Buchi Emecheta was once described by her son asa “womanist”, a word that is perhaps closely related to the more popular word,“feminist”. Her ideas about the place of a woman in what is ostensibly 1970sand 1980s Nigeria are explored in this novella that packs a punch that is fargreater than its small weight.

“Going to the United Kingdom must surely belike paying God a visit,” Buchi Emecheta declared in a BBC One programme TheLight of Experience about her perceptions about that island as a little girlgrowing up in Ibusa, Nigeria. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7cAwemP-u8 She vowed to someday visit thatcountry; she would go on to live there for decades. Bintu, the narrator of NairaPower by Buchi Emecheta, follows this path. “I am a woman who has stayed morethan half of her life in the United Kingdom, pursuing one set of studies andthen another,” Bintu introduces herself at the beginning of the novella.

The book opens with Bintu explaining that shehas been visiting her family in Lagos, Nigeria and has spent some time withNurudeen, her younger brother, and his third wife, Amina. “I am in my prime,thirty-five or so, but I still call Amina my wife,” Bintu remarks on theAfrican culture of referring thus to a spouse of the member of the family. “So,she even felt it an honour for me to refer to her as ‘Amina my wife.’ I couldhear and feel the vibrant happiness in her voice when she called back, ‘Yes, Auntie.’”The novel opens on the day that Bintu is expected to fly back to the UnitedKingdom. Nurudeen rules his house sternly. As he coordinates the house, Binturemarks, “I could hear my brothers grave and sullen voice say something nastyto this person, or that person. I could hear Lamidi whimper in pain. I knewwhat had happened, my brother had given him a slap or two…But aggressivenessand rudeness are all part and parcel of being a male, I suppose.”  The preceding lines set the tempo for thenovella: female solidarity in the face of patriarchy and outright malechauvinism. “My eyes caught hers and we nearly collapsed laughing…For thatsplit second we forgot we were women. We forgot that we were meant to laughonly gently in a subdued, feminine way,” narrates Bintu about the hilarity sheand Amina derived from Nurudeen’s strict conduct of the house’s affairs. For abook first published in 1982 under the Macmillan Pacesetters series, thesentiments expressed in the immediately preceding extract are perhaps notstrange.

While she waits impatiently for her returnflight to the UK, Bintu offers to follow Amina to the market. As Amina drivesthem to the market, they stumble on a mob that has apprehended Ramonu, a manfrom Amina’s past. A member of the mob tells Amina that Ramonu was caught allegedlypickpocketing “an Ibo man” at the National Stadium in the middle of a footballmatch. The mob burns Ramonu alive. A rain suddenly starts thereafter, and thetwo women are trapped in Lagos’s notorious traffic. The novella is mostlyAmina’s recollections of Ramonu’s life — mostlyuntoward adventures in the quest for wealth. It turns out that they grew uptogether at Isalegangan, a fictitious neighbourhood on Lagos Island. “Lemonuwas the name of Ramonou’s father. He came to Lagos as a young man. A very longtime ago, he travelled from the North to the South to sell his cattle…Lemonuspoke neither English nor Yoruba,” but he found success as a sanitary officer.Lemonu’s story is like many who join the rural to urban drift and make it bigby using their wits and derring-do; his is slightly more different because he achievesit somewhat legitimately. As is expected of successful men, Lemonu delves intopolygamy, and the deleterious effects on Ramonu is presented to the reader. Ramonu’srelationship with his father hits the rocks as a fall out of this domesticpolygamous arrangement, leading Ramonu being disowned by his father. After someyears, Ramonu suddenly shows up, wealthy and in a far better financial statethan his father had ever been. His past transgressions are forgiven, and hefinds favour with the neighbourhood. Everyone wants to be Ramonu’s friend, orwife. “If you don’t have naira power here, Auntie, you are lost. Money can buyyou everything, even justice. Everything,” Amina tells Bintu as she narratesthe story.‎

The theme of polygamy rings all through thenovel.  Bintu wonders how her civilservant brother manages to maintain his three wives and their many children. “Menwith many wives end up not having a single wife-friend among the women theywork for all their lives,” Bintu observes. Bintu, much to her surprise, findsthat Amina is not the docile, unexposed person/third wife she initially thoughther to be. “Our mothers always told us that if you let your husband know allabout you, you are asking for trouble,” Amina tells Bintu, after she disclosesthat the relationship between Ramonu and her was not platonic. It is common tofind that many Nigerians in the diaspora look down on Nigerians who live athome, considering them anything buy exposed, smart or wise; both educated anduneducated alike. When Bintu wonders why Amina had never told her husband aboutRamonu, Amina retorts, “My mother told me never to undress in front of myhusband. He would never respect me. So. All these five years, my husband hasnever known how I look and he will never know. Do you think I should tell a manlike that I had an adventure in my youth?” Bintu is very much surprised at theeconomic awareness possessed by Amina despite her limited formal education, asthey lament Ramonu’s fate. “We both agreed that the tragedy that was Ramonu wasthe fault of nobody, but that of a society that respects any fool who hasnaira.” The Nigerian in the 2000s understands this sentiment very much.

Buchi Emecheta effectively takes the readerinto Lagos of yore, when “One of the civil laws of Lagos states that onlyeven-numbered cars should run on the roads on certain days, and on other days,only odd-numbered vehicles.” Her descriptions of Lagos are vivid.  She also accurately captures the attitudes ofa lot of Nigerian men to the premiership of Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. “Myhusband says that the United Kingdom is full of sick men. He says that is why theyhave a woman ruling them and a woman is their prime minister,” Amina tellsBintu, much to the dismay of the latter.

However, as with novellas, the majorshortcoming I observed was the shortage of further material or informationabout the major characters in the novel.

I have little doubt about it; as Naira Poweris reprinted and distributed once again, it will be an impactful book foranother generation of Nigerians and Africans, especially to the younger readersfor whom the Pacesetters series was initially designed.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars