CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE:
The Mighty African Pen
Meet the smart, confident and fearless African Women Role Model: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, whose pen is mightier than the sword. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian National. She was born in 1977 and raised in Nsukka near the University of Nigeria. She is a novelist, nonfiction writer and short story writer. She has been called “the most prominent” of a “procession of critically acclaimed young Anglophone authors that is succeeding in attracting a new generation of readers to African literature. She happens to be the fifth child in a family of six children. Her father, James Nwoye Adichie, was a professor of statistics who later became the Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Nigeria. Her mother, Ifeoma Adichie, became the first female registrar at the same University.
Despite her reputation, limitation never had a role to play in her life. Adichie enrolled in medical school at the behest of her father. She soon dropped out to pursue her dream of becoming a writer. At age 19, she left Nigeria on a scholarship to Drexel University in Philadelphia. She studied Communication at Drexel and earned a degree in Communication and Political Science at Eastern Connecticut State University. In 2001, she graduated with a distinction of Summa Cum Laude. Later that year, she began MFA courses in Literature at John Hopkins University. In 2003, she completed a Master’s Degree in creative writing at John Hopkins University. In 2008, she received a Master of Arts Degree in Africa Studies from Yale University.
She credits Chinua Achebe, the Igbo author of the magnum opus, Things Fall Apart, with her literary success. She once lived in Achebe’s house and believes his halo surrounded her. After reading his books at 10 years old, she realized that people who looked like her could exist in books. Her desire to write was sparked by his work. Indeed, the books you read and the people you associate with have a great influence on your potential. This is the reason behind Adichie’s writing success.
It is true that, with a pencil and a dream, you can change the world. Adichie tries to combat the image of Africans as portrayed by Western media. Though, she has being criticized many times, for shying away from the “real” Africa, still, she has not failed to write about characters that are starving or dying of AIDS.