Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
A leader in the fight against misogyny, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie takes a new look at feminism. She was born September 15, 1977 in Enugu and had a very active academic career. Starting at the University of Nigeria, she studied medicine and pharmacy for a year and a half. Then she moved to America and attended Drexel University where she studied communications and political science. Finally she received her bachelor’s degree at Eastern Connecticut State University in 2001.
Despite her mixed degree, she later attended Johns Hopkins, in 2003, and Yale University, in 2008, to get master’s degrees in creative writing and Arts in African studies. Her writing career after college started with “The Harmattan Morning” which she won the BBC Short Story Awards. However, her first novel was “Purple Hibiscus” released in 2003. It was awarded the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book in 2005. The next novels were “Half of the Yellow Sun”, “The Thing Around Your Neck” and most recently “Americanah.”, which was selected by the New York Times as on the The 10 Best Books of 2013.
Editorial
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was featured on TEDxTalks. She titled her talk “We should all be feminists.” She address how women are treated like second class citizens and because people pretend not to see race, nothing changes. She brings up the point that boys and girls are praised for opposite things. Girls are praised for virginity, cook, and housework. While boys are praised for making money, being masculine and protectors. What would happen if we didn't just jump to the conclusion that because you are a boy you need to be the bread winner? Or if you are a girl you need to leave your ambition behind to not scare off a man?
She has a vision that speaks it into existence with everything that she does. From the way she writes to the way that she presents herself. She shows that feminist does not mean woman but it means “A man or a woman who says yes there is a problem with gender and we need to fix it.” She ends her Ted talk with the fact that the biggest feminist she knows is her brother, a handsome, smart and masculine man. This brings back the point that gender doesn't matter. She truly is a woman to watch.