Native Nigerian writer Buchi Emecheta was born in 1944 near Lagos. She emigrated to London in 1960 where she pursued a career as a social worker and subsisted in the profession for several years. She began to write to fulfill her growing need to express herself artistically and to support her family financially. Her first two novels centered on life in London as a member of the working class. But her true strength as a novelist flourished as she explored her roots and focused upon the psychological impact of African women struggling with timeworn issues of male domination, economic exploitation, racism, and colonialism in Twentieth Century Africa. The Joys of Motherhood (1979) is considered… by most as her best novel, exploring the life a woman consumed by demands imposed by society upon motherhood. Her novel The Rape of Shavi (1983) concerns the continued exploitation of Africa by European factions. Emecheta continues to live and write in London.