Buchi Emecheta lived a full life. Even as we mourn today, we celebrate her. An author who brought a uniquely female perspective to the stories she wrote, she truly is one of the most important figures in African literature. Although she hated the term ‘feminist’, there was no doubt that she was fully aware of the suffocating patriarchal nature of the societies and times she lived in.
1. On men
A hungry man is an angry manBuchi Emecheta
2. On patriarchy
A man is never uglyBuchi Emecheta (Joys of Motherhood)
3. On being a feminist
I work toward the liberation of women, but I’m not feminist. I’m just a womanBuchi Emecheta
4. On the female gender
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 buildBuchi Emecheta
5. On being a Nigerian woman
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 shameBuchi Emecheta
6. On morality
Few things are as bad as a guilty conscienceBuchi Emecheta
7. About feminism
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
8. About black women
Black women all over the world should re-unite and re-examine the way history has portrayed us
9. On her tough marriage
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
