The Rape of Shavi

Buchi Emecheta

G. Braziller, 1983 - Fiction - 178 pages

"Set partly in an imaginary country by the edge of the African Sahara and partly in England, The Rape of Shavi creates a humorous, ultimately poignant portrait of a people confronted for the first time with the ways of the civilized world. King Patayon, ruler of Shavi, has more than his share of troubles already, when from out of the sky a group of "albino aliens" comes crashing down in an enormous "bird of fire." From then on Patayon is faced wtih the sort of problems that even the powerful goddesses of the lakes cannot solve. As the albinos and the Shavis are introduced to entirely new forms of language, custom, and exploitation, both are left to wonder just what exactly is "civilization"? -- back cover.

Contents

• The Bird Of Fire: 1
• The Leper Creatures: 11
• The Song Of Freedom: 17

About the author

Buchi Emecheta was born in Lagos, Nigeria on July 21, 1944. She emigrated to London, England in 1960. She received a sociology degree at the University of London. She worked as a social worker for a number of years and contributed a column to the New Statesman about black British life. She wrote 20 novels during her lifetime including The Joys of Motherhood, The Rape of Shavi, Second Class Citizen, Into the Ditch, The Bride Price, and The New Tribe. Her first play, A Kind of Marriage, was screened on BBC TV in 1976 and was adapted into a novel in 1986. Her autobiography was entitled Head Above Water. In 2005, she was made an OBE for services to literature. She died on January 25, 2017 at the age of 72.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Rape of Shavi
• Author: Buchi Emecheta
• Publisher: G. Braziller, 1983
• Original from: the University of Michigan
• Digitized: Oct 16, 2006
• ISBN: 0807611174, 9780807611173
• Length: 178 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / General