Zika Bobby
The Chimamada Youth Vanguard, an informal fanbase led by Abuja and Europe based data analyst and writer, Tene Samuels, has said multiple award-winning writer and best-selling author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, should be declared celebrity of the decade, going by achievements and accolades she has garnered during the 10-year period.
Tene told Daily Sun that going by facts available, Adichie has had a most impactful decade.
“Adichie’s third novel, Americanah, which centred on race and identity was published in 2013 and has received numerous awards including The New York Times Top 10 Best Books of 2013 and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for Fiction. In 2017, Americanah was selected winner of the “One Book, One New York” programme, New York City’s first city-wide reading initiative.
“Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun published in 2006 was recently named among BBC’s 100 Novels That Shaped Our World. The French translation of her most recent book, Dear Ijeawele or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions published in March 2017 was the non-fiction winner of Le Grand Prix de l’Héroïne Madame Figaro in the same year.
Adichie is not only celebrated for her writing, she is also an astute public speaker of international repute. Her TED Talk, “The Danger of a Single Story” (2009) has been viewed more than 18 million times and is one of the most popular TED talks of all time, and also being taught in schools all over the world,” she said.
Tene noted that Adichie has appeared in conversation with some leading figures like former US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, following Clinton’s delivery of the Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture during the New York PEN World Voices Festival in April 2017 while she also interviewed former US First Lady Michelle Obama at the Southbank Center, London in December 2018.
“Her delivery of the 2018 Harvard College Class Day Speech was a major feature at the globally acclaimed university’s annual graduation event.
“Adichie has been recognised internationally for her impact on a diverse global audience. She was named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2015. In 2017, Fortune Magazine listed her as one of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders. In November 2019, the United Nations Foundation honored Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in its annual awards ceremony with the Global Leadership Award for her work using literature and storytelling to connect with people across generations and cultures on issues of gender and racial equality. Adichie became not only the first Nigerian to receive the award, but also the youngest and first African to receive that honor. She has received honorary doctorate degrees from 14 global universities including Yale University, John Hopkins University, the University of Edinburgh, Duke University, and SOAS University of London among others,” she said.