For centuries, African culture has been oppressed by foreign powers that tried to instill their worldview in much of the black continent. And it is now, in the XXI century, when different voices have been raised to tell the reality of yesterday, today and tomorrow, being the Nigerian Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie one of the greatest ambassadors of this new wave. We invite you to know Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's best books in order to immerse yourself in all those stories frozen in time and that today are open to the world to claim equality in all its senses.
Best books by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Photography: TedTalk
Born as the fifth daughter of an Igbo marriage in Nigeria, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria, 1977) lived for much of her childhood in the same house that once belonged to the famous writer. Chinua achebe. Influences that cemented the restlessness of a young Adichie who, at the age of 19, obtained a scholarship to study Communication and Political Science at Drexel University in Philadelphia. A training that would link with various creative writing courses and a master's degree in African Studies at Yale University.
Over the years, Chimamanda has become one of the great literary voices of Africa, especially thanks to his ability to narrate all the events from a position woven between Africa and the United States. Among the themes of their stories, feminism and globalization are among the recurring ones, being their different Ted Talk conferences the ones that consecrated their position in a globalized world that needs new perspectives.
This are Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's best books:
The purple flower
Published in 2003, The purple flower it became Adichie's first big hit. A story featuring two brothers, Kambili and Jaja, dominated by a millionaire and fanatic father. Exposed to the harshest face of the Nigerian dictatorship, both young men will change their perspective on their own country after spending a few days in the warm apartment of their aunt Ifeoma. Innate sample of the author's ability to delve into the african problem and twisting it as a member of a new generation, The Purple Flower is a clever exercise by the author in trying to shape the history of her own country. Of an entire continent.
Half yellow sun
On May 30, 1967, the Nigerian region of Biafra gained independence from the rest of the country after a civil war that killed thousands of people. A conflict analyzed in Half yellow sun through three characters: Ugwu, the employee of a university professor, Olanna, the professor's wife, and Richard, a young Englishman in love with Olanna's mysterious twin sister. Characters who are shaken by war and must adapt to the rewriting of a country's history through themes such as feminism, identity or the effects of foreign powers in post-colonial Africa. The novel won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2007.
Something around your neck
Published in 2009, this collection of short stories evokes the literary essence of Adichie in its purest form. Twelve stories that speak of the African reality, of immigrants who arrive in the United States and do not know what The Lion King is, of relatives who grow up and silence stories of the past or women who wait in an Embassy covered by flies clinging to a halo of hope. The perfect work with which to enter the universe of this writer and understand the different aspects in the lives of some Nigerians who dream of reaching that "promised land" called America. Certainly one of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's best books.
Would you like to read Something around your neck?
Americanah
Ifemelu and Obinze are two young Nigerians in love who one day will leave their country to go to the United States together. However, it is Ifemelu who gets the visa to jump to the other side of the Atlantic. After arriving in the West, and with a view to studying at university, the young woman must face the different latent prejudices in the United States regarding people with her skin color. Americanah, title that refers to the term in which Nigerians refer to compatriots who return from the United States with an air of greatness, was published in 2013, becoming Adichie's masterpiece. A story capable of delving into the many obstacles that an African poses for finding himself in a different land, trying to achieve his own vision of a prosperous life. The novel, a recurring one of the first positions in the lists of African Literature, won the award National Book Critics Circle Award in 2014 and will be adapted into a miniseries starring Lupita Nyong'o.
We should all be feminists
During his 2012 Ted Talk, Chimamanda spoke to the world of feminism, of an equitable one and that respected the man. An equality that did not involve the surprised look of a Lao valet when a woman gives him a tip or of a receptionist when he sees the author in high heels walking through a hotel hall. A speech that won the applause of the public to, later, be collected in trial form in this We should all be feminists, a book as light as powerful ideal for read during a flight.
The danger of the single story
While we should all be feminists picks up Adichie's speech during her Ted Talk 2012, her latest book published in Spain, The danger of the single story, transcribe the writer's speech made in 2009. An essay that claims the need not to reduce a person or country to a single story, trying to understand all the perspectives and versions that exist of the same. An example lies in the author's first meeting with her roommate at the University of Philadelphia. She was surprised by his fluent English accent and asked if he listened to tribal music on his Walkman. "I'm listening to Mariah Carey," Adichie replied.
Do you dare to read these best books by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie?