"... One could make a case however for an
androgynous interpretation of Buchi Emecheta's book, Destination Biafra. This is an ambitious, if very uneven, war novel
whose militantly feminist heroine possesses both feminine and masculine
characteristics. Attractive, Oxford-educated Debbie Ogedemgbe is a nurturing
woman who seeks to defend and protect the women and children victimized during
the Biafran war, but the masculine, aggressive side of her character is shown
when she joins the army, smokes cigarettes, tosses grenades, and refuses to
marry her English lover at the end of the novel.
"... It seems unlikely that Emecheta's bold if flawed attempt to imagine an androgynous African woman will be imitated, though one hopes that more women writers will subscribe to Emecheta's feminist vision..."
- Katherine Frank
In African Literature
Today
