Today, you’re going to find the points you will need to write a supercharged Literature essay on the importance of Lawyer Nweze’s return from the United Kingdom in Buchi Emecheta’s novel, Second Class Citizen. Secondly, I will answer this vital question: Who is Lawyer Nweze in Second Class Citizen?.
As you might have learnt by now, Second Class Citizen is a novel by the Nigerian writer, Buchi Emecheta.
Make sure to pay close attention to the points on how Nweze’s arrival in Lagos after studying Law in the United Kingdom helps to develop the themes and the plot of Buchi Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen.
Without wasting much time, let’s begin to discuss the significance of Lawyer Nweze’s return from the United Kingdom to Nigeria, specifically Lagos, in Second Class Citizen.
The Incident
This incident in the novel Second Class Citizen occurs right at the beginning of the novel, precisely Chapter One.
It is also significant to note that this was at the time when Adah, the protagonist, was in her formative years – just about 8 years old.
Clearly, a big event like this among her people has the potential to impact the entire life of a girl of Adah’s calibre.
Here now come the highlights of Lawyer Nweze’s arrival in Nigeria (or Lagos) from the United Kingdom where he went to study Law.
Who is Lawyer Nweze in Second Class Citizen?
Lawyer Nweze is a Nigerian student from the Igbo town of Ibuza. Ibuza happens to be the same place where Adah’s parents hail from.
He went to the United Kingdom to study Law and, apparently, has completed the course successfully. Nweze is the first son of Ibuza to have chalked this enviable achievement. He must therefore be a brilliant student.
No wonder, his people describe him as “a great man”. His exploits are well known and recognized among his people to such an extent that they are willing to sacrifice their time and make elaborate preparations in order to accord him a befitting welcome back home. He is going to arrive by sea on a boat that will dock at the Apapa Wharf.
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Welcome Party for Lawyer Nweze
It is the women of Ibuza resident in Lagos that take the lead in the preparations for Nweze’s arrival. Two key features of this preparation for an illustrious son of Ibuza are the following.
- The women have made a colourful uniform of lappas and blouses to wear on the occasion.
- They have composed and rehearsed songs in praise of Nweze. It is these songs that they will sing to proudly welcome Lawyer Nweze back from the far away land of the white man.
To the entire Ibuza community, Nweze is their Messiah. He will return triumphantly, enter politics and go on to fight for their rightful piece of the Nigerian national cake.
So on the appointed day, it is the women who take the lead to go and welcome Nweze on his arrival at the Apapa Wharf in Lagos.
The men from Ibuza, on the other hand, have to wait till Sunday to go and welcome Nweze. This is because they are unable to absent themselves from their workplaces during the working week.
Significance of Nweze’s Return
The return of Nweze from his studies in the United Kingdom is significant in many ways. Let’s take a closer look at the main points of significance.
1. Development of Themes
We shall begin with how Nweze’s arrival from the United Kingdom shapes the major and minor themes in the novel.
Dreams or Ambition
On one level, Nweze’s success says a lot about the role ambition, hard work and determination can play in the life of an individual and a whole community.
The fact that no one before him was able to do what he has done underscores one universal truth: What is considered impossible today can become a reality tomorrow. All it takes is a dreamer with the iron will and the right attitude to make it happen.
But, on a more significant level, Nweze’s achievements, his arrival as well as the circumstances surrounding the whole incident will plant a seed in the young Adah, the protagonist. It is this seed, borne out of a certain degree of awe and admiration for Lawyer Nweze that will give birth to Adah’s dream and ambition to one day travel to the United Kingdom herself, come what may.
We must not forget that the reverent manner in which Pa pronounces “United Kingdom” alone makes Adah imagine the place as being “God’s Holiest of Holies”.
United Kindom must be a place of heavenly bliss. So, to United Kingdom she must go.
Clearly, therefore, Nweze’s exploits and arrival serve to shape Adah’s childhood and prepare her for greater things to come. As she puts it, her arrival in the United Kingdom “would be the pinnacle of her ambition”.
Gender Inequality
The theme of gender inequality also comes out strongly in this incident. Could it have possibly been a daughter of Ibuza instead of Nweze, a male? Apparently not.
In the Igbo society at the time, boys had better educational opportunities than their female counterparts. Thus, Boy, Adah’s younger brother is just the next Nweze in the making. And they achieve this at the expense of the dreams of their unfortunate sisters who have been sidelined by outmoded norms and traditions.
It is unthinkable for a girl to aspire to Lawyer Nweze’s level of achievement. Something must definitely be wrong with such a girl’s head. It needs to be examined.
In the circumstances, it will have to take the courage, resourcefulness and determination of Igbo girls like Adah to brush aside these cultural impediments in order to reach for their dreams.
Misconceptions Among Africans About Life in Europe
Lawyer Nweze’s return from Europe, the United Kingdom to be precise, also brings forward the false assumptions that many Africans continue to harbour about life in Europe.
Listening to Pa say the word, United Kingdom is enough to make little Adah conclude that this can only be Paradise on earth – a place overflowing with milk and honey.
“The title ‘United Kingdom’ when pronounced by Adah’s father sounded so heavy, like the type of noise one associated with bombs. It was so deep, so mysterious, that Adah’s father always voiced it in hushed tones, wearing such a respectful expression as if he were speaking of God’s Holiest of Holies. Going to the United Kingdom must surely be like paying God a visit. The United Kingdom, then, must be like heaven.”
Years later, Adah will come to the realization that life in Europe is not as rosy as it appears or she was made to believe when she was a child. Scant housing facilities, a biting cold climate and pervasive racial discrimination that reduces otherwise high class African immigrants like Adah to second class citizens are the realities of life in Europe. These are the stark realities that many Africans have still not been able to come to terms with.
Superstition
Buchi Emecheta drops subtle hints of criticism against superstitious beliefs and taboos prevalent in Igbo culture (and by extension, African culture).
One instance of this criticism is found in the incident under discussion. There is a palpable sense of relief among the men of Ibuza on realizing that Nweze has done the right thing. He has not brought a white woman home for a wife.
The belief is that such an action would have incurred the wrath of Oboshi, the river goddess of Ibuza. Thus, Nweze has proven himself to be a worthy son of the tribe. He has avoided Oboshi’s curse of leprosy that invariably falls on people who offend her.
But the fact that this same river goddess appears to look on, unconcerned, when white people arrive to drill the river bed for oil, degrading the environment in the process, baffles Adah and others.
Could it be that her people have just been unnecessarily superstitious? That Oboshi has never been that powerful? Perhaps she has never been hostile towards white people after all.
2. Development of the Plot
So how does Lawyer Nweze’s return from the United Kingdom contribute to the development of the plot of Second Class Citizen?
The simple answer is this. This incident provides a fertile ground for Adah’s dreams to take root.
As a natural dreamer, Adah has always nursed the ambition of going to school. Now, the lure of heavenly life in the United Kingdom has come to give her a clear vision. She has found a reason to go to school – to travel to the United Kingdom.
It is this ambition that will drive the rest of the action of the novel.
3. The Setting of Second Class Citizen
Nweze’s return from the United Kingdom gives us the opportunity to identify certain important aspects of the setting.
Here are the major ones.
Time
We have seen that Adah’s formative years were in the immediate pre-independence period in Nigeria.
The large number of European expatriates who are on the same boat with Nweze when he arrives in Lagos is a pointer to this fact. They have come to work in the colonial government.
Secondly, this is a period when Africans still hold white people in awe. Ma and her friends at the wharf feel very proud when the white arrivals take photos of them and of Nigerian women carrying babies behind their backs.
Place
The incidents in the early stages of the narrative take place in Lagos. Though a native of Ibuza, Nweze’s point of arrival in Nigeria is Lagos. This is where the Ibuza community welcome him. Adah spent much of her childhood in Lagos and went to elementary school there. It is only later that the action will move to the United Kingdom.
Conclusion
As we have seen so far, Lawyer Nweze’s return from the United Kingdom, an incident described so vividly in the first chapter of the novel, Second Class Citizen, is of great significance to the development of the themes, the plot and the setting of the novel.
This incident makes us appreiciate the factors that will shape the entire life of Adah, the protagonist.
Furthermore, the event exposes such other issues as gender inequality and superstition within traditional Igbo society.
Above all, Nweze’s return from the United Kingdom helps us to see the essential nature of the protagonist.
Adah is an unstoppable dreamer.
Here is a girl who refuses to be intimidated by negative traditional attitudes against the girl-child. She is ready to dare to reach the heights that seem to have been the preserve of male children only.
4 RELATED LIKELY QUESTIONS
- Comment on the view that Adah is a dreamer.
- Nweze may not be a major character in Second Class Citizen but his achievement is relevant. Comment.
- Discuss the theme of cultural values in the novel Second Classs Citizen.
- Consider Buchi Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen as a feminist novel.
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