She was born on September 15, 1977 in Enugu, Nigeria but
hails from Abba, Anambra state, the fifth of six children of Mr. James Nwoye and
Mrs. Grace Ifeoma Adichie Chimamanda. She grew up in the Nsukka, in the house
formerly occupied by Nigerian writer, Chinua Achebe. She is married to a
US-based Nigerian doctor in Maryland, USA
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie completed her secondary education at
the University of Nigeria located at Nsukka where her father at the time was
the Nigerian first professor of statistics and later became deputy vice
chancellor. Her mother was the first female registrar at the same Institution.
She studied medicine and pharmacy at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka for a
year and half.
At nineteen left for the United States of America when she
gained scholarship to study communication at Drexel University of Philadelphia
for two years. And later she went to pursue a bachelor degree in communication
and political science at eastern Connecticut State University, where she
graduated summa cum laude in 2001. She completed her master’s degree in
creative writing at the Johns Hopkins University Baltimore.
By the time Chimamanda
was 21, she had already a collection of poems, decisions and a play (In the
love of Biafra, 1998) to her credit. Although she was born seven years after
the Biafra war ended, she states she has always felt a deep horror for all the
things that took place and a great pity for the injustices that occurred.
She started writing her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, during
her first year in the university which was published in October 2003. The book
received a wide criticism; it was shortlisted for the orange fiction prize 2004
and was awarded the Commonwealth writers’ prize for the best first book in 2005.
Purple Hibiscus is now the current West African Secondary Curriculum. Her
second novel, half of a yellow sun was published in late 2006, named after the
flag of the short-lived nation of Biafra, is set before and during the Biafra
war was also awarded the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction. The thing around your
neck, which is her third work, is a collection of short stories published in
2009 and one of the stories, “Ceilings” was included in the 20011 edition of the
best American Short Stories.
“Reading not only Nigerian novel but African novel as a whole
is not really my thing, But I was propelled to read purple hibiscus because of
my younger sister and I can tell you that Chimamandda Adichie is one of the
best authors of all times” said Dr. Drew Stephens of St. Michael hospital,
Ihiala, Anambra state.
The writer, who shuttles between Nigeria and United States
was a holder at fellow at Princeton University during 2005/2006 academic year
also pursued graduate work in African studies program at Yale University.
Chimamada, through her hard works has won the following
prizes; BBC short story (2002), joint winner for that Harmattan morning Henry
prize for the American embassy (2003), David T. Wong International short prize
(2002/2003). In 2008, she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship and has also been
awarded a 2011/2012 fellowship by Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard
University.
Adichie who stated clearly that she did not consciously
decide to pursue writing says “I have been writing since I was old enough to
spell, and just sitting down and writing made me feel incredibly fulfilled”.
Since the early stages of her carrier, she has displayed a keen awareness of
ethnicity in Nigeria and has also paid much attention to the hardship often
endured by Nigerian immigrants in United States and England in some of her
works like, You in American, My mother; the crazy African, New Husband, The
Grief of Strangers, etc.
She objected to adoption view of colonial culture for Africa,
rather she believes in the scholarship award as empowerment for the Africa
child and stood against star celebrity view on adoption of African child by
stars like Madonna. She never gave room for intimidation due to her race
(black)
“During
my secondary school days while at Philadelphia, I was one
of the very little blacks in the class but I never allow that weigh me down. I
always wanted them to know that just like in the bible something good can come
out of Africa, which I eventually did”
Chimamanda’s
father Mr. James Nwoye
Adichie, a seventy-nine year old man in his faint voice said Chimamanda is a
very stubborn child though a good listener. “I have repeated a lot of stories
and whenever she tells me “Papa we have heard that before” I just say Ezi
okwu(meaning is that true in Igbo language), have I really? And go on to tell
it anyway, all the rest will leave but Amanda will be the only one to stay and
listen”
Despite
all the attentions, recommendations and the awards Adichie has to her credit
some people still see her as not being Original.
“Hmmmmmmnnn,
I don’t find her to be original and really don’t get all the hype about her.
Even her popular TED talk seems to come word-for-word from an Achebe’s
interview from the 80’s that I watched somewhere. As I was reading the article
it looked so boring like a typical Achebe’s novel, although she started to make
sense at the end of the article. I am happy there is an op-ed from Nigeria on
NY Times. I will give her credit for that” explained a four hundred level
English student of University of Lagos, Jenifer Amarochukwu.
The biograhpy of the author was gotten from her official website
