Quote by Buchi Emecheta: “To change is to be brave. To stay the same is to be a coward.”

Changing your mind, your life, or your circumstances takes real courage — because it means admitting that what was, wasn't good enough, and risking the unknown. Staying stuck, on the other hand, is often fear disguised as loyalty or tradition. This cuts through that comfortable self-deception.

Emecheta wrote this in the period following the publication of The Joys of Motherhood in 1979, a novel that challenged romanticised ideas about African womanhood. Second-wave feminism was at its height in Britain and internationally, and Emecheta's work was reaching a growing audience hungry for non-Western feminist perspectives.

Nigerian novelist whose work documented the lives of African women navigating patriarchy, migration, and colonialism. Her 1974 novel Second-Class Citizen drew on her own experience as a Nigerian immigrant in London struggling against racism, poverty, and a violent marriage. She published over twenty books during her lifetime.