Talks by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This blog is written as a response to a task assigned by Dilip Barad, Department of English MKBU. In this blog the reflection on three talks of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. For further Information click here.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie born on 15 September 1977) is a Nigerian novelist, writer of short stories, and nonfiction.[3] She has written the novels Purple Hibiscus (2003), Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), and Americanah (2013), the short story collection The Thing Around Your Neck (2009), and the book-length essay We Should All Be Feminists (2014).

1) Talk on importance of Story / Literature:

In this talk she talks about one type of story. For explaining that she gives the examples of her native place Nigeria. When she moved to America for higher studies her roommate asked her various questions related to the language, situation in Africa. Because only stories she knows about Africa's poverty and oppression. Now that stereotype storytelling only gives one side of the stories. There are other good things that happen in Africa but that story does not allow people to think for that. So she talks about the idea of story telling. She also gives an example of herself that when she was younger, she used to read American stories, that gives her the ideas that are represented in the stories she was reading.

2) We Should All Be Feminist

In this video Chimamanda talks about feminism, she says that when she enters any hotel in Luca, waiters only greet male, not her. Nowadays people believe that there is no need for feminism. But she gives various examples from her experiences. She also talks about gender discrimination, the raising of the child also plays a vital role in developing the sense of equality. In her talk that is a description of masculinity. Men have to be masculine if they do not want to. Gender roles give stereotype roles to men and women.  Both men and women must actively participate in discussions about gender, challenging inequalities and biases in everyday interactions.

3)Talk on importance of Truth in Post-Truth Era

Chimamanda Ngozi gives a lecture to Harvard’s Class of 2018 about the importance of truth, courage, and integrity in a complex world. She talks about the truth, she says that being honest is important in life. In her speech she mentions when the graduate students get into the real world or job, they are expected to do certain tasks, people would think that they are smart and intelligent. Sometimes they might not be able to manage that status, sometimes they might not be able to answer all the questions or come up with the solution then they should be able to face the world. Mostly it was an inspiring speech to motivate and make the students ready for the life ahead. In the post-truth era there are higher possibilities of spreading the half truth or altered truth. So one has to be aware about that information and cross check the information. 

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