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].

• God, when will you create a woman who will be fulfilled in herself, a full human being, not anybody's appendage? ... when will I be free?
  • The Joys of Motherhood-[8]
• At home in Nigeria, all a mother had to do for a baby was wash and feed him and, if he was fidgety, strap him onto her back and carry on with her work while that baby slept.
  • Second Class Citizen- [9]
• Nnu Ego was like those not-so well-informed Christians who,promised the Kingdom of Heaven,believed that it was literally just round the corner and that Jesus Christ was coming on the very morrow. Many of them would hardly contribute anything ton this world,reasoning, "What is the use? Christ will come soon" They became so insulated in their beliefs that not only would they have little to do with ordinary sinners,people going about their daily work, they even pitied them and in many cases looked down on them because the Kingdom of God was not for the likes of them. Maybe this was a protective mechanism devised to save them from realities too painful to accept.
  • The Joys of Motherhood-[10]
• Nnaife did not realise that Dr Meers's laughter was inspired by that type of wickedness that reduces any man, white or black, intelligent or not, to a new low; lower than the basest of animals, for animals at least respected each other's feelings, each other's dignity.
  • The Joys of Motherhood-[11]