Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of the most prominent 21st century female writers to come out of Africa. She is an award winning writer, described by 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”. Some of her most prominent works are Half Of A Yellow Sun, Americanah, The Thing Around Your Neck, and Purple Hibiscus. She is also recognised as an avid feminist.
For this week’s Tuesday 10, we will be sharing some of our favourite Chimamanda Adichie quotes.
1.
“Masculinity is a hard, small cage, and we put boys inside this cage.” We Should All Be Feminists.
2.
“There are people, she once wrote, who think that we cannot rule ourselves because the few times we tried, we failed, as if all the others who rule themselves today got it right the first time. It is like telling a crawling baby who tries to walk, and then falls back on his buttocks, to stay there. As if the adults walking past him did not all crawl, once. Purple Hibiscus
3.
“My own definition is 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.”
― We Should All Be Feminists.
4.
“A woman at a certain age who is unmarried, our society teaches her to see it as a deep personal failure. And a man, after a certain age isn’t married, we just think he hasn’t come around to making his pick.” We Should All Be Feminists
5.
“Race doesn’t really exist for you because it has never been a barrier. Black folks don’t have that choice.”
― Americanah
6.
“I have chosen to no longer be apologetic for my femaleness and my feminity. And I want to be respected in all of my femaleness because i deserve to be” We should All Be Feminist
7.
“There are some things that are so unforgivable that they make other things easily forgivable.” Half Of A Yellow Sun
8.
“We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls, you can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful. Otherwise, you would threaten the man. Because I am female, I am expected to aspire to marriage. I am expected to make my life choices always keeping in mind that marriage is the most important. Now 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.” We Should All Be Feminists.
9.
“Racism should never have happened and so you don’t get a cookie for reducing it.” Americanah
10.
“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.”
Quote Source: Goodreads.com
