Kaiklum Talks

Dear Literature in English W.A.E.C Students, read this excerpt. It will add to your knowledge.

Dear Literature in English W.A.E.C Students, let's analyse another question from The Second Class Citizen by Buchi Emecheta.

How is Conflict Portrayed in The Second Class Citizen by Buchi Emecheta?
WAEC, 2024.

Conflict refers to the disagreement between two opposing forces in a work of art. It happens because of the different ideas or beliefs of the people involved.

In the text, The Second Class Citizen by Buchi Emecheta, Conflict holds a Central role because it generated throughout the events in the story. Conflicts in the text is linked to the struggles Adah encounters in the text. The themes that portrayed the major conflicts in the text include the themes of gender inequality and marital belief.

Adah has a young girl wants the privilege that a boy child enjoins. She disagrees with the belief that only a boy child should have access to education. At the age of eight, she perceives herself as less privileged when her younger brother has to go to school whereas, she sits at home because a 'girl' child at birth is a disappointment in the old Traditional African Society. Adah's parents are with the belief that if Adah has to go to school, she will stop schooling the moment she learns how to write her name and count (page 3). Boys are indeed celebrated because of the belief that they will take up the family name, they attend best schools and graduate with lots of excitement and appreciation. An example of this is vivid when the first lawyer (Lawyer Nweze) in Ibuza town arrived from the United Kingdom. The Igbo Women of Ibuza town who lived in Lagos celebrate with identical cotton materials, composed songs and see him as messiah(page2)

Adah being a girl with large dream wants to be educated, she wants to work very hard, she wants to be a great woman who will support her community in the future and be celebrated like Lawyer Nweze. She becomes envious of the treatments giving to the masculine gender. She becomes frustrated, she results to telling her mother little lies and will even run away from home most times to methodist school. Her determination later paves way for her dreams when she meets Mr Cole, a young African teacher at Methodist School during one of her visitations to the school. Mr Cole later reports her parents to the police station where they scold her parents and are seriously cautioned against depriving her of schooling except they want to pay fine or have a taste of the prison (page 7).

Another aspect of conflict in the text happens when Adah and her children join her husband in England. She gets disappointed at the kind of apartment they have to live in and also expresses her displeasure when her husband informs her that as An African Woman in a white man's land, she has no rights and the privileges like that she enjoins in Nigeria because in England, they are second class citizens (page 37).
Adah feels despondent, uncared for by a man she calls her husband. She notices from her husband's sophisticated lifestyle that if she refuses to fight for herself in England, she barely will get anything meaningful done with her life in England. She decides to stand up for herself.

Also, Adah could not fathom why her husband sees nothing wrong in married woman doing the work of a man as Francis confessed to her in England that he gets married to her so she could work more than other women out there (page 39). Her husband also makes it her duty to search for a new apartment when relieved from the one room they live at Ash down Street with a month quit notice , she feels an harrowing emptiness inside her. Most times, she throws caution in the wind when her husband makes her to fight their battles alone.

The issues of conflict in the second class citizen is meant to caution Africans about their ideas and life style. The writer, Buchi Emecheta creates an avenue for parents to know that when children face discrimination at home, it leads them to misbehave. She also emphasizes on the need for parents to provide for their children needs equally, equal opportunities and protection. She also exposes the ill treatments some married women suffered in the hands of their men. The Second Class citizen preach against injustice, preferential treatment and ignorance.

Moronkeji SK'

This is highly recommended.

Dear female teachers, how are we teaching our student!
Are we complacent in our abilities or we only do it.
Let's make our learners our friends. They will develop the courage to work up to us and express themselves freely.

Happy new week!

Dear female teachers, how are we teaching our student!
Are we complacent in our abilities or we only do it.
Let's make our learners our friends. They will develop the courage to work up to us and express themselves freely.

Happy new week!

Nse Ikpe-Etim
Women can be vulnerable but in their vulnerability, they build wisdom.

We care, we are compassionate, we are committed, we are loyal!

Dear parents, how are we teaching our kids?
Are they given the privilege to explore, to feel nature, to learn varieties of things?

More curious kids tend to become more successful adults, do not push them towards a particular career path. The more they learn, the better they become!

LITERATURE IN ENGLISH
Give account of Adah’s cold welcome to London in The Second Class Citizen by Buchi Emecheta
WAEC, 2023.
ANSWER

Adah, the protagonist of the text is a strong woman. However, her arrival to London results in a mixed feeling. The experiences she encounters in England can be linked to the themes of disillusionment and marital woes as we have in the novel. Adah believes that her journey to Europe will give room for freedom and liberty she has not experienced in Nigeria. As a girl child, she has to struggle to get education because of the African mentality that education should be for only a boy child who will become an ‘’obi’’ later in life and takes up the family name. Whereas, girls are meant to be pushed to their husband’s house at certain age as only wife material. Girl child’s birth is welcomed with disappointment and disdain. Adah sees this myth coming for her children, as she already birthed two daughters for her husband, Francis. She doesn’t want her daughters to suffer in Africa like her, she wants to raise full fledged educated children, civilized children that will be free to express their opinions, contribute to their society and become the best version of themselves. All these can only be achieved in Europe where people are given equal opportunities and girls are not treated as second class citizens. She believes so.

On getting to England, her dream land, she feels disappointed at the smoky weather, as people mind their business, no one celebrates or recognizes her and her children. Her husband’s happiness at the site of his family makes her a little relaxed but not long, as he reminds her that he is still an African man when Adah expresses her displeasure about how the environment looks moody. He immediately puts it to her that she doesn’t have the right to talk back at her as an African (Page 34) She begins to realize that her dreams of becoming a good wife and a great mother to her children might be shaking in the white man’s land.

Adah’s dream of becoming more successful in a white man’s land begins to dwindle when she realizes that there is a huge gap between the white and the black. She does not like how no one recognizes her and the way the whites keep their distance far away from the blacks. When she gets to their apartment, she feels terrible at the glimpse of a place that looked like a tunnel(page35) where her husband said they will live. They have to share their small apartment with other Nigerians who are struggling to survive in London. Back there in Nigeria, where she had made a name for herself, the calibre of people that will address her as “madam”. They will share apartment without kitchen and bathroom. She regrets having given England a thought and “wish she had not come” page 36.
All these contributes to the cold welcome Adah receives in a white man’s land that leaves her with the impression that in London, there is no freedom for blacks and that, blacks remain second class citizens to the natives.

Also, she realizes that her husband is becoming sophisticated and he feels he doesn’t deserve the best in the white men’s land, he keeps pressing his wife to join uneducated Nigerians in the factory work, neglecting his wife and children. He sees nothing wrong in a woman taking primary responsibility of catering for the family. Adah struggles until she gets her first appointments as a senior library assistant. She arrives at the United Kingdom in the month of March and gets her first appointment in the month of June amidst all odds!

The reality of the circumstances Adah experiences in the united kingdom at the beginning of her arrival is still very relevant in the present day African Countries and in Nigeria, as some men get very angry when they give birth to only female children. Africans should wake up from their slumber and allow their children to explore the world.

Buchi Emecheta has used her text to inform Africans that no child should be denied right to education and happiness. Also, some children should not be overpampered based on their gender because it might have negative effect on the child in the future.

The writer of The Second Class Citizen also reminds us that we should believe in ourselves, with hardwork, perseverance and prayer, one will achieve ones dream. Also, she emphasizes on the need for Africans to be satisfied with what they have, embrace it and develop it because till date, racial discrimination exists.

Miss Moronkeji SK’

Kaiklum Talks Let's talk about women and children�

It's W.A.E.C period!
Dear SS3 Students, let's analyze some literature texts together for excellent performance in your W.A.E.C examination.

Dear SS3 Students, remember that to answer Literature in English question for WAEC;

You have to understand the question first, go straight to the answer by first relating the question to the character and the theme that discusses the question.

Then, each paragraph must discuss new point. Also, do not forget that the conclusive part will discuss lessons from the answer given. Thank you.

Please try, constant practice makes one perfect.

It's a win for me!
Thank you very much Madam Milliscent Nwoka for the privilege. I will keep being an impactful teacher.

Hello Students!
How have you been?
It's been *God* all through✋🤚
All thanks to our sustainer. For His care, love and protection in our lives🙏

I hope you've been good at home, listening to corrections and attending to your chores.

We are resuming on Monday, get your uniforms properly pressed, shoes well polished. Arrange your books in your bags, be prepared for third term Academic Activites💪

Good friends are rear!
When you have a genuine one, do not let her go.

Lagos State Teachers resume work on Monday!