Novelist, Buchi Emecheta, ‘dies in her sleep’

Buchi Emecheta, a Nigerian literary icon based in Britain, has died aged 72.

Buchi passed on in her sleep on Wednesday morning in London, according to her representatives.

The late author and playwright published more than 20 books, including Second-Class Citizen (1974), The Bride Price (1976), The Slave Girl (1977) and The Joys of Motherhood (1979).

Buchi was a widely-travelled visiting professor and lecturer.

From 1972 to 1979 she was a visiting professor at Pennsylvania State University, Rutgers University, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Buchi was a senior resident fellow and visiting professor of English, University of Calabar, Nigeria from 1980-1981.

During her illustrious career, Buchi won the Jock Campbell Award from the New Statesman in 1979, and was on Granta magazine’s 1983 list of “Best of the Young British Novelists”.

In 2005, the British monarchy awarded her with an OBE (Order of the British Empire).