Second Class Citizen

“She felt eight when she was being directed by her dream, for a younger child would not be capable of so many mischiefs. Thinking back on it all now that she was grown up, she was sorry for her parents. But it was their own fault; they should not have had her in the first place, and that would have saved a lot of people a lot of headaches.”

This quote foreshadows the struggles that Adah will go through as a child and as an adult later in the novel. She feels sorry for her parents—though many children maintain the status quo, Adah deviates from the norm at almost every stage of life. The note about “headaches” is somewhat ironic, as Adah will go on to support her entire family as a result of her ambitions, earning her much headache.

“Not like those of their children who later got caught up in the entangled web of industrialisation. Adah’s Ma had no experience of having to keep up mortgage payments: she never knew what it was to have a family car, or worry about its innards; she had no worries about pollution, the population explosion or race. Was it surprising, therefore, that she was happy, being unaware of the so-called joys of civilisation and all its pitfalls?”

As the Nigerian women go to meet Nweze, the narrator shows the mix of adherence to Nigerian culture and influence from imperialism in the country. Nigeria has not yet gotten “caught up” in industrialization, which deprives them of some luxuries possessed by Europeans. This also saves them from the struggles of industry that their children will face as more and more people flock to the “civilization” people like Nweze bring back from Europe.

“One might think on this evidence that Africans treated their children badly. But to Adah’s people and to Adah herself, this was not so at all; it was the custom. Children, especially girls, were taught to be very useful very early in life, and this had its advantages. For instance, Adah learned very early to be responsible for herself. Nobody was interested in her for her own sake, only in the money she would fetch, and the housework she could do and Adah, happy at being given this opportunity of survival, did not waste time thinking about its rights or wrongs. She had to survive.”

Emecheta describes Adah’s upbringing in Nigerian culture. She uses declarative sentences—”She had to survive”—and a matter-of-fact tone. In describing Adah’s childhood, Emecheta suggests that, as with any culture, one might view a practice as good or bad.