[3] Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Emecheta drew in her writing on themes of child slavery, motherhood, female independence and freedom through education, gaining recognition from critics and honours especially with her debut novel, Second Class Citizen.
[7] Her mother, Alice Ogbanje Ojebeta Emecheta,[9] was a former slave girl sold into slavery by her brother to a relative to buy silk head ties for his coming-of-age dance.
At nine, she lost her father, who died of the complications from a wound which he contracted in the swamps of Burma, where he had been conscripted to fight for Lord Louis Mountbatten and the remnants of the British Empire.
[10][11] After a year, she received a fully funded scholarship to Methodist Girls' School in Yaba, Lagos, where she remained until the age of 16.
[23] This semi-autobiographical documentary novel[5] chronicled the struggles of a main character named Adah, who is forced to live in a housing estate while working as a librarian to support her five children.
Her later works Gwendolen (1989, also published as The Family), Kehinde (1994) and The New Tribe (2000) differ in some way, as they address the issues of immigrant life in Great Britain.
[4] Most of her fictional works are focused on sexual discrimination and racial prejudice, informed by her own experiences as both a single parent and a black woman living in the United Kingdom.
[7] From 1969 to 1976, she was a youth worker and sociologist for the Inner London Education Authority,[7][29] and from 1976 to 1978 she worked as a community worker in Camden, North London,[5][7] while continuing to produce further novels at Allison and Busby, with Margaret Busby as her editor[1] – The Bride Price (1976), The Slave Girl (1977), The Joys of Motherhood (1979) and Destination Biafra (1982) – as well as the children's books Titch the Cat (1979, based on a story by her 11-year-old daughter Alice)[30] and Nowhere To Play (1980).
[8] From 1982 to 1983, Emecheta, together with her son Sylvester, ran the Ogwugwu Afor Publishing Company, producing her own work under the imprint,[17] beginning with Double Yoke (1982).
[34] Over her career, Emecheta worked with many cultural and literary organizations, including the Africa Centre, London, and with the Caine Prize for African Writing as a member of the Advisory Council.
[44][45][46] Among participants in the "Celebrating Buchi Emecheta" day-long event[47] – "a gathering of writers, critics, artists, publishers, literature enthusiasts and cultural activists from all over the world, including London and other parts of the U.K., France, Germany, U.S., Canada, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and the Caribbean" – were Diane Abbott, Leila Aboulela, Carole Boyce Davies, Margaret Busby, James Currey, Louisa Uchum Egbunike, Ernest Emenyonu, Akachi Ezeigbo, Kadija George, Mpalive Msiska, Grace Nichols, Alastair Niven, Irenosen Okojie, Veronique Tadjo, Marie Linton Umeh, Wangui wa Goro, and Bibi Bakare-Yusuf.
[48][49] Emecheta features at number 98 on a list of 100 women recognised in August 2018 by BBC History Magazine as having changed the world.