15 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie quotes that changed the world
Nigeria is the land of many talented actors and musicians, but it also has some of the most talented writers out there. For instance, Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has taken the world by storm with her powerful works and speeches, which birthed dozens of powerful women quotes. Today, we will take a look at fifteen Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie quotes that have inspired many people to do great things. Let them inspire you as well.
Over the years, Chimamanda Adichie has written several critically acclaimed books and spoken on TED Talks, which means that there are a lot of feminist quotes of hers you can find online. We have compiled them with other quotes from her works and appearances so that you can find some inspiration for moving forward.
Chimamanda Adichie quotes
- On men: “Of course I am not worried about intimidating men. The type of man who will be intimidated by me is exactly the type of man I have no interest in.”
- On feminism: “My own definition of a feminist is a man or a woman who says, 'Yes, there's a problem with gender as it is today and we must fix it, we must do better. All of us, women and men, must do better.”
- On marriage: “Marriage can be a source of joy and love and mutual support but why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage and we don’t teach boys the same? We raise girls to see each other as competitors not for jobs or accomplishments, which I think can be a good thing, but for the attention of men. We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings in the way that boys are.”
- On gender: “The problem with gender is that it prescribes how we should be rather than recognizing how we are. Imagine how much happier we would be, how much freer to be our true individual selves, if we didn’t have the weight of gender expectations.”
- On people and culture: “Culture does not make people. People make culture. If it is true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, then we can and must make it our culture.”
- On racism: “The manifestation of racism has changed but the language has not.”
- Another quote about racism: “Racism should never have happened and so you don't get a cookie for reducing it.”
- On Africa: “If I were not African, I wonder whether it would be clear to me that Africa is a place where the people do not need limp gifts of fish but sturdy fishing rods and fair access to the pond. I wonder whether I would realize that while African nations have a failure of leadership, they also have dynamic people with agency and voices.”
- On Africa in the media: “If you followed the media you'd think that everybody in Africa was starving to death, and that's not the case; so it's important to engage with the other Africa.”
- On simplification of Africa: “You have to do more than go there and adopt a child or show us pictures of children with flies in their eyes. That simplifies Africa.”
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- On stereotypes: “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.”
- A follow-up to the previous quote: “Show a people as one thing, only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become.”
- On importance of stories: “Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.”
- On romanticising poverty: “It is easy to romanticize poverty, to see poor people as inherently lacking agency and will. It is easy to strip them of human dignity, to reduce them to objects of pity.”
- On generalisation: “I recently spoke at a university where a student told me it was such a shame that Nigerian men were physical abusers like the father character in my novel. I told him that I had recently read a novel called American Psycho, and that it was a shame that young Americans were serial murderers.”
About Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda was born on Septeber 15, 1977 in Enugu and grew up with her parents and five siblings in Nsukka. At the age of 20, she published her collection of poems called Decisions. A year later, the world saw the release of her play For Love of Biafra.
Since then, Adichie has authored many stories and books, including (but not limited to) Purple Hibiscus (2003), Americanah (2013) and We Should All Be Feminists (2014). She has received numerous awards for her works and for being one of the most influential Africans.
Chimamanda has also given several lectures on her works and on feminism. One of her speeches was even featured in the track ***Flawless by Beyoncé. It is safe to say that Adichie has made a name for herself both in Nigeria and abroad.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is an incredible, smart and well-spoken woman, who can serve as a great role model for many girls in Africa and all over the world. We hope you like our little compilation of her quotes. However, we do recommend you to check out her speeches and literary works for even more awesomeness!
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Source: Legit.ng
