Buchi Emecheta, Nigerian Novelist, Dies at 72

Buchi Emecheta, Nigerian Novelist, Dies at 72 - The New York Times

Buchi Emecheta, a British-based Nigerian writer who, in “Second-Class Citizen,” “The Joys of Motherhood” and other novels, gave voice to African women struggling to reconcile traditional roles with the demands of modernity, died on Jan. 25 at her home in London. She was 72.  The cause was dementia, her son Sylvester Onwordi wrote in the British magazine New Statesman.

Ms. Emecheta (pronounced BOO-chee em-EH-cheh-tah) came to the attention of British readers in the early 1970s when New Statesman began running her accounts of the travails of a young Nigerian woman in London. Adah, a thinly disguised version of the author, lived in a dreary apartment, worked menial jobs to support her young children and abusive husband, studied at night and weathered the slights meted out by a racist society. Buoyed by ambition and pluck, she remained undaunted.

“In the Ditch,” a novel based on those columns, appeared in 1972.  With the publication two years later of a second Adah novel, “Second-Class Citizen,” critics in Britain and the United States hailed the arrival of an important new African writer. Like her immediate predecessor Flora Nwapa, Ms. Emecheta revealed the thoughts and aspirations of her countrywomen, shaped by a patriarchal culture but stirred by the modern promise of freedom and self-definition.

Hunger Fuels Child Marriage

From PM News Nigeria:

In Hawkantaki, it is the rhythm of the land that shapes the cycle of life, including the time of marriage.  The size of the harvest determines not only if a father can feed his family, but also if he can afford to  keep his daughter under his roof.

Even at the best of times, one out of every three girls in Niger marries before her 15th birthday, a rate of  child marriage among the highest in the world, according to a UNICEF survey.

Now this custom is being layered on top of a crisis. At times of severe drought, parents pushed to the wall  by poverty and hunger are marrying their daughters at even younger ages.

A girl married off is one less mouth to feed, and the dowry money she brings in goes to feed others.

Blessing Liman - Nigeria's First Female Fighter Pilot

From This Day Live:

Blessing Liman, a 25-year-old lady from Kaduna State, has become Nigeria’s first female military pilot.

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) at the weekend commissioned her along with 126 others who completed the Direct Short Service Course 2010/11 Cadets of 325 Ground Training Group at the NAF Base, Kaduna.  Liman said she was very excited and proud to make history.

She said: “It is very uplifting and I feel very proud of myself though it has been very challenging. Coming from the civil war and the civil mentality, the Air Force has done a great job because it has changed our orientation.

“I believe that all females have equal opportunity to dignify their rights in whatever adventure they choose they can do.”

Blessing, who wants to encourage other females, called on other womenfolk to see her feat as a challenge for them to explore their capabilities “for nation-building”.

Nigeria: Women Seek Relevance

From The Tribune:

The journey so far marks 51 years of Nigeria's independence. Looking at the prospects available to the society, men glaringly appear to be privileged and advantaged. And the women? Their song has been that of marginalisation in all spheres.

As Nigeria celebrates its 51st Independence Day, the cry of women, most especially professionals, is that of equal opportunities with men. 'We want not only to be seen, but to be heard,' they sing.

Nigeria: Women Given Pride of Place

From the Nigerian Compass:

GOVERNOR Ibrahim Geidam of Yobe State said that apart from appointing women to key government positions, his administration also offered free medical services to pregnant women and children below the age of five.

The governor spoke when the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs Salamatu Hussaini Suleiman, paid him a courtesy call at the Government House, Damaturu.

Geidam said that a VVF unit would be established at the Mariam Sani Abacha Maternal and Child Health Clinic, Damaturu.

The governor restated the commitment of his administration to continue to empower women, children and vulnerable groups in the state.

The governor appealed to Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), well-meaning individuals and other stakeholders to join hand with government in its effect to improve the general wellbeing of women and other vulnerable groups by establishing orphanages, daycare centres and motherless babies homes.

The minister, who called for more effort by the government for maximum result, disclosed that her ministry had mapped out strategies that would be better the lives of women and children.

Maryam Babangida

From This Day Online, Chidi Amuta interviews Nigeria's Maryam Babangida.

An excerpt:

In a sense then, Maryam Babangida was largely the force behind the awesome power of the great General. And yet hers was the soft kind of power; subtle, unabrasive and without the usual pomposity of the moneyed class. She was sophisticated without being over adorned, elegant in simple ankara outfits and no make up and yet stylish without the kind of deliberate adornment that transforms otherwise beautiful women into mannequins and painted idols.

Between the late First Lady and the General, there was a certain utopian love that still defies precise characterisation. Each time I have stepped into the general’s office, I have never failed to take another count of the number of portraits of Hajia in that single room. At the last count there were four. Sometimes, it grows to six. Every bathroom in the guest wing of the house has towels with ‘Maryam Babangida’ monograms. This almost totemic devotion becomes more significant when we realise that General Babangida is unquestionably a devout Muslim.

As we pay our last respects to Mrs. Babangida, here is a hope that Nigerian womanhood will come to treasure her landmark strides in reminding us all of the vast humanity that lies locked away by poverty in the rural areas. But most importantly, we are celebrating the life of a woman that married power and privilege with responsibility and commitment to the cause of those that may never taste either power or privilege.

Nigeria: Girls Power Initiative

From AllAfrica:

A Non-Governmental Organisation, Girls Power Initiative (GPI), has called on the National Assembly to enact a law on violence against women.

The NGO also said the national assembly should stop debate on the Indecent Dressing Bill sponsored by Senator Eme Ekaette, saying the passage of the bill will increase violence against women.

The Co-ordinator of Calabar Centre of GPI, Professor Bene Madunagu, addressing the press in Calabar in reaction to the murder of Miss Grace Ushang in Maiduguri, Borno State while participating in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme said all Nigerians should condemn the death of the corps member.

Madunagu also expressed regret that the Director-General of the NYSC rather than condemn the rape and violence that led to the death of Ushang was blaming the late Corps member for not taking security precautions.

She said that at the public hearing on the Bill, it became obvious that the Bill proposes to "grant intolerably dangerous powers of arrest and invasion of the most intimate privacies of the woman's body imaginable to both police officers and ordinary citizens to undertake vigilante action against women they mere perceive to be indecently dressed".

According to Madunagu, "The compounded crimes that killed Grace Ushang painfully return our attention to the pervasiveness of violence against women in Nigeria and the growing resort to vigilante action to police vague notions of feminine propriety and decency".

Interview: Bishop Peace Okonkwo

Interview @ AllAfrica between Yemisi Suleiman and Bishop Peace Okonkwo in the lead up to the Women of Global Impact Conference 2009.

The Women of Global Impact is an initiative that has different points of reaching out: Rehoboth Homes, Widows Empowerment Initiative, Children Educational Support and Orphanage Support.

The programme was actually aimed at getting women that are highly placed in the society to let them know that as women we could do more to complement what the men are doing; because, we are the ones carrying the brunt, the ones that give birth. It was to bring them together and thank them for what they are doing and inspire them to do more.

Nigeria: Empowering Women

From allAfrica:

The wife of the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Hajiya Zainab Adamu Aliero has advocated for the empowerment of women because of the crucial role they play in family settings.

Mrs. Aliero stated this on Monday at Kuje Area Council, in continuation of her visit to the six area councils of the FCT in order to flag off the skills acquisition training programme for the less privileged.

She said the training programme will provide a platform to help address the thorny issue of poverty, especially at the grass root level, adding that it will also help the rural dwellers develop skills that will help them become self employed.

Women & Childbirth

From The Punch:

A medical expert, Prof. Oladosu Ojengbende, has said that about 600,000 women die annually from pregnancy-related complications

Out this figure, the Head, Family Health Department of the University of Ibadan Teaching Hospital, said 90 per cent of them were from the developing countries

He made these revelations at this year’s International Day of the Family held by the Federal Ministry of Health in Abuja on Friday.

Every May 15 is observed worldwide as the International Day of the Family to evaluate the health of the family which is considered as the microcosm of the society.