Renowned Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, has revealed that she does not consider herself an ambassador of Nigeria, while also stating that there are certain things she dislikes about the country.
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The Enugu State-born author, while making this known in a chat with the AfricaReport, stated:
No. I am an ambassador for myself. I don’t represent Nigeria; there are things about Nigeria I don’t like. But, at the same time, I am very very proud of my Nigerian identity.
I was born and raised in Nigeria, which I didn’t leave until I was 19. I’m proud to be Nigerian, I’m proud to be African, I’m proud to be Igbo. I won’t be who I am today if I wasn’t all of those things
The multiple award-winning novelist, meanwhile, seized the occasion to reveal why she initially refused American citizenship.
She also stated:
For a long time, I didn’t want to become a US citizen because I believed that part of the experience of being Nigerian is experiencing the humiliations of travelling on a Nigerian passport.
But I changed my mind about US citizenship after my father was kidnapped in 2015 and it was the American embassy in Lagos and not the Nigerian government who helped my family.
They even sent a therapist to my father after he was released. I now plan to become an American citizen at some point, but I guess I’m still delaying it.
This latest news comes about two months after the Communications and Political Science graduate at Eastern Connecticut State University made headlines following claims of plagiarism by a Welsh author and lawyer, Anne Giwa-Amu, with respect to her historic novel ‘Half of A Yellow Sun’.
The 42-year-old mother of one is known for such works as Americanah (2013), The Thing Around Your Neck (2009), We Should All Be Feminists (2014), among others.
