The End Of An African Legend
Have you ever heard of the name Buchi Emechata before? Well, lovers of Literature will have heard of the name and also heard of her works. Before her death, she owned over 20 books like “The Joys Of Motherhood”, “The Pride Price”, “Second-class citizen” and the likes.
As an African feminist, she believes in giving freedom to the young lady in a dire situation, and been a megaphone to the women folks.
As a Nigerian novelist, based in Britain since 1960, who had also written plays and autobiography, as well as for children, she is known to be an icon and an image to recon with in the Literary industry. She has been characterized as “the first successful black woman novelist living in Britain after 1948.
Owing to her records, she has won over 8 awards and titles which includes BSc (Honours), University of London, 1972, New Statesman Jock Campbell Award for The Slave Girl, 1978, British Home Secretary’s Advisory Council on Race, 1979, Arts Council of Great Britain bursary, 1982–83, One of Granta′s “Best of the Young British Novelists”, 1983, PhD, University of London, 1991,
Order of the British Empire, 2005, Who’s Who in Anioma, 2011, Who’s Who in Ibusa, 2011, among others.
Have you ever wondered what made her different than others? Then her style of writing has given credence to her figure. According to a report this was gathered about her “While positive constructions of identity may be used in the service of historically oppressed groups, readings that isolate either “African” or “feminist” identity in the works of Nigerian novelist Buchi Emecheta highlight the problematics of both literary self-representation and postmodern deconstruction of identity. An examination of Emecheta’s autobiography “Head above Water and her novel The Joys of Motherhood, however, suggests that Emecheta’s works respond to a West African vernacular tradition of storytelling that resists the application of normative models of identity and instead demonstrates the importance of each individual to the community. This vernacular tradition, elaborated in Emecheta’s work by a nonparadigmatic tension between “oral” and “literate subjectivity” (a tension potentially present to varying degrees in non-African subjectivity but “marked” in West Africa by multilingualism and the copresence of vernacular and literate languages), provides a critique of productivist, authoritarian discourse.”
Yes, it is through “It is through Buchi Emecheta that the souls of voice- less Nigerian women are heard, She tries to “speak” clearly and “distinct” for all to hear.
Africa, the world and the Literary family will surely miss her great impact to the society and world in general. Have you ever read her book before? Then you should try and do so today in order to miss one of Africa’s feminist.
