246:
attention of young men in the neighborhood, though she has not yet started to menstruate. Her stepfather
Okonkwo, who has ambitions of being made a chief, begins to anticipate a large bride price for her. Meanwhile, she has begun to fall for her teacher Chike, who in turn has developed a passion for her. Chike is the descendant of slaves – when colonization started, the Ibo often sent their slaves to the missionary schools so they could please the missionaries without disrupting Ibo life, and now the descendants of those slaves hold most of the privileged positions in the region.
250:
off the inevitable confrontation. When she finally reveals that she has her period, young men come to court her and
Okonkwo receives several offers. One night, after she finds out that she has passed her school examination (meaning she might become a teacher, earning money by means other than the bride price) she and the other young women of her age-group are practicing a dance for the upcoming Christmas celebration when men burst in and kidnap her.
29:
254:
disgrace has already spread around the village when Chike rescues her and the two elope, fleeing to
Ughelli where Chike has work. The two begin a happy life together, marred by her guilt over her unpaid bride price – Okonkwo, furious, refuses to accept any of the increasingly generous offers made by Chike's father, and has gone so far as to divorce Ma Blackie and torture a doll made in Aku-nna's image.
257:
When Aku-nna feels sick, she goes home. There she is not sure if she will have a baby. Soon the doctor in Chike's oil company confirms that Aku-nna will have a baby. Later on when she feels sick and screams, Chike brings her to the hospital. There, Aku-nna dies in childbirth. Chike christens his baby
249:
Chike's inferior background means it is unlikely that
Okonkwo will agree to let him marry Aku-nna, although his family is wealthy enough to offer a generous bride price. When Aku-nna begins menstruating – the sign that she is now old enough to get married – she at first conceals it in order to stave
245:
The family is problematic in Ibuza – Ma
Blackie has some of her own money, and so her children receive much more schooling than other children in the village, particularly the children of her new husband's other wives. Aku-nna is blossoming, though she is thin and passive, and starts to attract the
215:
was the first novel
Emecheta wrote, but its original version was lost when her husband threw the manuscript on the fire – which act of destruction proved to be the last straw in an abusive marriage that she subsequently left. She later re-wrote the novel, and it was published in London in 1976 by
253:
The family of an arrogant suitor with a limp, Okoboshi, has kidnapped her to be his bride in order to "save" her from the attentions of Chike. On her wedding night, she lies and tells
Okoboshi that she is not a virgin and has slept with Chike; he refuses to touch her. The next day, word of her
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commented: "The clash of
Christian and African cultures, of generations, of ancient and modern pieties, and of group custom and the individual will are all vividly portrayed in this pure, fluid novel.... The author has a plain, engaging style and manages to convey all the lushness,
242:, performing fertility rites. It becomes apparent that he is much sicker than he lets his children know, and he dies three weeks later. They have the funeral the day before Ma Blackie arrives; she takes them back to Ibuza with her, as she now becomes the wife of Ezekiel's brother.
279:, called the novel "highly impressive", concluding: "In the last decade or so there has been some exciting literature coming from Black Africa, and this book is in the very top rank of the movement. I recommend it warmly and without reservation."
316:
called it "a captivating
Nigerian novel lovingly but unsentimentally written, about the survival of ancient marriage customs in modern Nigeria" adding that this book "proves Buchi Emecheta to be a considerable writer."
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noted that the quality of the novel "depends less on plot or characterization than on the information conveyed about a set of customs and the ideas which underlay them", while
Valerie Cunningham in the
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Aku-nna and her brother, Nna-nndo, are bid farewell by their father Ezekiel, who says he is going to the hospital for a few hours – their mother, Ma Blackie, is back home in
289:: "Buchi Emecheta is an unstrivingly poignant writer, who convinces through plain narrative authenticity and a feeling for character."
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116:
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335:, and casual cruelty of a still exotic (to Western readers) culture while keeping her tale as sharp as a folk ballad."
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that the novel "manages to pull off the trick of bringing the reader through to the realities common to us all".
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185:. The author dedicated this novel to her mother, Alice Ogbanje Emecheta.
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181:. It concerns, in part, the problems of women in post-colonial
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Allison & Busby, following the company's publication of
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is also the name of an unrelated novel by German novelist
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was favourably reviewed on both sides of the Atlantic.
436:Hilary Bailey, "The distraction of foreignness",
393:"How African writer gave women and girls a voice"
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169:is a 1976 novel (first published in the UK by
423:Anthony Thwaite, "Fiction: Faded truths",
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204:, translated by John Barrett, in 1991.)
450:"Emecheta, (Florence Onye) Buchi 1944–"
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482:"Where to start with: Buchi Emecheta"
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196:originally published in German as
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527:Nigerian English-language novels
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306:The Times Literary Supplement
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16:1976 novel by Buchi Emecheta
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461:"Briefly Noted - Fiction",
410:Peter Tinniswood, Fiction,
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374:"Re-Covered: In the Ditch"
355:"Buchi Emecheta obituary"
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532:Novels by Buchi Emecheta
512:Allison and Busby books
517:George Braziller books
542:Novels set in Nigeria
177:) by Nigerian writer
507:1976 Nigerian novels
440:, 18 September 1976.
219:Second Class Citizen
142:Second Class Citizen
547:Postcolonial novels
537:Novels set in Lagos
522:Igboland in fiction
502:1976 British novels
452:, Encyclopedia.com.
401:, 16 February 2018.
382:, 28 February 2019.
171:Allison & Busby
73:Allison & Busby
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398:Camden New Journal
363:, 3 February 2017.
262:Critical reception
173:and in the USA by
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391:Angela Cobbinah,
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117:978-0-85031-165-5
95:Publication place
49:Cover artist
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488:, 20 March 2024.
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271:Peter Tinniswood
175:George Braziller
150:Followed by
137:Preceded by
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86:Publication date
78:George Braziller
33:First UK edition
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22:The Bride Price
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281:Anthony Thwaite
267:The Bride Price
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230:In the city of
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213:The Bride Price
210:
200:in 1988 and in
190:The Bride Price
166:The Bride Price
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478:Margaret Busby
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472:External links
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465:, 17 May 1976.
463:The New Yorker
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372:Lucy Scholes,
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351:Margaret Busby
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323:The New Yorker
320:The review in
301:Susannah Clapp
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198:Der Brautpreis
179:Buchi Emecheta
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155:The Slave Girl
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43:Buchi Emecheta
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293:remarked in
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226:Plot summary
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53:Taiwo Jegede
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496:Categories
339:References
208:Background
194:Grete Weil
412:The Times
283:wrote in
276:The Times
69:Publisher
222:(1974).
438:Tribune
329:poverty
296:Tribune
202:English
183:Nigeria
131:2912824
106:168 pp.
98:Nigeria
234:, the
157:
144:
39:Author
258:Joy.
240:Ibuza
232:Lagos
103:Pages
63:Novel
59:Genre
125:OCLC
112:ISBN
90:1976
80:(US)
75:(UK)
303:in
236:Ibo
498::
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188:(
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