One of Africa’s most celebrated novelists, Buchi Emecheta has passed on.
Buchi, born on July 21, 1944 passed on in her sleep on last night, Wednesday in London.
If you’re a keen follower of Nigerian literary pieces, then you must have read one if not a couple of her books at some point. Buchi has written quite a lot of plays and 20 books; from the best selling, Joys Of Motherhood to Bride Price, Second-Class Citizen and The Slave Girl.
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.
She has been characterised as “the first successful black woman novelist living in Britain after 1948”.
Following her success as an author, Buchi travelled widely as a visiting professor and lecturer. From 1972 to 1979 she visited several American universities, including Pennsylvania State University, Rutgers University, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
From 1980 to 1981, she was senior resident fellow and visiting professor of English, University of Calabar, Nigeria. In 1982 she lectured at Yale University, and the University of London, as well as holding a fellowship at the University of London in 1986.
She earned a BSc degree in Sociology at the University of London.
Among honours received during her literary career, Buchi won 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”.
In September 2004, she appeared in the historic “A Great Day in London” photograph taken at the British Library, featuring 50 Black and Asian writers who have made major contributions to contemporary British literature. In 2005, she was made an OBE.
Condolences to the family.
