Buchi Emecheta: Beyond the Task and the Mask

Abstract

Critical gender theorizing in Africa is vast and deep with a tempo that forms a contour reflecting the divergence of views in its discourse. From the liberal to the radical feminist, arguments abound as to which gender theory best would suit the African environment without it serving as “a red rag to the bull of the African male”. Of the Afro- feminists worthy of mention, Buchi Emecheta occupies the front row. She claims not to be a radical feminist. However, a critical examination of her literary engagement confirms the contrary. This paper therefore is a critique of Emecheta. Consequently, it concludes that what Emecheta preaches as a feminist is not what she practices as a woman outside the lecture theatres. This is the contradistinction in Emecheta’s polemics.