Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer of novels, short stories, and nonfiction. She was described in the Times Literary Supplement as “the most prominent” of a procession of critically acclaimed young anglophone authors that is succeeding in attracting a new generation of readers to African literature”. Here are the most powerful empowering quotes from some of her literary works and recent speeches that you should know;
1) “You can’t write a script in your mind and then force yourself to follow it. You have to let yourself be.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun
2) “I have chosen to no longer be apologetic for my femaleness and my femininity. And I want to be respected in all of my femaleness because I deserve to be.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, We Should All Be Feminists
3) “This is our world, although the people who drew this map decided to put their own land on top of ours. There is no top or bottom, you see.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun
4) “Show a people as one thing, only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The Danger of a Single Story
5) “Be a full person. Motherhood is a glorious gift, but do not define yourself solely by motherhood. Be a full person. Your child will benefit from that.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions
6) “Gender matters everywhere in the world. And I would like today to ask that we begin to dream about and plan for a different world. A fairer world. A world of happier men and happier women who are truer to themselves. And this is how to start: We must raise our daughters differently. We must also raise our sons differently.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, We Should All Be Feminists
7) “We have the world full of women who are unable to exhale fully because they have for so long been conditioned to fold themselves into shapes to make themselves likable.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions
