Episode 17: Second Class Citizen by Buchi Emecheta

In episode seventeen, we discuss Buchi Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen.

Published in 1974, Buchi Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen is the story of Adah, a young Nigerian woman, mother and wife who follows her husband to London in the pursuit of an independent life free from strict cultural traditions.

Adah’s desire for equality and her struggle for self-confidence and dignity are themes that are reoccurring in Buchi’s work, and Second Class Citizen is an typical example of that.

However, in 1960s London, Adah faces new struggles as a black immigrant, among them racism and the harsh realities of her marriage.

Show Notes

Buchi Emecheta: https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/buchi-emecheta

Buchi Emecheta obituary: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/feb/03/buchi-emecheta-obituary

A Sort-of Career: Remembering Buchi Emecheta: https://www.wasafiri.org/article/sort-career-remembering-buchi-emecheta/

Cooking with Buchi Emecheta: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/08/03/cooking-with-buchi-emecheta-2/

Buchi Emecheta interview | Civil Rights | women's rights | Today | 1975

Recommendations

Fi

‘A Trip to Echo Spring: One Writers and Drinking’ by Olivia Laing

‘Draw Your Weapons’ by Sarah Sentilles

‘Annie Dillard and the Writing Life’ by Alexander Chee

Kirby

‘The Good People’ by Hannah Kent

BBC World Series: The Documentary Podcast

Neve

Pose

‘Mothers’ by Kim Ye-Seol in The Lifted Brow issue 39

‘Peter Darling’ by Austin Chant

Contact Us

Twitter: @litcanonball

Instagram: @literarycanonball

Find us on Facebook at Literary Canon Ball

Email: [e-mail]