A tribute to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
A tribute to one of the intellectual and literary giants of Africa, Dr Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Celebrating Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
0
0
Nigerian author, activist, and feminist Dr Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of the worlds most foremost writers and intellectuals in the space of intersectional feminism, antiracism, history, LGBTQIA+ rights, and anti-colonialism. She was born in Enugu, Nigeria in 1977. Her father was a professor at the University of Nigeria, where her mother was the registrar. Chimamanda graduated from the Eastern Connecticut State University with a degree in Communication and Political Science. During her senior year at Easter, she began working on her first novel, “Purple Hibiscus”. It was published to universal acclaim and won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book in 2005.
She has since published several books, most notably “Half of a Yellow Sun”, “Americanah”, “Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions”, and “Notes on Grief”, a literary tribute to her departed father.
Chimamande Ngozo Adiche is unafraid to speak up on matters of the legacy of colonialism and racism, as well as the continuing injustices of patriarchy and discrimination against the LGBTQIA+ community. She has delivered two hard-hitting TED talks – “The Danger of a Single Story” and “We Should All Be Feminists”. She also delivered a no-holds barred address at the Ceremony for the Opening of the Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Germany, which told the unvarnished truth about German colonialism in Africa.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie holds a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Arts degree in African History from Yale University. She was awarded a Hodder fellowship at Princeton University for the 2005-2006 academic year, and a fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute of Harvard University for the 2011-2012 academic year. In 2008, she received a MacArthur Fellowship. She has received honorary doctorate degrees from Eastern Connecticut State University, Johns Hopkins University, Haverford College, Williams College, the University of Edinburgh, Duke University, Amherst College, Bowdoin College, SOAS University of London, American University, Georgetown University, Yale University, Rhode Island School of Design, and Northwestern University.
Dr Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche was named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2015, and in 2017, Fortune Magazine named her one of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders. She is a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her books have been translated into over thirty languages.
She divides her time between Nigeria where she regularly conducts masterclasses in writing, and the United States.
