Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Portrait of the Nigerian writer Adichie smiling
Adichie in 2015
Born (1977-09-15) 15 September 1977 (age 46)
Enugu, Enugu State, Nigeria
Pen nameAmanda N. Adichie
Occupation
  • Novelist
  • short story writer
  • non-fiction writer
NationalityNigerian; American
Alma mater
Period2003–present
Notable works
Notable awards
Spouse
Ivara Esege
(m. 2009)
[1]
Children1
Website
www.chimamanda.com

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (/ˌɪməˈmɑːndə əŋˈɡzi əˈdi./ [note 1]; born 15 September 1977) is a Nigerian writer, novelist, poet, essayist, and playwright in postcolonial feminist literature. Her debut novel, Purple Hibiscus (2003), was centered on the Nigerian Civil War and has been translated into many languages. Along with Purple Hibiscus were the novels Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) and Americanah (2013). Her other works include the book essays We Should All Be Feminists (2014); Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (2017); a memoir tribute to her father, Notes on Grief (2021); and a children's book, Mama's Sleeping Scarf (2023).

A native of Abba, Anambra State, Adichie's childhood was influenced by postcolonial rule in Nigeria, including the aftermath of the Nigerian Civil War, which took the lives of both of her grandfathers and was a major theme of Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun. She excelled in academics and attended the University of Nigeria, where she initially studied pharmacy. She moved to the United States at 19 to study communications and political science at Drexel University in Philadelphia before transferring to and graduating from Eastern Connecticut State University, later receiving a master's degree from Johns Hopkins University. Adichie first published the poetry collection Decisions in 1997, which was followed by a play, For Love of Biafra, in 1998. In less than ten years, she published eight books: novels, book essays and collections, memoirs, and children's books. Adichie has cited Chinua Achebe—in whose house she lived while at the University of Nigeria—Buchi Emecheta, and other authors as inspirations; her style juxtaposes Western influences and the Igbo language and culture.

Adichie's words on feminism were encapsulated in her 2009 TED talk "We Should All Be Feminists", which was adapted into a book of the same title in 2014. Most of her works were against the dangers of segregation and delves the themes of immigration, racism, gender, marrige, motherhood and womanhood. In 2023, she made statements about LGBT rights in Nigeria in an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian, after which she was criticized for being transphobic.

Adichie has received several academic awards and fellowship grants. She was shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing and has won the O. Henry Award, Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the PEN Pinter Prize, among others. She was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2008 and inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017.

Life and career[edit]

Early life and background[edit]

see caption
Adichie's birthplace, Enugu in Enugu State, Nigeria, where she grew up.

Adichie was born on 15 September, 1977 as the fifth out of six children. Of Igbo descent,[3][4] she is a native of Abba, a locality in Njikoka, Anambra State, Nigeria, although she grew up in Nsukka, Enugu State.[5][6] Her father James Nwoye Adichie worked as a professor of statistics at the University of Nigeria,[7] and her mother Grace Ifeoma was the university's first female registrar.[8][9] They lived in a house on the campus, previously occupied by Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe.[10] The family lost almost everything during the Nigerian Civil War, including Adichie's maternal and paternal grandfathers.[11]

Education and university[edit]

Adichie completed her secondary education at the University of Nigeria Campus Secondary School, Nsukka, where she received several academic prizes.[12] She was admitted to the University of Nigeria, where she studied pharmacy and was the editor of The Compass, a student-run magazine in the university.[13]

At the age of 19, Adichie left Nigeria for the United States to study communications and political science at Drexel University in Philadelphia.[14] Later, she transferred to Eastern Connecticut State University, where she received a bachelor's degree summa cum laude in 2001, with reasons for going to stay with her sister Uche.[15][16] She received her master's degree (MA) in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University in 2003[17] and was conferred a Hodder Fellow at Princeton University in 2005.[18] In 2008, she went on to gain an MA in African Studies from Yale University.[19] Adichie received a MacArthur Fellowship that same year[20] plus other academic prizes, including the 2011–2012 Fellowship of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study from Harvard University.[16]

Decisions (1997)[edit]

Like a child at a den

Owned by a starved lion,

Or a thief caught

In petty pilfery,

At a standstill

My country

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, —Decision (1997)

Using the pen name Amanda N. Adichie, she published Decisions, a collection of poems, in 1997, and For Love of Biafra, a play, in 1998.[21] Her short story "My Mother, the Crazy African", according to Adichie, dates from when she was a college senior living in Connecticut, and it discusses the problems that arise when a person is facing two cultures that are complete opposites from each other.[22]

Purple Hibiscus (2003)[edit]

While studying in America, Adichie started researching and writing her first novel entitled Purple Hibiscus; it was written in a period when Adicbie was feeling homesickness in the United states. She wrote the story with setting in Nsukka, Nigeria where she considered her home, and with written email, she began sending the work to literary agents in America. It wasn't her first written work, as she addressed no one sees her previous writings in an address at the University of Nairobi.

After sending the manuscript to many publishing houses and agents; she didn't received any response from each of them. The agents who accepted her manuscripts requested the change of the setting. According to Adichie, most of the reasons for the rejections were because of the story's setting in Nigeria, while some ask she do change the setting to America before it's accepted. Adichie held out since it isn't going to be easy changing the setting of a large manuscript. Few days later, she received an email from Diana Pearson, a literary agent working at Pearson Morris and Belt Literary Management seeking for the manuscript with lines saying, "I like this and I'm willing to take a risk on you." Adichie, who was desperate to be published sent her manuscript to the agent, which was turned a book on 30 October, 2003 by Algonquin Books. Another issue came up with the novel; it was marketing and finance, as Adichie was a black and not an African American. It was difficult according to her agent to sell the work, though, Adichie was happy at least her book has been published. According to Otosirieze Obi-Young, the book sold on its own until it was awarded the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for the Best Book, a Hurston-Wright Legacy Award and shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction.[23]

Purple Hibiscus was received well internationally, and received positive reviews from book critics. It was published in the United Kingdom on 1 March, 2004 by Fourth Estate, and Adichie also got a new agent, Sarah Chalfant of the Wylie Agency. Adichie was clear in adding racial issues involved in her education which was portrayed by her character Kambili in the book, and in a review by Washington Post, she was praised as "a very much the 21st-century daughter of that other great Igbo novelist, Chinua Achebe."[24] Luke Ndidi Okolo, a lecturer of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, said in a review:[25]

As a matter of fact, Adichie's novel treats clear and lofty subject and themes. But the subject and themes, however, are not new to African novels. The remarkable difference of excellence in Chimamanda Adichie's "Purple Hibiscus", the stylistic variation–her choice of linguistic and literary features, and the pattern of application of the features in such a wondrous juxtaposition of characters' reasoning and thought.

Half of a Yellow Sun (2006)[edit]

see caption
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie with copies of her novel, Half of a Yellow Sun at a bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. (2006).

Adichie talked about his father's stories and how she has been taking note of them. His father's brother, Michael, was among the Biafran Armed Forces and his brother-in-law, Cyprian Odigwe, fought during the war. After the Nigerian Civil War, people visited Nteje in Anambra State, where a refugee camp lies. It was to find he body of Adichie's grandfather. Her father when denied to enter the camp wept bitterly, while Adichie was taking note including her father taking sand from the ground to their hometown Abba.

In Abba, Adichie saw old buildings massacred as a result of the war; when she played with other children in the neighborhood, they sometimes see rusty bullets on the ground. While adhering to the stories of people speaking about the loss of their loved ones, she recalled the death of her own grandfathers and decided to write a book.

Being desperate to be published, she wrote other books, that she may make ground for easy publication acceptance. Her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun was published in 2006 by Fourth Estate in London, UK. It told a story spanning the period before and during the Nigerian Civil War; its title referenced the flag of Biafra, a nation that existed during the war, and the book served as a tribute to her grandfathers whom were found dead in the refugee camp at Nteje, after the war.[26] Adichie has said that very important for her research was Buchi Emecheta's 1982 novel Destination Biafra.[27] Half of a Yellow Sun wad critically analysed and positively acclaimed from many sources; it received the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction[28] and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award.[29] The novel was adapted into a 2014 film of the same title directed by Biyi Bandele.[30] In 2008, she wrote an excerpt entitled "A Private Experience", a short story published in The Observer that portrays the story of two women from different cultures learning to understand each other in the middle of a crisis.[31]

The Thing Around Your Neck (2009)[edit]

Adichie's third book, The Thing Around Your Neck, was written and published in 2009 after an extensive research of marriage and hindrances of feminism while in the US. It is a collection of 12 stories, some already published in issues of magazines, exploring the theme of marriage, love, culture and ethnicity.[32]

One story from the book, "Ceiling", was included in The Best American Short Stories 2011.[33] The collection of stories was critically accepted and Adichie was praised in a review by the Daily Telegraph, as "one who makes storytelling seem as easy as birdsong".[34] In a review by The Times, she was called "Stunning. Like all fine storytellers, she leaves us wanting more".[35]

Americanah (2013)[edit]

Adichie at the reading and signing of her work, Americanah in Berlin, Germany (2014).

Her fourth book, Americanah, was published in 2013 and was listed among the "10 Best Books of 2013" by The New York Times.[36] It was an exploration of a young Nigerian woman encountering racism in America. It was from Adichie, who explored the character Igbo: Ifemelu, being identified by the colour of her skin at arrival to the United States.[37] The book won the National Book Critics Circle Award[38] and the 2017 "One City One Book" selection for best books.[39][40] In 2015, she was co-curator of the PEN World Voices festival in New York.[41] While delivering the festival's closing address, she addressed the issue of racism, which was in keeping with the theme of Americanah:[42]

I will stand and I will speak for the right of everyone, everyone, to tell his or her story.

Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (2017)[edit]

Adichie's next book, Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, was published in 2017.[43] She has said the book had its origin in an email letter she wrote to a friend who had asked for advice about how to raise her daughter as a feminist.[44] In 2020, it was followed by "Zikora", a stand-alone short story about sexism and single motherhood.[45]

Notes on Grief (2021)[edit]

In 2021, after her father's death, Adichie released a memoir titled Notes on Grief,[46][47] based on an essay of the same title published in The New Yorker the previous year.[48] Adichie was critically praised in reviews of the book, which Kirkus Reviews summed up with the words: "An elegant, moving contribution to the literature of death and dying."[49] Leslie Gray Streeter of The Independent said: "Adichie's words put a welcome, authentic voice to this most universal of emotions, which is also one of the most universally avoided."[50]

Mama's Sleeping Scarf (2022): launch and review[edit]

In 2022, Adichie's first children's book—Mama's Sleeping Scarf, dedicated to her daughter, and using the pen-name "Nwa Grace James"—was announced.[51][52] A year and a half in the writing, because her young daughter rejected the first two drafts as "boring",[53] it was published in September 2023 by HarperCollins.[54]

Personal life[edit]

Chimamanda Adichie (in red dress) poses in a group photo with participants of the creative writing workshop in Abuja
Adichie and her students in her creative writing workshop, Abuja, Nigeria

Adichie has been married to Ivara Esege, a Nigerian doctor, since 2009.[55] In 2016, they had a daughter.[56] Adichie divides her time between the United States and Nigeria, where she teaches writing workshops.[57][1]

Style[edit]

Although Adichie is primarily known for her works of fiction and non fiction, she also wrote historical fictions, plays, poetry, essays, and book reviews. Her writings has received critical and literally reviews from mainstream critics, critics of adult literature, and critics of feminism proven by her talks and works. The use of language in her work has drawn the attention of critics on popularization of her context, that Chinua Achebe was known for. Adichie said she grew up bilingual; in Nigeria, where she spoke both English and Igbo. To her, using some lines of Igbo in her work was to draw the significant attention that she loved Igbo and it's proverbs; citing her father James Adichie, as the architect of Igbo speaking in her family, "especially when he speaks it, and without adding any foreign language." Adichie has also expressed her sadness saying "she feels bad that her father speaks Igbo fluently, while she doesn't and cannot make a philosophical argument in her own native language." Michael Gunn of the University of Uyo and Yusuf Tsojon Ishaya of Federal University, Wukari added that in some of Adichie's text, she makes interesting graphological choices that proves the fact that language offers unwavering possibilities with regard to its lacking usage in literary creative works. Her style of writing uses a descriptive character example; Kambili in Purple Hibiscus and Ifemelu in Americanah.[58]

Lawal M. Olusola, a lecturer at Osun State University noted figuratively that "Adichie is observed to be Chinua Achebe's literary daughter, for she once lived in Achebe's home when she was ten years old; read Things Fall Apart then, and she believed his halo surrounded her,which explains their easy comprehension and analytic style." He also analysed that "the language patterns in Anthills of the Savannah, also assist Achebe to a remarkable degree in establishing anti-woman position."[59]

I'm not even joking when I say that chocolate is a fundamental part of [my] process of creativity... That perfect in between—not too milky, not too dark. With a bit of hazelnuts. Writing is the love of my life. It's the thing that makes me happiest when it is going well—apart from the people I love...Fiction gives me a transcendent joy [where] I feel as though I am suspended in my fictional walls. Here in Lagos, Nigeria, my desk was made by this furniture maker who's young. It's white with two pullout drawers on either side. On the table itself, I have my laptop and a couple of books. I also happen to have a bottle of a cream liqueur, called Wild Africa Cream. When I'm writing, I don't want any alcohol in my body at all. But when it's not going well, then I'm like, "All right. Maybe we just need to take a swig."

—Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, in describing her style of creativity on Times of India.[60]

Adichie's writing style has been considered unique, especially in her ability of combining elements of African and Western culture, testified from her fourth novel, Americanah. Adichie's writing is characterized by its focus on themes of identity, feminism, and postcolonialism, with her prove of witnessing the aftermath shadow of the British colonial rule; evident to her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun. Most of her works has drawn premise from issues regarding racism, psychology, history and philosophy.[61] she is generally described as "lyrical and poetic", since she often uses language to create a fascinating and clear exposure of an imagery to quicky emphasize the theme used. Her style of writing is usually dominated with its sharp wit and humor, irony, satirical phrases, idioms and Igbo proverbs, which she learnt from her father.

Adichie's work, for several reviews incorporates elements of African culture, such as folklore, traditional and hyperbolic exclamations and phrases, and local music. Her exploration of gender and identity seeks to being a technical consciousness to the black, after she faced racism and rejections of manuscripts, especially agents requesting change of setting. Unlike Achebe, Adichie is often known to use her characters as real "in a real living town".

Apart from genital cases, her work is dated historic following her themes on post-colonialism. She often uses her characters to explore the effects of colonialism on African societies and to challenge traditional Western narratives. Adichie often uses her characters to explore the power dynamics between colonizers and colonized and to explore the ways in which colonialism has shaped African societies.

A number of Adichie's writings, including Notes on Grief challenged the conventions of condemnation and neglect of African rich men. In a speech, she talked about "An American professor who in a review said, her writings weren't authentically African." The professor said, the people wear shoes, drive cars and build houses—which to him, was less a typical African man. Though her characters seems always to be dark-skinned individuals, in comparison to the white-skinned heroes, she believed people shiuld use an old adage to qualify a majority; justifying a whole by part.

Themes[edit]

After war and post colonization[edit]

Adichie's work were based on the Nigerian Civil War, which took the lives of both of her grandfathers and was a major theme of Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun. Accepted widely as a writer of post colonial literature. Half of a Yellow Sun, published in 2006, was among her major story dating Nigeria and Africa during the 1900's, while considering other associated themes of culture, tradition and imperialism. Her works identifies the aftermath of a war and colonialism on various cultures; particularly her country Nigeria and ethnicity of the Igbo people. She was able to explore how different cultures across the world seems to be different as wa seen in her character, Kambili in Purple Hibiscus. Although her influence and writings criticised the British rule (and was seen thoroughly the relationship of her works and that of Chinua Achebe), yet laid an understanding of the nature and importance of knowing ones origin —by postcolonial literature. She cites post-colonism era, "as an art and forum for African literature".

Education[edit]

According to Adichie, Nigerians are graded the most brilliant people in the world, and so, her writings must be limed with education amd its critical impact. In her writing, Adichie portrays existentialism of education especially it's need for women—who were seen as "just wife". Adichie, in Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions mentioned how critical it was for a woman to be educated.

[It] is not enough to simply send young girls to school to learn, but they must also benefit from being socialized in a manner that is not wholly dependent on their status as women.

— Adichie on explaining Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions.

While drawing motive for the value of informal education, Adichie has also approached traditional formal education in Half of a Yellow Sun; she examines the effects of education on multiple characters and was seen in the character Ugwu and the professor of a University Odenigbo. The theme of education was also displayed in her short story, "The Headstrong Historian", one of the 12 stories in her collection, The Thing Around Your Neck. The female character Grace, who was the headstrong historian realised that because the colonial masters downgraded her view of Igbo culture, doesn't in anyway explains its same for everybody. Adichie has been praised for involving education with a suburb setting of Africa, where education was seen by the white as substandard.

Feminism[edit]

One of the major themes of Adichie's work and talks were on Feminism. It was completely seen in her TED talk which was turned into a book of of some title. It was also seen in Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, and Americanah. In a talk with Trevor Noah during a session in the Daily Show uttered that "feminism and femininity are not mutually exclusive in her writing. In her statement, she said "being a feminist does not mean you must reject femininity" as she believes that it bears the concept of misogyny." Adichie is also regarded as a fashionista, literally expressed her work "In Why Can't a Smart Woman Love Fashion." Adichie's theme usage narrates that "gender roles are "absolute nonsense." She said, "Nothing should be assigned to a person because of their gender. This is including and not limited to cooking, cleaning, household maintenance, and child rearing. These are all learned skills that every person should know and should not be left to one person in a household." Adichie's literature is most often seen as characters fights for justice against gender and mutualistic marriage.

Motherhood[edit]

Adichie has always pointed the theme of motherhood and direct womanhood. In her work, she cited influenced by Buchi Emecheta, whose most work delves womanhood themes also, especially in her novel Second Class Citizen. Adichie in her "Fifteen Feminist Manifesto" addressed concern and worries to the way "soon-to-be mothers are received for their responsibilities". She also said some serves just as "wife."

In Fifteen Feminist Manifesto, Adichie wrote to her friend that "marriage is a good thing, but its shouldn't be the priority of women." She said "like a young girl after getting her PhD will be ask, when are you getting married?" In Half of a Yellow Sun, she used Olanna as "a torn between her family's view of her as just a pretty face and "ruined by education" to others when she realizes that she wants to have a baby with Odenigbo.

Gender and marriage[edit]

While researching for her writing Purple Hibiscus, Adichie literally explores the them of marriage and gender oppression. She opposed that the way women are seen for marriage life is totally different from boys. In her essay, We Should All Be Feminists, she explained that women should Marty when they want. In an illustration of the essay, she pointed out when Bill Clinton was running for President of America, the description on his twitter handle was founder and in his wife's own was "wife and mother". In a conversation with Trevor Noah, she added that "marriage is a lovely thing, but we teach women in a way we do not teach boys. This, that is the problem."

Americanization[edit]

Most of Adichie's work were influenced by her staying in the United States. Those were seen in her short stories and major works like Americanah. Some critics called it, "a theme of an American Dream"; capturing a sub-theme of immigration as seen by the character Ifemelu. Because of the racism and social segregation she faced, she bears her work that one should be satisfied with their native home. She also have explored homesickness, which was a major effect on her and education in America.

Lectures[edit]

"The Danger of a Single Story"[edit]

Adichie delivered a talk titled "The Danger of a Single Story" for TED in 2009.[62] As of 2024, it was one of the top twenty most-viewed TED Talks of all time.[63] In the talk, she expressed her concern for under-representation of various cultures.[64] Adichie explained that, as a young child, she had often read American and British stories where the characters were primarily of Caucasian origin. She concluded the lecture by noting the significance of different stories in various cultures and the representation that they deserve. She advocated for a greater understanding of stories, because people are complex, saying that by understanding only a single story, one misinterprets people, their backgrounds, and their histories.[65] Since 2009, she had revisited the topic when speaking to audiences such as the Hilton Humanitarian Symposium of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation in 2019.[66]

"We should all be feminists"[edit]

In 2012, Adichie gave a TEDx talk entitled "We should all be feminists", delivered at TEDxEuston in London. It was later published a book of the same title in 2014. The book has reportedly sold 750,000 copies in the U.S.[67] In the talk, she shared her experiences of being an African feminist, and her views on gender construction and sexuality. She also stated that in terms of gender, she is "becoming less interested in the way the West sees Africa, and more interested in how Africa sees itself."[68] Adichie said that the problem with gender is that it shapes who we are. She also said: "I am angry. Gender as it functions today is a grave injustice. We should all be angry. Anger has a long history of bringing about positive change, but in addition to being angry, I'm also hopeful because I believe deeply in the ability of human beings to make and remake themselves for the better."[69] On 8 December 2021, Adichie gave an interview to BBC News about the responsibility of being a feminist icon; she stated that she did not want another person to define her responsibility and she rather defined her responsibility for herself but did not mind using her platform to speak up for someone else. She also spoke about the right of women to be angry, because anger propels action.[70]

Parts of Adichie's TEDx talk were sampled in Beyoncé's song "Flawless" in December 2013.[71] When asked in an NPR interview for her reaction to Beyoncé sampling her talk, Adichie responded that anything that gets young people talking about feminism is a very good thing.[9] She later qualified the statement in an interview with the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant: "Another thing I hated was that I read everywhere: now people finally know her, thanks to Beyoncé, or: she must be very grateful. I found that disappointing. I thought: I am a writer and I have been for some time and I refuse to perform in this charade that is now apparently expected of me: 'Thanks to Beyoncé, my life will never be the same again.' That's why I didn't speak about it much."[72]

Nevertheless, Adichie has been outspoken against critics who question the singer's credentials as a feminist and has said: "Whoever says they're feminist is bloody feminist."[73]

"Connecting Cultures"[edit]

On 15 March 2012, Adichie delivered the Commonwealth Lecture 2012 at the Guildhall, London, addressing the theme "Connecting Cultures" and explaining: "Realistic fiction is not merely the recording of the real, as it were, it is more than that, it seeks to infuse the real with meaning. As events unfold, we do not always know what they mean. But in telling the story of what happened, meaning emerges and we are able to make connections with emotive significance."[74][75] On 30 November 2022, Adichie delivered the first of the BBC's 2022 Reith Lectures, inspired by Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms" speech.[76][77]

Views[edit]

Feminism[edit]

see caption
In Conversation: Adichie and Anne-Marie Slaughter during the annual conference of New America (2017).

In a 2014 interview, Adichie said on feminism and writing: "I think of myself as a storyteller, but I would not mind at all if someone were to think of me as a feminist writer... I'm very feminist in the way I look at the world, and that world view must somehow be part of my work."[38]

Religion[edit]

Adichie is a Catholic and was raised Catholic as a child, though she considers her views, especially those on feminism, to sometimes conflict with her religion. At a 2017 event at Georgetown University, she stated that religion "is not a women-friendly institution" and "has been used to justify oppressions that are based on the idea that women are not equal human beings".[78] She has called for Christian and Muslim leaders in Nigeria to preach messages of peace and togetherness.[79] Having previously identified as agnostic while raising her daughter Catholic, she has also identified as culturally Catholic. In a 2021 Humboldt Forum, she stated that she had returned to her Catholic faith.[80]

LGBT rights[edit]

Adichie supports LGBT rights in Africa; in 2014, when Nigeria passed an anti-homosexuality bill, she was among the Nigerian writers who objected to the law, calling it unconstitutional and "a strange priority to a country with so many real problems", stating that actual crimes have victims and consensual homosexual conduct between adults does not rise to that standard of crime, making the law unjust.[81] Adichie was also close friends with Kenyan openly gay writer Binyavanga Wainaina;[82] when he died on 1 May 2019 after suffering a stroke in Nairobi, Adichie said in her tribute that she was struggling to stop crying.[83]

Since 2017, Adichie has been repeatedly accused of transphobia, initially for saying that "my feeling is trans women are trans women" in response to the question "Are trans women women?". Adichie later clarified her statement, writing: "[p]erhaps I should have said trans women are trans women and cis women are cis women and all are women. Except that 'cis' is not an organic part of my vocabulary. And would probably not be understood by a majority of people. Because saying 'trans' and 'cis' acknowledges that there is a distinction between women born female and women who transition, without elevating one or the other, which was my point. I have and will continue to stand up for the rights of transgender people."[84]

In 2020, Adichie weighed into "all the noise" sparked by J. K. Rowling's article titled "J.K. Rowling Writes about Her Reasons for Speaking out on Sex and Gender Issues",[85] calling the essay "perfectly reasonable".[86] Adichie again faced accusations of transphobia, some of which came from Nigerian author Akwaeke Emezi, who had graduated from Adichie's writing workshop.[87] In response to the backlash, Adichie criticized cancel culture, saying: "There's a sense in which you aren't allowed to learn and grow. Also, forgiveness is out of the question. I find it so lacking in compassion."[85]

In a June 2021 essay titled "It Is Obscene", Adichie again criticized cancel culture, discussing her experiences with two unnamed writers who attended her writing workshop and later lambasted her on social media over comments she made about transgender people. She labelled what she called their "passionate performance of virtue that is well executed in the public space of Twitter but not in the intimate space of friendship" as "obscene".[88][89]

In late 2022, she faced further criticism for her views after telling the British newspaper The Guardian saying, "So somebody who looks like my brother – he says, 'I'm a woman', and walks into the women's bathroom, and a woman goes, 'You're not supposed to be here', and she's transphobic?"[90][91][92] PinkNews said that the interview showed that Adichie "remains insensitive to the nuances or sensitivities of the ongoing fight for trans rights" and criticised her for perpetuating "harmful rhetoric about trans people".[91]

Influences and legacy[edit]

Overview[edit]

see caption
Adichie displayed on a wall mural during "La Concepción" in the Municipal Sport Center, Madrid (2021).

Toyin Falola, a professor of history, in an interview talked about Nigerian figures whom he believes have been recognized prematurely for their achievements. In his argument, he cited several Nigerian academics whom he called "intellectual heroes"; his list included Adichie, Chinua Achebe, Teslim Elias, Babatunde Fafunwa, Simeon Adebo, Bala Usman, Eni Njoku, Ayodele Awojobi and Bolanle Awe.[93]

Adichie has cited drawing inspiration from Chinua Achebe's 1958 novel Things Fall Apart, which she read at the age of 10. She was also inspired by Buchi Emecheta, upon whose death Adichie said:

We are able to speak because you first spoke. Thank you for your courage. Thank you for your art, Nodu na ndokwa.[94]

Adichie has also acknowledged influences from Camara Laye's The African Child (1953) and the 1992 anthology Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.[95]

In September 2021, Open Country Mag noted in a cover story about Adichie's legacy: "Every one of her novels, in expanding her subject matter, broke down a wall in publishing. Purple Hibiscus proved that there was an international market for African realist fiction post-Achebe. Half of a Yellow Sun showed that that market could care about African histories. The novels say: We can be specific in storytelling."[96]

Awards and recognition[edit]

In 2002, Adichie was shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing for her short story, "You in America", which first appeared in Zoetrope: All-Story,[97][98] and her story "That Harmattan Morning", was selected as a joint winner of the BBC World Service Short Story Competition in the same year.[99] Later in 2002, she won the David T. Wong International Short Story Prize 2002/2003, a PEN Center award.[100]

Adichie was the recipient of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in 2007[29] and was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2008.[101]

In 2010, The New Yorker listed her as one of its "20 Under 40" authors,[102] and she was described in The Times Literary Supplement in 2011 as "the most prominent" of a "procession of critically acclaimed young anglophone authors" of Nigerian fiction who are attracting a wider audience, particularly in her second home, the United States.[103] During the 2014 Hay Festival, she was listed in the Africa39 under 40[104] and the Rainbow Book Club project, celebrating UNESCO World Book Capital award in Port Harcourt.[105] Adichie was among the world's "100 Most Influential People" named by Time magazine in 2015.[106]

In 2017, she was elected as one of 228 new members to be inducted into the 237th class of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the highest honours for intellectuals in the United States.[note 2][108] Adichie was awarded the PEN Pinter Prize in 2018,[109] choosing the imprisoned human rights activist and lawyer Waleed Abulkhair as the International Writer of Courage with whom to share the award.[110]

In 2019, she was named fourth on The Africa Report's list of the "100 Most Influential Africans".[111][112][113] Also in 2019, she was selected as one of 15 women to appear on the cover of British Vogue, guest-edited by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.[114]

Adichie has been conferred with honorary degrees from several top universities internationally, including from Johns Hopkins University in 2016,[115] Haverford College and the University of Edinburgh in 2017,[116][117] Amherst College in 2018,[118] Université de Fribourg and Yale University in 2019,[119][120] and the Catholic University of Louvain in 2022.[121]

The image of Adichie on the front of a print magazine cover
Adichie on the cover of Ms. in 2014

On 13 October 2022, a member of Adichie's communications team told the Nigerian newspaper The Guardian that she had rejected an award that was to be given to her by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari: "The author did not accept the award and, as such, did not attend the ceremony."[122]

On 30 December 2022, Adichie was made the Odeluwa of Abba, a Nigerian chief, by the kingdom of Abba in her native Anambra State; she was the first woman to receive such an honour from the kingdom.[123]

Listings[edit]

Listings and nominations
Year Award Work Result
2002 Caine Prize "You in America" Shortlisted
2002 BBC World Service Short Story Competition "That Harmattan Morning" Won
2002/2003 David T. Wong International Short Story Prize Won
2003 O. Henry Prize "The American Embassy" Won
2004 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Best Debut Fiction Purple Hibiscus Won
Orange Prize Shortlisted
Booker Prize Longlisted
Young Adult Library Services Association Best Books for Young Adults Award Nominated
2004/2005 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize Shortlisted
2005 Commonwealth Writers' Prize: Best First Book (Africa) Won
Commonwealth Writers' Prize: Best First Book (overall) Won
2006 National Book Critics Circle Award Half of a Yellow Sun Nominated
2007 British Book Awards: "Richard & Judy Best Read of the Year" Nominated
James Tait Black Memorial Prize Nominated
Commonwealth Writers' Prize: Best Book (Africa) Shortlisted
PEN Beyond Margins Award Won
Orange Broadband Prize: Fiction category Won
International Dublin Literary Award Won
2008 Reader's Digest Author of the Year Award Won
Future Award, Nigeria: Young Person of the Year category Won[124]
2009 International Nonino Prize[125] Won
Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award The Thing Around Your Neck Longlisted
John Llewellyn Rhys Prize Shortlisted
2010 Commonwealth Writers' Prize: Best Book (Africa) Shortlisted
Dayton Literary Peace Prize Nominated
2011 This Day Awards: "New Champions for an Enduring Culture" Nominated
2013 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize: Fiction category Americanah Won
National Book Critics Circle Award: Fiction category[126][127] Won
2014 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction[128] Shortlisted
Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction[129] Shortlisted
MTV Africa Music Awards 2014: Personality of the Year[130] Nominated
2015 International Dublin Literary Award[131][132] Americanah Shortlisted
Grammy Awards: Album of the Year[133] Beyoncé (as featured artist) Nominated

Talks and appearances[edit]

Writings[edit]

Books[edit]

  • ——— (1997). Decisions (poetry). London: Minerva Press. ISBN 9781861064226.
  • ——— (1998). For Love of Biafra (play). Ibadan: Spectrum Books. ISBN 9789780290320.
  • ——— (2003). Purple Hibiscus (novel). London: 4th Estate. ISBN 9780007189885
  • ——— (2006). Half of a Yellow Sun (novel). London: 4th Estate. ISBN 9780007200283.
  • ——— (2009). The Thing Around Your Neck (short-story collection). London: 4th Estate. ISBN 9780007306213.
  • ——— (2013). Americanah (novel). New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 9780307271082.
  • ——— (2014). We Should All Be Feminists (essay). London: 4th Estate. ISBN 9780008115272. (excerpt in New Daughters of Africa; edited by Margaret Busby, 2019)[138]
  • ——— (2017). Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (essay). London: 4th Estate. ISBN 9780008275709.
  • ——— (2021). Notes on Grief (memoir/personal essay). London: 4th Estate. ISBN 9780593320808.[139][46]

Selected short fiction[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ CHI-mə-MAHN-də əng-GOH-zee ə-DEE-chee-ay Adichie's name has been pronounced a variety of ways in English. This transcription attempts to best approximate the Igbo pronunciation for English-speaking readers.
  2. ^ Adichie was the second Nigerian to be given the honour after Wole Soyinka.[107]

Citations[edit]

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Further reading[edit]

  • Emenyonu, Ernest N. (2017). A Companion to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. James Currey/Boydell and Brewer. ISBN 978-1847011633.
  • Sarantou, K. (2019). Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. United States: Cherry Lake Publishing.ISBN 9781534146976
  • Conversations with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. (2020). United States: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9781496829283
  • Of This Our Country: Acclaimed Nigerian Writers on the Home, Identity and Culture They Know. (2021). United Kingdom: HarperCollins Publishers.ISBN 9780008469283
  • Onyebuchi, T. (2021). (S)kinfolk: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah. United States: Fiction Advocate. ISBN 9780999431696
  • Ojo, Akinleye Ayinuola (2018). "Discursive Construction of Sexuality and Sexual Orientations in Chimamanda Adichie's Americanah". Journal of English Studies. 7. Ibadan, Nigeria.

External links[edit]