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The fear of everybody was that the man might give in and say, "After all, it's her life." However a thing like that is not permitted in Nigeria; you are simply not allowed to commit suicide in peace, because everyone is responsible for the other person. Foreigners may call us a nation of busybodies, but to us, an individual's life belongs to the community and not just to him or her.

— Buchi Emecheta

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "The fear of everybody was that the man might give in and say, "After all, it's her life." However a thing like that is not permitted in Nigeria; you are simply not allowed to commit suicide in peace, because everyone is responsible for the other person. Foreigners may call us a nation of busybodies, but to us, an individual's life belongs to the community and not just to him or her." in the context of "https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/86920.Buchi_Emecheta" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Buchi Emecheta" (Quotes, The Joys of Motherhood (1979)) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Buchi Emecheta

About Buchi Emecheta

Florence Onyebuchi "Buchi" Emecheta OBE (July 21, 1944 – 25 January 25, 2017) was a Nigerian-born novelist.