Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi (1977-…), is a Nigerian-born writer whose novels explore the modern history of Nigeria. Much of her work focuses on the impact, especially on young people, of Nigeria’s civil wars in the 1960’s.
Adichie gained international praise with her first novel, Purple Hibiscus (2003). The book centers on the main character Kambili’s struggle to free herself from her father’s tyranny. It is told against the backdrop of political turbulence within Nigeria. Adichie’s second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, was published in 2006. The novel touches on themes of class and race, love and betrayal, the end of the colonial era in Africa, and loyalty to an individual’s ethnic group. The novel Americanah (2013) follows a pair of young lovers as they leave Nigeria to start new lives in the West.
Several of Adichie’s short stories were collected in The Thing Around Your Neck (2009). Most of the stories are partly autobiographical, dealing with Nigerians such as Adichie, who immigrated to the United States and face a clash of cultures. We Should All Be Feminists (2014) is an essay about what it means to be a feminist in the 2000’s. Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (2017) is Adichie’s response to a letter from a childhood friend asking how to raise her daughter as a feminist. Notes on Grief (2021) is a personal essay about the life and death of Adichie’s father.
Adichie was born on Sept. 15, 1977, in Enugu, Nigeria. At the age of 19, she left Nigeria to study in the United States. She attended Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, before earning a degree in communication and political science at Eastern Connecticut State University in 2001. She completed a master’s degree in creative writing at Johns Hopkins University in 2003 and a master’s degree in African Studies in 2008 at Yale University.
