PR TIMES AFRICA PRTimesAfrica (March 2016) | Page 16

THE STORY TELLER
WHO BECOMES ONE
WITH THE STORY
A native of Abba in Anambra state, South-east Ni-
geria, Ngozi Chimamanda Adichie was born on 15th
September, 1977, in the coal city of Enugu to Grace
Ifeoma (first female registrar of the prestigious Uni-
versity of Nigeria Nsukka) and James Nwoye Adichie
(Nigeria’s first Professor of Statistics of the Universi-
ty of Nigeria). She grew up in the University of Nige-
ria(UNN), Nsukka campus, living in the former apart-
ment of the great writer Chinua Achebe.
Her love affair with books started at a very tender
age, when she started reading and writing with pencil
& crayon illustrations that according to her, her “poor
mother was obligated to read”. Though initially her
writings were influenced by her exposure to Europe-
an and American books that had little semblance to
the realities of her environment, she was mentally
transformed by her exposure to the books by African
greats like Chinua Achebe and Camara Laye, whose
African stories taught her that people like her could
exist in the world of books.
CHIMAMANDA
NGOZI ADICHIE
16 | PRTIMES AFRICA MARCH 2016