Hello everyone! It's been a minute. Hope everything is well with you and yours? Well, on this side, I thank God for life. Everyday above the ground is a good day isn't it? So, today, I'm going to talk(write) about one of my favorite author and mentor, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I'm sure most of you are familiar with the name and know a little bit about her. If you don't, let me give you a brief introduction.

Chimamanda was born in Enugu, Nigeria, in the late 1970s and was raised in Nsukka. Her parents worked in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and she's the fifth of six children.
When she was 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. She graduated summa cum laude in 2001. Later that year, she began MFA courses in literature at Johns Hopkins University.

Now you have a slight idea of who she is and where she comes from. There are a lot of things I admire or love about Chimamanda as a writer. When I read her first book, "Purple Hibiscus", I was still in secondary school at the time and I thought to myself, "who's this fearless woman that's so bold to tell such a story?" And of course I wanted to read more stories from her which I did over time.

I could go on to list a whole lot of things I love about Chimamanda but I compressed them for the sake of this post so I don't get to bore you.
So, here are the 5 things I love about Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

1.) She gives very detailed descriptions in her stories; If you've read any of her books you should be able to attest to this. Chimamanda is exceptionally good at describing places and her characters. I've never been to Nsukka but she made me feel like I was in Nsukka with the way she gave vivid descriptions about it in "Purple Hibiscus" and "Americanah". The same way she also described places in the USA like Philadelphia and Brooklyn. In my mind I've been to all these places.lol!



2.) She uses very rare Igbo names for her characters and she chips in a little bit of Igbo vocabulary here and there; It was Chimamanda that made me know there were Igbo names such as Ranyinudo, Anikwenwa, Nwamgba, Obierika and a few others. She shows that she's very conversant with her Igbo roots despite her schooling in the US and she's proud of her people.



3.) She's very passionate about gender especially females. Her female characters are very outspoken and question what is deemed normal; her lead character in "Americanah", Ifemelu is one of such.



Chimamanda encourages the typical African girl child to be outspoken and say things as they are without being afraid of being judged by others. And this is something I totally agree with.



4.) She's a "naturalista". Meaning she's carrying her God given natural African hair with all its kinks and curls; she decided to cut off her permed hair when she got to the US and needed a perm but it was quite expensive getting it done in the saloon. Therefore, she got a relaxer kit and did the perm herself at home. She ended up with burns on her scalp and then she questioned herself regarding the essence of getting a perm and going through all the unnecessary pain. So she did the big chop and started growing her natural hair.



5.) I admire her sense of style. She wears a lot of African prints and she makes it look so elegant and chic.







There you have it! Those are the five major things I love about Chimamanda. I hope to be a good writer like her some day and I urge you to pick up any book of hers and read. My favorites are "Americanah", "The Thing Around Your Neck" and "Purple Hibiscus".

So, any thoughts on Chimamanda? Have you read any of her books and what did you like or dislike most about it? Let me know in the comments section below. Until my next post, stay well and happy.

xo, Evita.