Chimamand Ngozi Adichi was born in Nigeria. She began writing at an early age and has since been named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. She is a feminist who has given voice to individuals of African descent residing in the United States and other nations. Her short stories are candid about the Nigerian Civil War and the suffering of those caught up in it. Her poems and short stories have been collected into best-selling books. She’s written four novels, each with a powerful message about topics she believes need to be addressed. She has also given a lot of presentations and interviews on television in which she has strongly aired her opinions. She has received numerous honorary degrees and honors from various universities. She is now a well-known literary figure who has left an indelible mark on the brains of her readers. She’s also active on social media, with a sizable fan base on Facebook.
Childhood and Adolescence
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born on September 15, 1977, into an Igbo household in Enugu, Nigeria. She was raised in the town of Nsukka as the fifth child of her parents six children. James Nwoye Adichie, her father, was a professor of statistics at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka.
He later became the university’s, Deputy Vice-Chancellor. Grace Ifeoma, her mother, was the university’s first female registrar.
She finished her secondary education at the University’s school, where she excelled academically and received numerous awards. She initially enrolled in the University of Nigeria to pursue medicine and pharmacy after completing her education.
Her literary abilities were discovered when she became the editor of the campus magazine ‘Compass.’ She left Nigeria when she was 19 years old to pursue a degree in communications and political science at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
To be closer to her sister, she went to Eastern Connecticut State University and earned a bachelor’s degree with the honor of summa cum laude in 2001. She published a number of essays in the university’s newspaper, ‘Campus Lantern,’ during her time there.
She earned a Master of Arts degree in African Studies from Yale University in 2008 and a Master of Arts degree in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins University in 2003.
For the academic year 2005-06, she was a fellow at Princeton University while attending Yale University. She was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship in 2008, and she was a fellow at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study from 2011-to 12.
Her academic achievements include having been awarded an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters by both Johns Hopkins University and Haverford College.
Career of Chimamanda
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s collection of poems, ‘Decisions,’ was released in 1997 when she was 20 years old. The next year, she composed a play about the Nigerian Civil War called “For Love of Biafra.” Her early triumph was reaffirmed when her short tale, ‘You in America,’ was shortlisted for the ‘Caine Prize’ for African writing.
The positive response to her short tale inspired her to create ‘That Harmattan Morning,’ which was named a joint winner in the BBC Short Story Awards. For the second year in a row, ‘The American Embassy’ earned her the O Henry Prize and the David T Wong International Short Story Prize.
Her first novel, ‘Purple Hibiscus,’ won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book in 2003. Her second work, ‘Half of a Yellow Sun,’ was about the Nigerian Civil War and was called after the flag of the short-lived republic of Biafra. The book was turned into a film of the same name, directed by Biyi Bandele and nominated for a BAFTA award.
‘Americanah,’ her third novel, was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2013 by the New York Times. The plot is around a young Nigerian who encounters racism in the United States.
She also published ‘The Thing Around Your Neck,’ a collection of 12 short stories that was named one of the Best American Short Stories of 2011. ‘Dear Ijeawele,’ her most recent book, was released in 2017 and garnered great reviews.
She was named one of the best writers under the age of 40 and was inducted into the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the highest honors bestowed upon intellectuals in the United States.
Adichie has given several talks, including one on TED that has become one of the most-watched interviews of all time. She gave the 2012 Commonwealth Lecture on ‘Connecting Cultures,’ as well as a presentation on being a feminist that was turned into a book and inspired Beyonce’s song ‘Flawless.’
Her Major Projects
‘Purple Hibiscus’ (2003), ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ (2006), ‘The Thing Around Your Neck’ (2009), and ‘Americanah’ (2010) are among Adichie’s most widely read books (2013).
‘You in America,’ ‘That Harmattan Morning,’ and ‘The American Embassy’ are short stories about Africans living in other countries and the persecution they endure.
Achievements & Awards
She has received various accolades for her literary work in addition to a number of rankings. To name a few, she received the ‘O Henry Prize’ in 2003 for the short story ‘The American Embassy,’ the ‘Commonwealth Writers’ Prize: Best First Book’ in 2005 for her novel ‘Purple Hibiscus,’ Reader’s Digest ‘Author of the Year’ in 2008, and the ‘National Book Critics Circle Award: Fiction Category’ in 2009 for her book ‘Americanah.’
Her books have been named among the ‘Ten Best Books’ by both the New York Times and the BBC. In 2015, Time Magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.
Personal History and Legacy
Adichie divides her time between Nigeria, where she was born, and the United States, where she works. She has a daughter and is married to a Maryland doctor.
When she visits Nigeria, she gives writing workshops as a way of giving back to the country.
Estimated Net worth
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of the wealthiest novelists and one of the most well-known. According to Wikipedia, Forbes, and Business Insider, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has a net worth of $5 million.
Trivia
Her ancestral home is in Abba, Nigeria’s Anambra state.
She was raised in the same house as famed Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, and was profoundly impacted by his masterwork, ‘Things Fall Apart,’ which she first read when she was ten years old.
Adichie sees herself as a storyteller, but she doesn’t mind being called a feminist author. Her worldview is feminist, and she believes the issue should be addressed.
Her famous talk, “The Dangers of a Single Story,” shows her worry about the underrepresentation of other cultures, which results in a biased picture of a race owing to others’ ignorance.
She is an advocate for LGBTQ rights and has campaigned in Nigeria for them. She was briefly embroiled in a debate regarding her views on transgender people, although she afterward went to considerable lengths to clarify her position.