaking on morality [2]

• Being a woman writer, I would be deceiving myself if I said I write completely through the eye of a man. There’s nothing bad in it, but that does not make me a feminist writer. I hate that name. The tag is from the Western world – like we are called the Third World.
  • Speaking on her writing not as a feminist [as quoted in "Zikoko").

• The first book I wrote was The Bride Price which was a romantic book, but my husband burnt the book when he saw it. I was the typical African woman, I’d done this privately, I wanted him to look at it, approve it and he said he wouldn’t read it.
  • On her tough marriage [3].

• I am a woman and a woman of Africa. I am a daughter of Nigeria and if she is in shame, I shall stay and mourn with her in shame.
  • Buchi Emecheta speaking on being a Nigerian woman [4].

• God, when will you create a woman who will be fulfilled in herself, a full human being, not anybody’s appendage? she prayed desperately.
  • Buchi Emecheta, The Joys of Motherhood. [5].

• The leaves were still on the trees but were becoming dry, perched like birds ready to fly off.
  • Buchi Emecheta, Second Class Citizen -[6].

• In Ibuza sons help their father more than they help their mother. A mother's joy is only in the name. She worries over them, looks after them when they are small; but in the actual help on the farm, the upholding of the family name, all belong to the father.
  • The Joys of Motherhood - [7].