The Life of an Immigrant Black Woman

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Hardship and loss of freedom comes to mind as I think about an immigrant black woman. If they had other forms of persuasion other then the “glamour” or positive side of England that they heard about through tales, would they less enthused and reluctant of being the follower. Would the immigrant black woman still be as naïve?

Once becoming a part of a different society, she has to adapt to the ways that she is unfamiliar with. She has to erase in a form of what she knows and feels is correct to from her true self. “I am staring painfully at an image. My image? No! – what is left of what once used to be my image”. (Darko p1) The immigrant black woman doesn’t seem to feel whole as she lacks love from her husband, her family and her village. When she enters upon England, she is shown at once that she is the lesser of importance. “You must know, my dear young lady, that in Lagos you may be a million publicity officers for the Americans, you may be earning a million pounds a day; you may have hundreds o servants: you may be living like an elite, but the day you land in England, you are a second-class citizen”. (Emecheta p39) “It is better to be a first-class citizen in a Third World country than to be a second-class citizen in the Western world”. (Maraire p66) As an immigrant, she wants to follow the dream of having everything that she could ever want and ask for. She is in awe of what she is being told of how England will be in fantasy, but not in reality. She may find that although once immigrating there and adapting, that is the only way that she will know how to live. “I was no longer able to identify with and integrate back into village life. I had sampled city life”. “When one lived long enough in the city and got infect...

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...ger naive or green then when she first arrive. She learns that she has to take care of herself; she learns that she may have to be cautious and not as so much trusted upon those that should be close to her. She learns that although she may not get love from those she mostly wants from around her, but can show love and pass down what she feels precious about. She sees that she does have some sort of important role even though she is not recognized for it. “She smiled at Francis, thanking God for giving her him as a tool with which it was possible to have her children. She would not harm him, because he was the father of her babies. But he was a dangerous man to live with. Like all such men, he needed victims. Adah was not going to be a willing victim.” ( Emecheta p122) “Courage is, after all, to take great risks – and in loving, I have known the pain of risk and loss.

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