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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Photo by Carlos Figueroa- Wikimedia commons

Top 10 Outstanding Facts about Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 15 September 1977) is a Nigerian novelist, short story writer, and nonfiction author. She was identified as “the most notable” of a “cortege of highly lauded young anglophone authors [who] are succeeding in luring a future group of readers to African literature,” especially in her second home, the United States, by The Times Literary Supplement.

Purple Hibiscus (2003), Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), and Americanah (2013) are Adichie’s books, as well as the collection of short stories The Thing Around Your Neck (2009) and the book-length essay We Should All Be Feminists (2014). Dear Ijeawele: A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (2017), Zikora (2020), and Notes on Grief are her most recent books (2021).

She received a MacArthur Genius Grant in 2008. In 2018, she was awarded the PEN Pinter Prize.

1.Chimamanda chose Communication and political science over a Medicine university degree

Chimamanda was a fantastic and outstanding student who was constantly at odds with her teachers. She sought admission to study medicine at the University of Nigeria Nnsuka after finishing secondary school. She dropped out at the age of 19 to attend Drexel University in Philadelphia. Chimamanda continued her education at Eastern Connecticut State University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in communication and political science.

2.Several famous people love and respect Chimamanda for her great talents

Numerous famous people admire her work, such as Beyonce, who included a snippet from a talk Adichie gave at TEDxEuston in December 2012. The “We Should All Be Feminists” talk discussed how women are raised and what it means to be a feminist.

“We teach girls to shrink, to make themselves smaller,” Adichie explained. “We tell girls, ‘You can be ambitious, but not too ambitious.'” You should strive for success, but not excessive success. Otherwise, you’ll be threatening the man…'”

Adichie described a feminist as someone who believes in the S*Xes’ social, political, and equal income of opportunity. Will Smith, a Hollywood superstar, is also a fan of her work.

3.Her dressing style has everyone inspired to look just like her

A well known novel written by Ngozi. Photo by Suad Kamardeen –Unsplash

Adichie’s mother was always worried about her daughter’s image, and she ingrained that concern in her children as well. When Adichie first arrived on the writing scene in the United States, she attempted to dress more subduedly in order to be taken seriously however, suddenly discovered that her own sense of style is more than impressive so she leaned in towards styling herself.

4.Ngozi’s childhood and growing up with her family

Adichie was born in the Nigerian city of Enugu, the fifth of six children in an Igbo family. She grew up in the Enugu State university town of Nsukka. Her father, James Nwoye Adichie (1932-2020), was a statistics professor at the University of Nigeria when she was growing up. Grace Ifeoma (1942-2021), her mother, was the university’s first female registrar.

They lived on campus in a house that had previously been inhabited by popular writer Chinua Achebe. During the Nigerian Civil War, the family lost almost everything, including both her maternal and paternal grandfathers. Her ancestors came from the village of Abba in Anambra State.

5.Ngozi not only has one university degree but three!

Despite dropping out of medical school, Chimamanda obtained a bachelor’s and two master’s degrees. She earned a bachelor’s degree in communication and political science from Eastern Connecticut University in 2001, a master’s degree in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University in 2003, and a master’s degree in African studies from Yale University in 2008.

6.Her second novel “Half of a Yellow Sun” has a film directed by David Lynch

It represents a mural to make visible some achievements of women. It aims to raise awareness about equality. Photo by DLV –Wikimedia commons

Half of a Yellow Sun (2007), her second novel, was adjusted into a film of the same name after first being published as a short story. The movie version, directed by Biyi Bandele, stars Hollywood actors Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton, Anika Noni Rose, and Genevieve Nnaji from Nollywood. The story takes place before and during the Biafran war, and the title is inspired by the flag of the short-lived independent nation.

7.The Nigerian government has postponed the release of “Half of a Yellow Sun”

The Nigerian government refused to issue the movie a permit because of its portrayal of violence during the Biafran War, effectively banning it and postponing its release. Concerns were raised about the film’s possibility to provoke violence, especially in the country’s predominantly Christian south, which is still home to a significant Igbo independence campaign.

8.Ngozi has been nominated and won quite a few awards for her brilliant writing skills

Her short story “You in America” was nominated for the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2002, and her story “That Harmattan Morning” was named a joint winner of the 2002 BBC World Service Short Story Awards. She won the David T. Wong International Short Story Prize 2002/2003 in 2003. (PEN Center Award).

She was included in The New Yorker’s “20 Under 40” Fiction Issue in 2010. In April 2014, she was selected as one of 39 writers under the age of 40 in the Hay Festival and Rainbow Book Club project Africa39, honoring Port Harcourt as the 2014 UNESCO World Book Capital.

Adichie was appointed to the 237th class of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the highest honors for academics in the United States, in April 2017, as one of 228 new members to be initiated on October 7, 2017.

9.Adichie has also collected a few honors from various universities across the world

Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Edinburgh, Duke University, Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University, and the Catholic University of Louvain have all bestowed honorary doctorates on Adichie. Johns Hopkins University bestowed a honours title, Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, on her in 2016.

Haverford College and The University of Edinburgh accorded prestigious awards, Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, on her in 2017. Amherst College awarded her an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree in 2018.   In 2019, she was awarded an honorary doctorate, doctor honoris causa, by the Université de Fribourg in Switzerland.

Ngozi Adichie was awarded an honorary degree by Yale University on May 20, 2019. She received her sixteenth honorary phd from the Catholic University of Louvain on April 28, 2022.

10.Her third novel ‘Americanah’ was listed in the New York Best of 2013 list

Americanah Book Cover. Photo by Marjane Satrapi, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Hanya Yanigihara, Linda Hogan, Megha Majumdar, Robin Wall Kimerer, Patti Smith, Haruki Murakami, Dereka Purnell –Wikimedia commons

At the National Book Critics Circle Awards in March 2014, Adichie’s third novel, “Americanah,” defeated Pulitzer Prize winner Donna Tartt’s “The Goldfinch.” The novel appears to represent many worlds—fashion, love, alienation, immigration, American-ness, Nigerian-ness—and was named to the New York Times Best of 2013 list.