Kehinde (African Writers) [Paperback]

Buchi Emecheta (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 22, 1994 | ISBN-10: 0435909851 | ISBN-13: 978-0435909857 | Edition: Heavy shelfwear

Kehinde is a Nigerian woman, unsure of herself, not quite certain she has the right to be happy. With her husband, Albert, she has made a home in London, and has a promising career when Albert decides they should return to Nigeria. Kehinde is loath to do so, and joins him later, reluctantly, only to discover that he has taken a second, younger wife. Her years in England have left Kehinde unwilling and unprepared to reembrace Nigerian social mores; and unable to accept the situation, she returns to London.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With her usual lucidity and in a lilting yet plain-spoken style, Emecheta ( Head Above Water ) tells of a woman's search for independence. Albert and Kehinde Okolo have been living in London for 18 years when Albert's sisters begin pressuring him to return to Nigeria. Kehinde resists the idea: their two children have never been to Nigeria and she has recently learned that she is pregnant. At Albert's insistence she has an abortion. Albert then leaves, and Kehinde remains behind to sell the house. After Albert sends for the children, Kehinde is lonely at first but manages on her own. Eventually, she begins to feel like a "half-person" without Albert, gives up her job and departs for Nigeria. On her arrival, she is horrified to learn that, during their two-year separation, Albert has taken a second wife. Kehinde decides to return to England and establish a life for herself there. Kehinde's troubled relationship to Albert and her children are parallelled in her recollections of a difficult childhood: Kehinde's twin was stillborn and her mother died at birth, prompting the family to believe that she had eaten her sister. It's a story that she at first accepts, but as she becomes her own woman she rejects its superstitious quality.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA-After living in London for many years, Kehinde's husband Albert decides that they will return to Nigeria. He strongly urges her to abort the baby she is carrying, and she does so with great apprehension. He takes their two children and leaves her to sell the house and tie up loose ends at her prestigious bank job. He then returns to their homeland, where he takes a new young wife and has a child by her. When Kehinde arrives in Nigeria and discovers the truth, she is pressured by her own and Albert's female relatives to play the role of the subservient wife. Her sense of reason wins out, and readers will applaud her decisions at the end of this short, honest novel.
Ginny Ryder, R.E. Lee High School, Springfield, VA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Heinemann; Heavy shelfwear edition (February 22, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0435909851
• ISBN-13: 978-0435909857
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,786,586 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deceptively simple of a woman's place, October 22, 2004

By 

Lynn Harnett (Marathon, FL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Kehinde (African Writers) (Paperback)

In this novel of culture clash and the burden of tradition perpetuated on and by women, Kehinde and her husband Albert are poised to return to Nigeria from London, their home for 16 years. Reluctant to leave her job and relinquish the independence she has come to treasure, Kehinde convinces herself she will respected at home as a "been there" woman.

But, she discovers, in Nigeria she is only a woman, and a discarded wife at that. Her husband has taken a second wife, an educated professional who has given him a son and shows him the respect he feels is his due.

This slim, deceptively simple novel is rich in complexity. Emecheta effectively portrays the smothering feel of the extended family for Kehinde while showing how the second wife, unspoiled by Western culture, borrows strength and power from it when she is weak. Kehinde's strength must come from inside herself and, in Nigeria, that will never be possible.

Emecheta, a British immigrant with numerous novels to her credit, celebrates personal fulfillment, with a distinctly feminist cast.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What is done can't be undone...., January 23, 2001

By 

Sinan AKILLI (Hacettepe University, Ankara, TURKEY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kehinde (African Writers) (Paperback)

Buchi Emecheta's novel captures attention from the very first page and it is most likely that any reader of post-colonial fiction will see the last page in just one go. Apart from Emecheta's mastery in reflecting the experiences of a Nigerian woman living in London in the 1960s and 1970s, what appeals to the reader is the delicate sense of what Homi Bhabha calls "hybridity" that is professionally placed within the texture of the narrative. The Nigerian and the English worlds come together in the novel. For my part, I believe that "Kehinde" can well be read as a novel reflecting the cross-cultural adaptation of a Nigerian woman, who can no longer accept the values and the traditional social structures of her country of origin. Neither does she readily assimilate into the English culture. Rather she reconciles the two cultures. This is the story of how a bicultural identity is formed. Once Kehinde tastes freedom, then she can't be expected to accept marital slavery again. This is what her new identity requires and she finds spiritual balance and reconciliation in following the urges of her new bicultural self.

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully told story, June 22, 2009

By 

Hilda Kinyunyu (MD, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kehinde (Paperback)

The story is simple yet beautifully told.
Any immigrant from Africa to the West will identify with Kehinde or her husband. Another masterfully told story by Buchi Emecheta.