Buchi Emecheta is one of Africa’s most prolific writers with 20 books, including novels, plays, poetry, essays and children’s books to her credit. Her greatest contribution, however, is in her novels which have served primarily as Emecheta’s “vehicle of catharsis” and thus the healing of a life in England, the early part of which, the author herself has described as “very, very hard…both financially and emotionally.” She contends that her books are about “survival…just like [her] own life."

Buchi Emecheta was born in Lagos, Nigeria in 1944 to Jeremy Nwabudike and Alice Okwuekwu Emecheta. Her father was a railway worker, which in the Nigeria of 1944 was essentially a casual labourer undertaking much of the dangerous

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First published 29 February 2004

Citation: Nzegwu, Femi. "Buchi Emecheta". The Literary Encyclopedia. 29 February 2004.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1424, accessed 9 February 2010.]