Second-Class Citizen by Buchi Emecheta
"Second-Class Citizen" by Buchi Emecheta is a poignant novel that chronicles the life of Adah Ofili, a Nigerian woman navigating the challenges of gender, culture, and identity from her childhood in Lagos to her early years in London. The narrative begins with Adah's dreams of education, which are stifled by societal norms that prioritize boys' schooling over girls'. Despite these obstacles, her determination leads her to academic success and aspirations for a better life.
The novel explores Adah's experiences as she marries Francis Obi, hoping to secure her independence and continue her education. However, their move to England reveals harsh realities, as Adah confronts the notion of being a "second-class citizen" in a foreign land. This term embodies her struggles against systemic inequalities and personal disappointments, particularly in her marriage, where her ambitions clash with her husband's traditional views.
As Adah faces discrimination and marital strife, she also learns to assert her rights and advocate for her children's well-being. Her journey encapsulates themes of resilience, identity, and the fight for self-determination, ultimately leading her to make the difficult decision to leave her husband in pursuit of her dreams. Emecheta's work provides a rich exploration of the intersection between gender and cultural identity, inviting readers to reflect on the complexities of belonging and empowerment.
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Second-Class Citizen by Buchi Emecheta
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of World Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1974
Type of work: Novel
The Work
Second Class-Citizen, which tells the story of Adah Ofili from her childhood to her early years in London, begins with a discussion of dreams. The eight-year-old Adah, who was born in Lagos during World War II, can only dream of going to school, since she was not allowed to attend because she was not a boy. One day when her mother is distracted, Adah goes to the Methodist School where a neighbor teaches, and he allows her to remain for the day. When she returns home, the police are there. Her mother is punished for child neglect, yet Adah is allowed to continue attending school.
A few months later, Adah’s father goes to the hospital but does not return. Her mother is inherited by her father’s brother, her brother goes to live with one of her father’s cousins, and Adah is sent to live with one of her mother’s brothers. Only because she could bring a higher bride price if educated, she is allowed to remain in school. Suitors come; however, she is not interested in any of them. Instead, fascinated with the possibility of winning a scholarship to secondary school, Adah steals the money for the sitting fee, passes the examination, and wins the scholarship. She attends the Methodist Girls’ School and completes the four-year course.
Wanting to continue her education at the university, Adah knows that she will not be allowed to live on her own. Therefore, she marries a student, Francis Obi, who is too poor to pay the bride price, with the hope of being able to attend school and study at her own pace. Instead, she gives birth to a daughter and begins working for the American consulate library. Having had the dream of going to the United Kingdom, she shares it with her husband. They decide to go, but his family, who depend upon her income, approves of his leaving but insists that Adah remain in Lagos. She agrees for a time but eventually persuades her in-laws to allow her also to travel to England.
Adah’s dream comes true as she sails for London with two young children; however, the narrator makes it clear that all dreamers know that there are setbacks to dreams. For Adah, there are complications when she gives birth to her third child. She is in the hospital for a few weeks but is ignored by her husband. Rather than being concerned about her welfare or the child’s, he is more interested in using the money she receives from work for his personal advancement. Adah then comes to accept that she did not marry the man of her dreams.
Francis informs Adah that in England she is a second-class citizen. Noting Adah’s disappointment at their living conditions among a lower class than they would have associated with in Lagos, he tells her she cannot discriminate against her own people, for they are all second-class now. In spite of Francis’s conciliation, Adah rejects the notion of being a second-class citizen: She has what is considered a first-class citizen’s job and insists upon taking care of her own children, a trait linked in England only to white women. When her son, Victor, becomes seriously ill and she believes it is because of the conditions at the home where he is staying while she works, Adah approaches her children’s social worker and insists that they be moved from that sitter. Because of Adah’s fierce persistence, her children are placed in a nursery. Thus, she learns that what Francis has been telling her is not true: Second-class citizens can fight for their rights.
Francis’s idea is further undermined when Victor again becomes ill, this time on Christmas Day. Francis calls their doctor, but the doctor refuses to make a house visit. Francis summons two policemen, who come to see the child and agree that a doctor is needed. Although the family doctor, an Indian, does not come, a Chinese one does. Adah is keenly aware of that which Francis mostly likely does not see: England equally provides some services for both its first-and second-class citizens. When it is clear that she will not accept the second-class citizenship that Francis seeks to impose at home, and when she realizes that he does not respect her and her dreams, scoffing at her desire to be a writer and destroying her first manuscript, Adah takes her five children and leaves.
Bibliography
Emecheta, Buchi. “Feminism with a Small’f’!” In Criticism and Ideology: Second African Writers’ Conference, edited by Kirsten Holst Petersen. Uppsala, Sweden: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, 1988.
Fishburn, Katherine. Reading Buchi Emecheta: Cross-Cultural Conversations. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1995.
Petersen, Kirsten Holst. “Buchi Emecheta.” In Twentieth-Century Caribbean and Black African Writers, First Series, edited by Bernth Lindfors and Reinhard Sander. Vol. 117 in Dictionary of Literary Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1992.
Umeh, Marie. “Buchi Emecheta.” In Postcolonial African Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, edited by Pushpa Naidu Parekh and Siga Fatima Jagne. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1998:
Umeh, Marie, ed. Emerging Perspectives on Buchi Emecheta. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 1996.