In a recent interview,the award winning writer got candid on a lot of issues especially on being addressed as a "MRS"
Excerpts below..
Mrs Chimamanda Adichie, welcome back to Nigeria…
Before we start, please, I just want to say that my name is Chimamanda Adichie. That’s how I want it; that’s how I’m ad-dressed, and it is not Mrs but Miss. Ms: that’s how I want it. I am saying this, because I just got a mail from my manager this morning. It seems that there are people who attended the church service, and they wrote about it, addressing me as Mrs. Chimamanda (Esega). I didn’t like that at all. So my name is Chimamanda Adichie, full stop!
You mean?
This is because it is also responsible that people be called what they want to be called.
So, how is Obinze?
(laughs) Obinze is in the novel called Americanah. That’s where Obinze is.
And what about the oranges you talked about?
From the Purple Hibiscus? You know we used to have an orange tree in the house. You know those books don’t really connect: they come from all kinds of things I draw inspirations from. Actually, it is the compound in Abba [my hometown]that I loved; my grandmother’s compound down there –and there are trees around.
What actually was it like growing up?
My childhood was happy very, very, very happy. It was just wonderful, and, I think, for me, they saw from the beginning that I was very interested in reading and encouraged it. I remember when I could fill up an exercise book in my quest to write a novel, and my mother would buy me more. So, they were very supportive. And when I think that I would be writing, I feel it is I what I’m here to do. It was also that they let their child express herself, because nobody knew what could make a child successful when he or she grows up. But it’s just ideal that they had this child, who liked writing quite early. They bought her exercise books so that she could write more.
