Second Class Citizen

Buchi Emecheta was born in Lagos, Nigeria in 1944, which aligns her birth with that of her protagonist, Adah. Her parents were from Ibuza, and she was kept out of school during her childhood in accordance with gender expectations of that time. Her parents intended for her brother to attend school while Emecheta remained at home, but Emecheta convinced them of the value of education, securing a place first at a missionary school, then at Methodist Girls’ School in Lagos.

Emecheta was engaged to Sylvester Onwordi when she was 11 years old, and the two were married in 1960, when Emecheta was 16. Over the next five years, Emecheta gave birth to five children and moved to London with Onwordi. The marriage was unpleasant, and Onwordi was physically abusive. Emecheta wrote during her spare time, eventually publishing over 20 books. Her first was In The Ditch (1972), which is composed of writings Emecheta had published in New Statesmen magazine. Both In The Ditch and Second Class Citizen center on Adah, who is an autobiographical imagining of Emecheta herself, with Adah’s life mirroring Emecheta’s own experiences.

Emecheta’s works tend to focus on the struggles of Black people, women, and immigrants, and follow her own experiences as a Black woman immigrating to the United Kingdom.