Nigeria’s revered literary icon, Buchi Emecheta has died at the age of 72. She reportedly passed on in her sleep on Wednesday, 25th of January.
Emecheta was born in Lagos on 21 July 1944, published more than 20 books throughout her career, notable among them are Second Class Citizen, The Bride Price and lot’s more
She married Sylvester Onwordi, a student to whom she had been engaged since she was 11 years old. She immediately moved to the UK with her husband and gave birth to five children in six years.
At the age of 22, Emecheta left her husband. While working to support her five children alone, she earned a BSc degree in Sociology at the University of London.
Her themes of child slavery, motherhood, female independence and freedom through education won her considerable critical acclaim and honours, including an Order of the British Empire in 2005, the Jock Campbell Award from the New Statesman in 1979, and was on Granta magazine’s 1983 list of “Best of the Young British Novelists”.
She will be remembered for her contributions to African literature.