Efuru

by Flora Nwapa

Appearing in 1966, Efuru was the first internationally published book, in English, by a Nigerian woman. Flora Nwapa (1931-1993) sets her story in a small village in colonial West Africa as she describes the youth, marriage, motherhood, and eventual personal epiphany of a young woman in rural Nigeria. The respected and beautiful protagonist, an independent-minded Ibo woman named Efuru, wishes to be a mother. Her eventual tragedy is that she is not able to marry or raise children successfully. Alone and childless, Efuru realizes she surely must have a higher calling and goes to the lake goddess of her tribe, Uhamiri, to discover the path she must follow. The work, a rich exploration of Nigerian village life and values, offers a realistic picture of gender issues in a patriarchal society as well as the struggles of a nation exploited by colonialism. Other titles by African writers from Waveland Amadi, The Concubine (ISBN 9781478634607) Andreas, The Purple Violet of Oshaantu (ISBN 9781478634584) Ba, So Long a Letter (ISBN 9781577668060) Campbell, My Children Have Faces (ISBN 13 9781478635017) Head, The Collector of Treasures and Other Botswana Village Tales (ISBN 9781478607601) Head, Maru (ISBN 9781478607618) Head, A Question of Power (ISBN 9781478634690) Head, When Rain Clouds Gather (ISBN 9781478607595) Kubuitsile, The Scattering (ISBN 9781478634591) La Guma, In the Fog of the Seasons' End (ISBN 9781478600251) p'Bitek, Song of Lawino & Song of Ocol (ISBN 9781478604723) Plaatje, Mhudi (ISBN 9781478609575) Rifaat, Distant Views of a Minaret and Other Short Stories (ISBN 9781478611288)

Genres: Fiction, Africa, African Literature, Nigeria, Feminism, Classics, Novels

221 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Florence Nwanzuruahu Nkiru Nwapa (13 January 1931 – 16 October 1993) was a Nigerian author best known as Flora Nwapa. Her novel Efuru (1966) is among the first English-language novels by a woman from Africa.

Nwapa, born in Oguta, was the forerunner to a generation of African women writers. While never considering herself a feminist, she is best known for recreating life and traditions from a woman's viewpoint. In 1966 her book Efuru became Africa's first internationally published female novel in the English language (Heinemann Educational Books). She has been called the mother of modern African literature. Later she went on to become the first African woman publisher of novels when she founded Tata Press.

She also is known for her governmental work in reconstruction after the Biafran War. In particular she worked with orphans and refugees that where displaced during the war. Further she worked as a publisher of African literature and promoted women in African society. Flora Nwapa died on 16 October 1993 in Enugu, Nigeria.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Published in 1966, this apparently was the first book written by a Nigerian woman to be published (this is from Wiki so take with a pinch of salt). It is set in the same area and tradition as Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The blurb with the book sums it up;
“Efuru, beautiful and respected, is loved and deserted by two ordinary undistinguished husbands.”
The setting is rural and Efuru is a woman who is independent and competent and trades for herself. The writing style is very similar to Things Fall Apart and if you enjoyed that you would certainly enjoy this. Like Achebe, Nwapa commentates rather than judges, but the messages are clear and this book is about the society of women in the same way Things Fall Apart is about the society of men. In my judgement this novel is every bit as good as Things Fall Apart and yet it is hardly known. Just look at the difference in ratings; Things Fall Apart has 141 386 ratings and 5993 reviews and Efuru has 193 ratings and 17 reviews. This is not because of a difference in quality; they are both great books and in my opinion Efuru is marginally better. Perhaps because it is written by a woman? Surely not?
The story opens a window onto customs and traditions going back centuries which are beginning to die out with younger generations and the encroachment of white culture and medicine. There is a not too graphic but very powerful description of genital mutilation. Efuru is a wonderfully strong and vibrant character; apart from her father the men in her life are pretty useless and she concludes she is better off without them. She appears to be unable to produce lots of children and this is a source of sadness for her but she finds a role model in the form of the goddess of the lake who is beautiful, powerful, and independent and without children.
This is a great novel; much too neglected and well worth looking out for.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Achebe minced no words in his memoir There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra, when he mentioned his friendship with and respect for Flora Nwapa, Nigeria's first woman writer and former English professor (in fact her work clearly influenced Buchi Emecheta's, this I sensed from the prose arrangement). Reading this novel, I recalled Alice Walker's words in either The World Has Changed: Conversations with Alice Walker, or In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose, where she insisted that feminism is a global thing, meaning one can't care about women from only a certain race. In fact, this same idea is stressed in Awakenings: The Story of the Kate Chopin Revival.

But I'll try not to digress. Efuru. Beautiful Efuru. She is one character I'll never forget. I love when a book leaves a character's portrait so wonderfully drawn across the windows of my mind that she assumes a role in my scholastic discussions on gender and she becomes a model of global comparison.

Efuru is every love-stricken daughter who marries without her parents' consent and alas, bears the brunt of such decision. Efuru is every woman who has loved a man as a partner and friend, but had him torn away by greed, gossip, and jealousy. Efuru is that woman who knows the pain of losing a child. She is the entrepreneur, breadwinner, survivor, and the strong female lead she never imagined herself to be, due to the inflictions of her patriarchal community. Efuru is a woman who moves to the beat of her town's river goddess, to the beat of her own drum.

You know that century-old idea that a girl's education is futile, since she is expected to marry and raise kids? It still exists. That century-old idea that a woman without children is barren or useless or even strange - it still exists. That century-old idea that a woman who does not understand her man somehow has an inherent need to be with other women is a "bad woman," and the woman who feels the same need to be with another is an adulteress, well that idea also still exists. I'll leave you with those thoughts, as they're all highlighted in this novel.

If you can, read this with a cup of palm wine and the weighty, bitter taste of kola nut resting on your tongue. What you can't do is read this for prose embellishments because you'd be disappointed. Nwapa, like most African writers, does not focus on prose design; rather, her prowess is in creating drama through storytelling, something most African writers do powerfully. Look up a play based in Africa and most likely, you'd be in good hands. 'Voice' is the center of good literature from Africa: one must imagine the story read aloud, possibly even dramatized, per African oral storytelling tradition. This story moves through dialogue, something difficult to do, and yet Nwapa makes it look simple.

[Madolyn Chukwu · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first time I read a Flora Nwapa novel - this one - I was incredibly excited. I was already aware of Achebe, but my gut feeling told me that this woman was a better writer! Maybe it was a case of woman to woman...but further studies showed me that the world at large (men of course) considered Achebe to be a much better writer. For me it was like a case of "419" - West Africans would realise what I mean. Or maybe there should be a law banning men from pronouncing on, criticising works by women? Even now I do not think it is sour grapes. Nwapa did show the world in her novels of many decades ago that she is a magnificent writer. Just try to read her works and juxtapose them with how Achebe projects women in his novels...no contest at all, I think . Buchi Emecheta too and her very powerful novels...she even published more of such works than Achebe. Don't get me wrong I have the utmost respect for Achebe. But he was a literary genius, just like Nwapa and Emecheta. He might even have helped Nwapa in getting published...but my point is that Nwapa's books, characters, delineation of women should be treasured too...penned by an insider! Thanks

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5

Perhaps self-imposed suffering appeals to her. It does not appeal to me. I know I am capable of suffering for greater things. But to suffer for a truant husband, an irresponsible husband like Adizua is to debase suffering. My own suffering will be noble.

There're certain novels I've referred to as "______ for adults"wherein I name them as examples that go above and beyond the call of their genre (as dictated by status quo "classics") in terms of complexity, lack of lazy writing in the form of stereotypes, and overall treatment of not the structure of their type, but the philosophy. Postcolonial literature has been a thing for some time now, the artificial debts imposed by former imperial powers (France without its colonial after payments would be a third world country in a heartbeat), and, time, moving as it does, can seem set in its ways if one isn't paying critical attention. White writers can't get away with writing about Africa as one would a playground/zoo as much as they used to, but I still find myself confronted with uncritical trash in well respected public mouthpieces. Nwapa's 'Efuru', then, is a breath of fresh air, especially in a world where Things Fall Apart is practically the only book of Africa, specifically Nigeria, specifically Igbo, that the average person who claims to be a reader has in their back history.

If there is pathos in 'Efuru', it is for human beings, not spectacle. If there is history, it is the everyday acknowledgement of real characters, not the drama of white people in nonwhite wonderland. If there is culture, it is done, not described as it is by writers who pander to "diversity" and believe that, despite not living the diversity, they can somehow fake it. This is a story of a woman who lives through her own insensible tragedies and absurd dooms, but the times they are a' changing, and what was grounds for enslavement is now enabled by the Church, what once killed is now cured, and what was once respected absolutely is now destroyed by the past complicity that first built up its reputation. White people are more aggravating yet doddering parental figure than ultimate villain, and when they do show up it is as comic relief or touches of dramatic plot point. The main story is a matter of individual versus community, gender roles, social machinations, legal (or lack thereof) statutes relating to domestic matters, religious influence, old versus new, accredited versus familiar, all of which is not nearly so dryly thematic when as read as it sounds when listed out. As said, this is a novel for adults, and I don't mean the lazy indicators of such in terms of violence and sex and other gratuitous shock tropes. I mean adult in that there are no right answers, or there are no right answers yet, or there will never be any right answers so long as life goes along unquestioned and individuals trust that the mold of their ancestors will protect their progeny, so long as they all fit. All the while exteriorizing the concerns of the non-Nigerian hoping to "accurately" portray the Nigerian(/African), of course.

This is the best book I've read so far in 2018, so I can excuse my putting off reading it for so long with the reasoning that this initial good fortune will provide motivation to take a chance on other,
solo names. This particular work is on a number of "Best Books of _____", on a lesser scale than So Long a Letter but still to an extent that I fear people will read this, feel satisfied with themselves, and then use that satisfied feeling to power their reading of 99+ books by white people. If you claim the right to read your own myopic way out of freedom and whatnot,
sure, go your own way. Just don't come crying to me when your myopia becomes other's legal extradition policies and your standing for no one results in you standing alone.

The booming of the cannons was announcing the departure of a great son, the last of the generation that had direct contact with the white people who exchanged their cannons, hot drinks and cheap ornaments for black slaves.

[Jez · Rating 5 out of 5]

It frustrates me reading some of the reviews for Efuru on here. All too often they mention enjoying this 'simple' novel, even though it lacks any 'real narrative'. To me these backhanded compliments smack of racism; the assumption that prose not florid in the Western Tradition is 'simple', that a story without high drama is without point.

Efuru is vivid and spare and elegant. Anyone criticising this novel for its simplicity - try to craft a response more eloquent than Efuru's when she speaks of 'suffering for herself'. As for the novel's 'point', Efuru's arc from devoted wife of undeserving men to self-possessed woman is electrifying. This novel could easily have ended with Efuru's emancipation involving her attending a white school and entering our wider world, but it doesn't. She is of the Igbo and her own nature is her saviour.

[Sincerae Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I give Efuru five stars for it being meaningful to me on a personal level. The decent, honorable, and unselfish are often under appreciated in this life. Thus is the case of the main character Efuru who is beautiful, but she is more than just a pretty face. She is good-natured, honest, patient, generous, forgiving, industrious, a loyal wife, from a respected family, and well liked by the majority of the people in her village.

As for the author Flora Nwapa, her writing style is very stark. There are few curlicues of language or poetic flourishes here. The language is almost like reading a play's script. I would give her writing four stars.

The setting of Efuru is in a Nigerian village probably just after the First World War. The community, its harmony, and customs are described in a world that is changing for all the inhabitants both old and young. Though a young woman, Efuru is rather a throwback to the older simpler times. She rebels in eloping with her first husband, but her conscience won't permit her not to go back and apologize to her father who eagerly takes her back and forgives her.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish more people would read older African literature written by women, but unfortunately there isn't much out there to choose from. It is important to read books written by women to get a view of post-colonial Africa from a woman's perspective.

In Efuru, Nwapa tells the story of a beautiful woman who does not have good luck in life even though she is a generous and upstanding woman. She marries a ne'er do well who can't afford the dowry so she must slip out of her father's house to marry him. She should have known that a man who would be willing to marry in this disgraceful way would not be an honorable husband. Even with her husband's misbehavior, Efuru is continually exhorted to stay faithful. The women in Efuru's society are encouraged to be long suffering no matter what their husbands do as long as it is not criminal. The wives also have one role to fulfill and that is to have babies. If they don't have a baby in a year or so after marriage, they are expected to find a second wife so their husband can have children. It is a selfish and bad woman who wants to keep her husband to herself without children.

Efuru does her best in both of her marriages to do everything society expects her to do. She is an amazing daughter-in-law and her first mother-in-law is eternally pleased and grateful at having such a wonderful wife for her son. Even when the marriage should be over and the husband is entirely to blame, Efuru's mother-in-law admits what a wonderful woman Efuru is. And yet, the mother wants Efuru to stay in the marriage regardless of the wrongdoing of her son.

This is the second book this year I've read about a wife who chose a bad husband. Although the stories could not be more different, they both came down to women doing the best they can within the constraints and expectations of their society. The time periods and geography are worlds apart but the idea that the wife should stay and put up with whatever the husband does is much the same. And though millions more have read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, this Nigerian classic is no less important a novel that should be read to understand women and the choices they have to make.

[Jite · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to give this piece of National history, cultural feminism and everything I love about women’s storytelling a million stars because I loved it so much, I couldn’t put it down and read it in less than a day. I’ve seen this compared to Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart it recommended as a companion read to Things Fall Apart, and I’m irked. Because this stands on its own perfectly. Sure, if you liked Things Fall Apart, you can check this out, but you don’t have to read TFA to get context or insight on this story just because it doesn’t focus on men as the curators of the culture. This is unapologetically a story about a woman by a woman focused on women’s experiences and a woman’s world in the colonial era of Nigeria. This has been described as early Nigerian feminist fiction and I very much see why- in a patriarchal culture, it centers women’s lives and experiences and shows them as having agency and success in their own rights. I’m so inspired to go on to read more books by early Nigerian women writers.

The premise of this book is that title character, Efuru, is an excellent woman- she’s kind and generous, she’s a Midas in turning everything to gold, but her worth is diminished by traditional standards of what makes a woman worthy- a husband and children. But the intrepidly pragmatic Efuru, even in these times always tries to make the best of things and knows her worth and through this author’s storytelling and clear experience with the Igbo culture, we find out that women were not as cowed and lacking in agency as history would like us to believe.

This book presents Igbo culture in Efuru’s hometown as it is. There are no cultural judgments as to the rightness or wrongness of things- things just are the way they are and yet, women find a way to live and to thrive despite the consequences. In modern times, there’s a lot of narratives about “good women” and “bad women” and the lack of reward in being “good” according to cultural standards. And in many ways, Efuru’s perfect “goodness” by cultural standards, is her weakness and opens her up to the things she suffers, but at the same time it is her strength, because it is her vindication and her goodness isn’t for society’s sake but for her own. My favourite thing about this book is how men are secondary to the plot. The perspectives are all female and all feel genuinely of their time. Even as a Christian person, I respect the judgments of Christianity and (Western) education erasing traditional religions and the pushback from the indigenes of Efuru’s hometown, even as I see the appreciation of it in the form of the use of medical science. I loved the exploration of the Igbo ontology and system of beliefs and the deep dive into Igbo culture. It’s amazing to me that over 50 years since this was published, a lot of the attitudes, expectations and practices still persist and we’re entirely recognizable to me as a 21st century reader.

I feel like this simple slice of life-type story ended a little abruptly but also appropriately. The simplicity and unpretentiousness of the storytelling tells me that the author wrote this honoring the women of her culture and not for men or the West. I love the use of language and proverbs and the way culture is described in this book- the infusion of Igbo sayings and beliefs into the daily life, the pragmatism of looking at things that to us in the modern world would be devastating like FGM and grief and loss and the weight of expectation. In a way, this is a love story and a story of family life and domesticity but also a story of a woman’s strength and resilience even when all the odds and culture are stacked against her. I’m so excited to have finally read the first published book written by a Nigerian woman and I couldn’t put it down. Definitely a better late than never novel. Highly highly recommend to read this compelling (now historical) novel.

[alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

should be read in conjunction with Things Fall Apart.

[Etenwa Manuel · Rating 2 out of 5]

"When trouble comes to you, everything goes wrong, even your fire does not kindle."

My review may not reflect the quality of this book. Ratings are just numbers :-)

[Colin Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved Things Fall Apart? Want to go back to Iboland? Want more beautifully simple writing? Want it from a woman's perspective? Well, Efuru is all of those things. However, while it is gorgeous, and convincing and has some interesting notes on polygamy, there seems to be no plot or central idea of the novel. I wish I knew more about genre theory, but perhaps this is realism? The events have no overarching order, but they just unfold, like they do in real life? No idea what to make of the story.

[Saberina Agyei · Rating 3 out of 5]

Flora Nwapa's text is a pioneering example of female African literature. Not only does Efuru capture female life so vividly, it also contrasts with the male dominated African literature of the period in which Nwapa writes.
The reader is taken through the everyday life experiences of women in an African setting. Pregnancy, marriage, female circumcision are all discussed, alongside subtle nods to the presence of colonialism.
The narrative is written in a style which is almost cinema-like, as it is able to capture and display circumstances the way film does.

[Dide · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been looking forward to reading this book for quite some time and i have had it for a couple of years but never read it.
Reading now i feel unsure of why this had so much praise. The book revolves round a woman named Efuru, it expresses a lot of traditions especially from the eastern part of Nigeria.
I think the message is symbolic ....in a circle of life kind of way although the message i understood as well is that goodness can go unrewarded.

[Bradley Cannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

The simplicity of sentence structure is helpful in understanding Nwapa's world in this book. Efuru is a wonderful, strong character--the perfect woman to show a female perspective. This is a very revolutionary book, and it deserves much more credit than it gets. If anything, the extremes Efuru goes through to please her culture should entertain and educate readers all on its own.

[Juniperus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has got to be one of the most depressing books I’ve ever read. It’s a harrowing read, kind of felt like something horrible happened in every chapter, but it wasn’t tragedy porn or felt like it was pointless or voyeuristic. On the contrary, I think Efuru is a very important book and am surprised it’s not more widely considered a feminist classic.

The title character was definitely my favorite part— to the people saying this book had no story, I wonder if we read the same book, because this was in essence a classical tragedy. But the heart of the story is Efuru and without such a unique character I don’t think this window into other cultures would have worked so well. It’s interesting how things in such different cultural contexts can converge: this book is definitely not written for white audiences, because the Igbo words aren’t translated. However, it has something meaningful for every woman, even if they haven’t experienced these events directly.

I also think that people calling Nwapa’s prose “simple” are missing the point. The prose is deceptively simple; it feels like someone telling you a story secondhand. The beauty of this book is that you have to trick yourself into reading it slower to fully appreciate its complexity and depth.

[Nere Onaiwu · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked how the author described certain things and different characters in the book. Showed how industrious the women were.

I wondered why it ended like that? I would have liked a happier ending for her.

[Helynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This beautiful novel describes the youth, marriage, motherhood and eventual personal epiphany of a young woman of contemporary Nigeria. Efuru's eventual tragedy is that she is not able to marry or raise children successfully. (Efurus' only daughter dies while she is still a small child, and a son never arrives). The book also describes quite matter-of-factly the horrific ritual of female circumcision--a painful clitorectomy--that all young women in this society are expected to undergo before marriage. Efuru calls it her "bath," and willingly submits to the cutting and agony. (Although feminist groups are exposing this awful practice more and more to the world at large and trying to get it outlawed in Africa, the Middle East and other areas of the world where it is routinely practiced, the ritual still goes on today). Finally, Efuru realizes that she surely must have a higher calling, and perceives that a goddess of her tribe, "the lady of the lake" has chosen her for another role. Efusu muses at the story's end that the lady of the lake has never married nor had children, but still, the women of the community worship her.

[africawrites - The RAS' annual festival of African Literature · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm currently reading Efuru - it's the first work of Flora Nwapa's that I am reading and I found the first line of the book riveting; although she has been a hovering presence in my literary awareness for a long-time I've never till now actually engaged with her work. That said, I'm aware as a pioneer, and she's one of the writers that Chimamanda Adichie namechecks often, and mentioned at our literature festival last year. African women writer's have definitely been under-rated and under celebrated, and that's one of the great things about the emergence of writers like Adichie, Chibundo Onuzo and Chika Unigwe - all great igbo writers for whom Flora Nwapa is definitely a forerunner.

If you like this book or others like it, you may want to join us for Africa Writes. It takes place this year at the British Library from 5-7 July 2013.

For more info on the festival, visit our website: www.royalafricansociety.org/event/afr...

You may also like our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/AfricaWrites

Follow us on twitter - www.twitter.com/royafrisoc

Dele Meiji Fatunla
Website Editor
Royal African Society

[Ricki Nordmeyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as part of a week-long book discussion on Female African writers. this was the first book written by an African woman writer and ultimately inspred Buchi Emecheta's "The Joy of Motherhood", with it's last line. The protagonist is a Nigerian girl who must submit to the traditinal female genital mutilation which was the standard in the early 20th century as well as currently in some African countries. Her inability to get pregnant dooms her first marriage and reveals the importance of having chikdren in Nigerian life. although stylistically this was not a well written work,Nwapa was emulating the storytelling nature of her people and the way people talk.

[Corvinus Maximilus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Efuru is a well respected woman in the community who marries an undistinguished man that no one knows. Even though no one understands her choice they still hold her in high esteem. Efuru's life isn't as society expects, but through her challenges she carries herself superbly. The last paragraph of the book, her musing on the worship of the Lady of the Lake, rounded off the story perfectly. "And yet we worship her." This last line to me alludes to change in the society, is the only purpose of womanhood to be a wife and have children?

[Sami Tunji · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first, I was afraid the novel might be boring, but gradually I began to enjoy it, precisely enjoying its richness in oral tradition. I have a feeling that this novel might have been the inspiration for Buchi Emecheta's Joys of Motherhood and Elechi Amadi's The Concubine. Anyway, it's quite an interesting read, like a voyage into the core of culture, precisely the Igbo culture, learning about generational pattern and woman empowerment.

[Jessica Brathwaite · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about building endurance and tolerance via love and patience. The title character endures many hardships throughout the book, but she survives and thrives. Through her spiritual connection with Uhamiri (The Goddess of the Lake) and her deep understanding of her divinity she overcomes everything. READ this BOOK

[Ifeyinwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

a true african writer. I liked.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly talented, imaginative, evocative African writer. May her soul rest in peace

[Molly Bagnall · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last line of this book made me go h e c k y e a h

[Martine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book of historical importance, written in beautifully simple prose. Rural setting and strong characters.

[Grace Henderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 or 3.5
MEN AINT SHIT
Immediately sucked in by the cover illustration of this book. First time I’ve read a book from a perspective of a woman in African literature. I realized I have not done the best at having read an equal number of male and female authors this year, and Flora Nwapa delivered. She paints Efuru in a way she deserves. She paints womanhood in a way we deserve.

The first African female author to have her book published in English.

“Efuru was her name. She was a remarkable woman. It was not only that she came from a distinguished family. She was distinguished herself.”

“One moonlight night, they went out. They talked of a number of things, their life and happiness. Efuru told him that she would drown herself in the lake if he did not marry her. Adizua told her he loved her very much and that even the dust she trod upon meant something to him.”

😫🥰😫🥰😄🥰

[Onemorebook Podcast · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who would have thought that a book published back in 1966 & hailed as one of the first novels written by a Nigerian woman which explored the pervasive influence of patriarchy in African society could still ring true in our current lives.

Set in a traditional Igbo society we follow Efuru as she attempts to navigate, challenge, and sometimes succumb to the pressures of Patriarchy while also calling for the recognition of a woman’s worth beyond the narrow confines of marriage and motherhood. To me this makes Efuru a significant feminist text in African literature that I absolutely enjoyed & would highly recommend.

[Uzoamaka · Rating 4 out of 5]

I need to find a copy of this to own. I enjoyed the Igbo expressions and was surprised to learn a few things about the Igbo people. Efuru saw it all then but that's not uncommon now either. Interesting to find this was published in the 60's yet I would've believed if it was a decade ago too.

[Litsplaining]

The end was unsatisfactory.

What did the first dibia see about Efuru!!???! Why did we never get to know what Eneberi went to jail for. And to see Efuru alone and blamed again is frustrating was maddening. And whatever happened to Adzuia?!

I have so many questions.