Education, Sisterhood and Solidarity in Buchi Emecheta’s Kehinde (1994)

Facing patriarchal African societies where men were empowered at the expense of women, the main concern of African female writers of the first and second generations has chiefly been the restoration of the social condition of the African woman. The male-oriented perspectives in African male writings did not align with African women writers'. So as a response, these female writers started coming up with a new type of female characters whose stories are woven from their own experience and milieu. One of those novels is Emecheta's Kehinde (1994) where the heroine, after living in London for eighteen years, joined her husband in Lagos, could no longer bear the brunt of life she was expected to lead as a woman and wife in a Nigerian patriarchal society. Consequently, she was compelled to return to England. One may wonder what solutions Buchi Emecheta proposes in order to help Nigerian women in particular and African women in general improve their living conditions in a male-dominated African society. From a feminist perspective, this article will deal with The Empowerment of Women in Buchi Emecheta's Kehinde. Based on sociology, culture, psychology and feminism, this study will first analyze the importance of women's education and then will examine Emecheta's advocacy for solidarity among women.