Second-Class Citizen

This is the story of an ambitious Nigerian Igbo girl in the fifties and sixties who had an early dream of going to England. She had to fight to be allowed to attend primary school, being a girl, and when her father died she had to work as a servant for an uncle. She fought her way to secondary school through a scholarship, but after that she realized she had to get married just to have a home. She chose an over-indulged young man to marry and that was the greatest mistake she made. The man was lazy, had a low opinion of women, and expected her to work while he studied and watched TV. Her dream of going to the UK was realized, but their marriage fell to pieces.

The title is a reference to the way black people were discriminated at in England at that time. Ada was surprised by it all and learned very quickly that white people were not all the saints they’d appeared to be as missionaries in Nigeria, that there were good and bad white people just as there were good and bad black people.

I had the impression that the heroine was too young for the sort of roles and responsibilities she got in the story after arrival in England. The author’s sense of humor shows clearly in the story and personally a lot of the situations reminded me of personal experiences, like Ada’s having to work as a servant when her father died, and Francis’ ordering his children to speak only English.

February 24, 2015. Review initially written in 1993. Novel first published in 1974. Picture source: Yahoo (Images).