Second Class Citizen is a novel written by Nigerian-born author Buchi Emecheta. It concerns a young Nigerian girl’s dream to move to the United Kingdom in pursuit of a better life. After arriving in London, she grapples with her cruel husband, the difficulty of raising five children, racial prejudice, and the arduous road to attaining her own dreams and goals.
Second-Class Citizen is strongly autobiographical. Paired with The Ditch (1972) in the volume Adah’s Story (1983), it essentially chronicles Emecheta’s experiences in London.
The novel was published in England in 1974 and the following year in the United States. It received positive reviews, with Booklist calling it a “poignant story of a resourceful Nigerian woman whose determination to make something of herself despite strict tribal domination of females leads her to London where, after countless setbacks and grim living conditions, she achieves an independent life for herself and her children.”
For many years the novel was out of print, but a Penguin Modern Classics new edition was released in 2020. On that occasion, a Guardian reviewer noted, “The simple, informal prose gives the story a durability: it’s still fresh even without its on-trend autofictional form or timeless subject matter of the black woman’s experience in Britain.”
