Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer whose writings explore the various aspects of identity. In 2015, she was named one of TIME Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential People in the World. Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, is a fictional story about a wealthy 15-year-old girl controlled by her religious father. This novel won Adichie the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in 2005 for Best First Book (Africa) and Best First Book Overall.
Her second book, Half of a Yellow Sun, is a fictional story based on her parents’ experiences with the Nigeria-Biafra war, and it became an international best-seller and won an Orange Broadband Prize in Fiction in 2007. This book was the product of years of research and writing and consequently, the book encapsulates the brutality of the war. The movie adaptation of this book was released in 2013.
Americanah is a fictional novel she wrote about the struggles of a young Nigerian woman studying in the United States and blogging her experiences surrounding race. This third novel won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, and this book was named the New York Times Top Ten Books of 2013.
Her stories stem from her personal experiences and the experiences of those around her, which makes her writing so impactful. She later wrote an essay called Notes on Grief, describing her experience after losing her father in 2021. Her work vividly captures these experiences, whether it is the various aspects of the Nigeria-Biafra war, immigration, being a black person in the United States, or the grief of losing a loved one.
So, for the last Black History Month-themed Women Wednesday, it only made sense to talk about an extremely talented black writer who has moved people internationally with her experiences and pen.