Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a name you might not be familiar with, and if you haven’t met many Nigerians, probably just pronounced wrong. I certainly did the first time I picked up her novel. But it’s a name worth learning how to say. And one (my friends will vouch for me here) that I haven’t shut up about for the last month.
She is a woman graced with the gift of word, who wields it provokingly and powerfully. Her prose, rich in intellect and heavy with feeling, carries the stories of an unheard nation. To me, her narrative was a glass of cold water, thrown at my naive, privileged, white face. A face which had never truly considered, or understood, the privilege that comes with my skin colour.
‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ was the first of her novels that I read. Given that most of our readers went, or are still going, through the British education system (and forgive me for generalising here), I’ll guess you know little to nothing about The Nigerian Civil War. As Europeans, we’re notoriously good at ignoring the countries we once colonised. We say ‘Africa’ as if it’s one great body, a singular culture and country, full of zebras and poverty and diseases we don’t want. Imagine someone describing Scotland and Italy as the same place. Adichie’s voice, virtuous and empathetic and always honest, presents the story of Biafra. She writes about war, about stains on the British empire, about stains that are too dirty for us to ignore.
I waited perhaps a day before starting another of her novels. ‘Americanah’ was brilliant and gutsy, and unlike ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ is set in a time and place I am familiar with. Perhaps that’s why I found it so jarring. Because although I have walked through streets in London, I have never done so as an illegal immigrant. I have never been a black women, with a thick Nigerian accent, in an American school. I have never felt ostracised for being a minority. Perhaps, in moments of extremely white obliviousness, I have thought to myself that race does not matter, that it’s no longer a problem. Chimamanda corrected me. Through her voice I’ve come to learn that if you are someone to whom race does not matter, you are exceptionally lucky. Half the world does not have that luxury.
This is the bit where I stop trying to narrate a magnificent story, and tell you to read it yourself. I promise, the author does a much better job.
(I've even linked the books for you. That's how much I think you should read them.)
Chimamanda's Ted Talk:
If you’ve read anything worth writing about, send your own book reviews to CollegeCloud@JCG.sch.je. For those of you who check out Chimamanda's work (if you've got this far I'm hoping you will), feel free to get in touch to let me know what you think. Book nerds like myself need people to talk to.
Kayleigh Lennon, Year 12
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