The Postcolonial Other as Portrayed in Buchi Emecheta’s Second-Class Citizen

Colonialism has had serious socio-political and cultural impacts on Africa and other colonized nations around the world. The term “Other” is used in postcolonial studies to refer to the cultural representation of the colonized countries and their people by the former colonial masters. In postcolonial discourse, the “Other” represents one of the most significant themes that have attracted considerable attention in recent years. The representation of the colonial “Other” signifies established practices of dominance that create unequal representation and power in the colonial world, which indicates the importance of politics and culture. The impacts of colonialism on the colonized African countries are profound, which tend to manifest in several postcolonial literary texts. Buchi Emecheta’s Second-Class Citizen reveals different socio-cultural aspects of African society. Using Feminist theory, this book discusses how Emecheta depicts the colonial “Other” in Second-Class Citizen.