Episode description

Child slavery, motherhood, female independence and freedom through education are amongst the topics explored in over 20 books by the author Buchi Emecheta. Born in 1944 in an Ibusa village, she lost her father aged eight, travelled to London and made a career as a writer whilst bringing up five children on her own, working by day and studying at night for a degree. Shahidha Bari is joined in the studio by her son Sylvester Onwordi, New Generation Thinker Louisa Egbunike, publisher Margaret Busby and Kadija George (otherwise known as Kadija Sesay) founder of SABLE LitMag. We also hear from other writers and readers, including Diane Abbott MP and poet Grace Nichols, who took part in an event held at the Centre of African Studies at SOAS, University of London, a year after her death.

Buchi Emecheta's career took off when she turned her columns for the New Statesman about black British life into a novel In The Ditch which was published in 1972. It depicted a single black mother struggling to cope in England against a background of squalor. Two years later Allison and Busby published her book Second-Class Citizen, which focused on issues of race, poverty and gender. Now her books are being re-published so for Black History Month this October 2021 here's another chance to hear this discussion recorded in 2018.

Producer: Robyn Read

You can find a playlist Exploring Black History on the Free Thinking website https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08t2qbp

Main Image: Buchi Emecheta (Photograph by Valerie Wilmer, courtesy of Sylvester Onwordi (c)).