psky:

slimyem: If this was what she was trying to imply,she could have said it in a way that wouldn't insult anyone's sensiblities.
"Words" is/are the fuel she drives with. She knew what she was saying and could have said it better if she wanted to

senor_ova: Nigerians sometimes have a difficulty in interpreting simple English! All that Adichie simply meant was that the award nominee list was biased in the sense that notable upcoming writers were overlooked. Simple!

repogirl:
I swear my brain blew up and had to reboot. Heh heh heh!

john650:

I read about an interview she gave at a book signing at a bookstore in Lagos some years ago. The interview was published by the defunct 234Next Newspaper. A young man who was amazed by her successes in the literary world and her beauty approached her and gave her compliments for being "brain and beauty." What would happen next was what I least expected from a literary icon, or someone the younger ones looked up to. Her response in verbatim was as follows:

“You know, there is something borderline sexist about that. That women who are beautiful do not have a brain, the idea that beautiful women cannot be intelligent.”

I thought to myself, was that comment really necessary? The young man paid her a complement and stated the obvious. Most women would have been delighted with the compliments. What does she do instead? She goes into rant, embarrassing the young man. Ever since then, I've looked at her in a different light. I think this chic has issues with men; another Gloria Steinem. she is, a "b***h on a power trip." Expect more gaffes from her in the future, which will expose her for what she is.

Sterling Towers: "I've never really paid attention to African literature outside soyinka and achebe." [color=#006600][/color]
Me too save for "Tell Freedom" Peter Abraham, Mariama Ba and those horrid african Literatures shoved dowm my throat for reasons of exam only.

drnoel: Don't see anything wrong with her comments, as myopic as they sound. They remain her comments, which is her God given right to profess. Funny enof, while reading her comments. I asked myself how silly she sounded, an African fiction writer who has no imagination. I wonder then how she wrote her books.

McLuhan: Being an award-winning author herself, Adichie should not have yielded to the temptation of belittling the Caine Prize. One can be forgiven for thinking that she did so because she wasn't considered for the prize. lt's called sour grapes - an attitude in which someone pretends to despise something because they cannot have it themselves. At the same time, I deplore the vitriolic and uncouth language that I see in Ibrahim's tweets. Both of them have behaved in equally inelegant ways.

tpia@:
Shine12

Chinua achebe studied at UI.

TFA was conceived from start to finish, in nigeria.

I think diasporan literature should have its own genre and not be confused with indigenous literature.

dplomaticVal: To the piglet who quoted me, I'd ve ignored u blitheringly because the means u chose to display ur childish exuberancy lacks decorum to the core. Notwithstanding, IF Adichie ws so Famed in US and Europe as u sheepishly asserted then we shd be asking u why she havnt won a single prize there. Besides,it's crystal clear that she made her literary debut lately,though she've caved a niche for herself bt that dosnt giv her the prerogative and audacity to dictate for Africans on who they shd giv literary prizes and who they shldnt.

queenesthr: I only managed to finish reading Purple Hibiscus because I had already bought it. It was so tedious reading it! I have not read and will not read any other of her works. Her style of narration doesn't really impress me.

shine12:

Go and read my post very well.I'm talking about Chimamanda(She studied at Drexel, transffered to Eastern connecticut then post grad at John Hopkins and later Yale. She completed a fellowship at harvard last year. Yes Achebe studied at UI

slap1: I wanted to say that you don't know Nigerian literature, but I realized that your opinion is your entitlement.
Adichie is good, no doubt, but you don't mention her in the same sentence with the surreal Soyinka or the pre-gifted Achebe. Not yet.
And you forget (or are not aware maybe) of the generation of Buchi Emecheta or Flora Nwapa? Joys of Motherhood and Efuru, I dare say, are much deeper, engaging and richer than Adichie's works, so far.
Purple Hibiscus is good, but that's all. It's nothing exceptional. I rate Kaine Agary's Yellow Yellow above it.
Please, take time to read other great Nigerian writers, not just the hyped or favoured ones.

I no know book:
You guys that are trying to make a mountain out of what Chimamanda said are just crazy and are bereft of understanding. Most of you must have said one way or the other, and for that matter correctly, that the fact that someone was crowned Miss World does not mean that the person is the most beautiful person. That was the same analogy Chimamanda was trying to make as regards the Caine's award. As simple as that. The fact that some people were shortlisted for the award does not mean that they are the best in Africa. There are many unsung writers with good literary work out there, who for lack of exposure, were never nominated.

Besides, most of you neglected the nature of the question by the so called interviewer. The interviewer was deliberately trying to be a jack a**. He or she wanted to rub it into her that she was not amongst those shortlisted, and she reacted the way she did. Most people in her shoes would have reacted in such manner. That question is what the American press will call a 'gotcha question', and was totally uncalled for.

Finally, If I were to be one of the Caine awards umpires, I will immediately drop the name of Abubakar from the shortlist, for being so unprofessional in his reply to Chimamanda's interview. Why should he reply in such in a manner befitting a thug or hooligan? Perhaps, he's one. He does not deserve to be on that list and should be esponged.

tpia@:

My point was "exposure" does not automatically confer creativity and expertise, it depends on your subject matter, how comfortable you are with the material, your own innate storytelling skills as well as a host of other factors.

Thats why i consider diasporan literature a different pot of fish than continental african writing.

Also, you do realize that Nigeria is the most populous country, and we have a crazy, chauvinistic nationalism. So when you say anything bad about Nigeria, we attack you, but when we all go back to Nigeria, we attack each other. That’s how it works. We’re very happy that there are four. Actually, we think all the people on the short list should be Nigerians, because we are born with the natural arrogance of the Nigerians. Of course, what’s wonderful is that there’s nothing to be arrogant about. Nigerians feel very superior to Ghana, for example, but then you go to Accra, and Accra actually works [laughs].