Multiple Award winning Nigerian author and novelist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who was
recently called one of Africa’s Greatest Innovators in Arts and Sciences, had
an exclusive sit down with OK! Nigeria
Magazine for its new issue in May 2014.
In it, she speaks on her success, education, the movie
adaptation of Half of a Yellow Sun,
feminism, the word – “role model”, as
well as what she really thinks about Beyoncé
.
Read excerpts below;
On the current state
of education in Nigeria compared to growing up: “It’s very easy to think
that your childhood was better, but it was. The education system was much
better back then. I went to the university, primary and secondary school where
I got a fantastic education, I don’t think it is possible now in Nigeria to get
the kind of education I got in a school of that sort without paying tonnes of
money and having to do the British curriculum or something. So education has
gone down since then, which is a terrible shame.”
On if she expected
Half of a Yellow Sun to be this well received: “No, when you write a book
you never know what to expect and I wasn’t writing a cool story. I was writing
about a war in Nigeria in the 1960s, there’s nothing cool or sexy about it. It
was personal for me and many people said ‘What are you doing? Nobody will read
it’. But I wrote it, because that’s what I wanted to write and I’m very happy
that it’s done well.”
On what makes HOAYS
different from other Biafran war stories: “Mine is a novel that looks at
the world from different points of views such as race, class and gender. For me
it’s not so much ‘how is it different?’ I’m hoping many more people will write
about that period, there are many stories that haven’t been told.”
On being called the
21st Century Daughter by The Washington Post Book World: “(Laughs) I have
no objections to that. I think it’s a lovely compliment. Chinua Achebe is the
closest I have to a hero. He was a remarkable man.”
On if feels like an
advocate for women empowerment: “I don’t really like the expression ‘female
empowerment’. I like gender equality, because female empowerment can mean that
we want women to have more privileges than men or be stronger. What I want is
equality; a world where we don’t say to women ‘You have to do a certain thing
because you’re a woman.’ I see myself as someone who believes very deeply in
gender equality and I talk about it because I care about it. There are young
women who have said to me, because they
heard my talk they now identify as feminists and also some young men. It’s not
just about women it has to also be about men.”
On if Beyoncé is a
good role model for females: “I don’t like the expression ‘role model’ the
role model that children really need are their parents. I don’t think it’s the
place of a public figure that has her own life to be expected to do what we
want her to do. I do think that it’s wonderful that Beyoncé lives life on her
own terms. If she were a man I don’t think we would be questioning things like
‘Is he a role model?’.”
On how her husband
feels about her success: “I’m sure he’s fine with it. Nobody would ask a
man ‘How does your wife feel about your success?’ because it would be considered;
of course she would be happy and supportive. We live in a world where in many
ways we tell women that they’re less important in relationships and women
themselves buy into that. I’m supposed to say ‘He handles it very well, he
doesn’t mind’.”
On what she meant by
“feminism is an idea, not a movement”: “Anybody who believes in gender
equality is a feminist. It’s not a party or a movement where you have to get an
identity card to belong to it. There are different feminisms, some I do not
agree with everything, but the whole goal is that we want a world where there
is gender equality. Feminism is not just about women it’s about men. A man who
believes in gender equality is a feminist. It’s believing in in the idea and
working towards it.”
No comments:
Post a Comment