“A strong woman is not something I find remarkable, it’s something that I find normal.” Interview with the acclaimed Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie about the power of writing against violence and war.
Writer Chimamanda Adichie talks about having an inquisitive mind and explains how she has always felt the need to read and write. Even as a child Adichie felt a passionate interest in history and in human character. In this interview she talks of war, religion, skin color and love: “I’m a believer in love. Love can heal.” Although she feels furious about some of the things people do and say, she explains: “I try to pretend that I’m cynical and sarcastic, but deep down I’m just a hopeless romantic.”
Realistic fiction demands that you make your characters round, even though they are flat and simple in real life Adichie says, and goes on to explain how she feels guilty when exposing real people in her books, because they are unable to answer back.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (b.1977) was born in southeastern Nigeria but moved to the US to attend College. In 2003 she completed a masters degree in creative writing, and in 2008 she received an MA in African studies from Yale University. Adichie published poems, plays and short stories before publishing her first novel ‘Purple Hibiscus’ in 2003. Her big break through was with her second novel ‘Half a yellow sun’ from 2006, about the Nigerian-Biafran War. In 2013 she published her third book ‘Americanah’.
Chimamanda Adichie was interviewed by Synne Rifbjerg at Louisiana Literature 2011
Edited by Kamilla Bruus
Produced by Marc-Cristoph Wagner
Stills: Andreas Johnsen
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2013.
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