Second Class Citizen by Buchi Emecheta Book Review — Tobechukwu Udeigbo
Second Class Citizen follows the life of Adah, a young, Igbo, ambitious and educated Nigerian girl who emigrated from Nigeria to London seeking for better opportunities for her young family. While in Nigeria, Adah lived though the disintegration of her first family — Pa, her father who died after a brief illness; her mother who was auctioned off to her late father’s brother; Boy, her only brother who went to live with another family member while she tagged along with her uncle and his family. In her uncle’s house, Adah faced physical abuse and maltreatment from her extended family who grudgingly paid for her primary school education. Adah’s cultural Igbo background frowned upon women getting an education and fed on the notion that women are only slightly regarded more than a goat. They are often seen as less than and second class.
With all these corrosive experiences stifling Adah’s ambitious spirit of becoming educated and independent, she fought against the waves and earned her spot for a fully funded secondary school education which she passed with flying colors and later got a job at the U.S. Consulate as a librarian. After that, she surrendered to the raging winds of culture and succumbed to the pressure of marriage which became her undoing. Adah married Francis, a very lazy, egoistic, and patriarchal Nigerian man who sapped Adah of her self esteem, dreams, and income and planted seeds of doubt around her. Francis would later go to London to further his education which was fully sponsored by Adah’s income in Lagos and when Adah joined him in London, she continued to put herself through rigorous work for him.
While reading the book, I spot on did not like Francis. His laziness, insensitivity, and pure hatred for success and anyone trying to become better made it easy for me to tag him as a third class citizen. I understood that Adah was young when she got married to Francis but did not understand why she allowed his laziness and ugliness to fester on for so long. Culturally, Igbo men are known to be hard workers and take pride in the flamboyancy of their wives; so Francis made me cringe a lot. I think that because she took up the responsibility of fending for her family, Francis became lazier.
Adah, in as much as she was black, a woman and an immigrant, continued to defy stereotypes. She was always hardworking and a born hustler. Her character became fluid in the book as she adapted to the system in London. For example, she got the “cap” to prevent pregnancy, even though that didn’t turn out well when Francis found out. She hit Francis back whenever they got into a fight. She began to open up to her co workers and they encouraged her gift of writing and she finally summoned courage to take Francis to court and get a restraining order against him. She was unafraid of raising her children alone. These would have been impossible for Adah if she had remained in Nigeria where women are expected to be silent and submissive.
I love that Buchi used simple sentences to unwrap her characters and snuck in some characters like Mr Noble for comic relief. The book was a cliffhanger toward the end and I felt exasperated.
All the same, I applaud the author for such an important revolutionary book. I would definitely recommend to young women and immigrants.
The Luminaries Book Club is an online book club with the aim of encouraging people of different background and walks of life to read, interact, and expand their knowledge base so as to increase in wisdom and understanding in order to maximize their potentials. Our sole purpose is to revive the reading culture amongst youth, and as the name implies, build up individuals that are an inspiration to others and together be a body that gives light.
Want to be a member? Click here to chat with our Admin. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to get our updates.
