Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Author
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – Author (Nigeria / USA)
Winner of the MacArthur Genius grant
I was never all that good at history. The school curriculum in the late 70s and early 80s left a great deal to be desired, being mostly either about the first and second world wars, or medieval medicine - a course of leeches anyone? If you are a teenager, or parent of teens, you won’t be surprised to learn that these are still hot topics on the whiteboards of today’s GCSE students. To be honest, I found most of the history I learned about in school at best irrelevant and at worst, downright boring. (Sorry Mr O’ Shea).
It wasn’t that the events themselves were uninteresting, but that the whole of history teaching was based around dates and fighting and the things that men did. There was nothing about the lives of real people which made the subject completely non-relatable to me. But the lack of even a GCSE to my name left me sadly lacking in knowledge and understanding of world events.
Luckily, as an adult I’ve discovered a new approach to learning about history and politics - through the words of contemporary modern authors from around the world. I’ve learned more about the Chinese cultural revolution and the troubles in Pakistan and Afghanistan through reading novels than I have from any history book. This is because the novels I’ve read, novels like
Half a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Adichie, are about real people living through these historical times. They may be fiction, but they are based on a deep understanding of those cultures and the experiences of real people living there. For me, this gives far greater insight into the impact of political systems and military regimes than a load of dates and statistics.
Chimamanda Adichie is a Nigerian author who lives part time in the United States. She’s won numerous prizes for her work including the Commonwealth Writers prize 2005, the Orange Prize for fiction in 2007, The McArthur Genius Grant in 2008 and the PEN Pinter Prize this year.
I wanted to feature her in the
Girls Can Do Anything
gallery of inspirational women because
she is one of a growing number of voices from across the world that are contributing to a deeper understanding and appreciation of other lives and cultures.
The Guardian fiction awards 2008