Chimamanda Adichie is a brilliant woman. Nigeria needs more women like her.

davidif: Goodness!!!! what's with the personal attacks on Chimamanda Adichie? This writer just needs to chill.
Before i watched her speech at TED on feminisim, i heard so much about it. Most of it bad. After watching the entire thing, i thought it was one of the best speeches i had heard in a while. It was simple and yet profound.

I agree. I watched it and rewatched it because it was really good. Even Beyonce had to use it in her album.

red101:
I agree. I watched it and rewatched it because it was really good. Even Beyonce had to use it in her album.

Abi o!

Following. ....

All these feminist should stop deceiving themselves, better still they should all turn lesbians

Good morning nairalanders..

Can't still fathom out what the so called feminists really want. How possible is one to eat her cake and have it at the same time?

Kudos to the OP for taking time to put up a very concise and articulate write up. I have resided in Finland for three years and i can confirm every bit of what the OP has stated about the effect of the so called feminism in the society. I pity the new crop of Nigerian wanna be feminist. Having been able to experience life on both divide ( i.e Nigeria and Finland), i would choose the Nigerian family system over the latter as it barely exist over here.

I really would prefer not to get involved in all this feminism/submission debates, but i read the article and I feel the personal attacks on Adichie were not necessary.

While she made some points that could be valid why did she have to tie most of them to vacuums in Adichie's life? The way she kept on and on about Adichie not having 'class' just kinda spoiled it for me (her points could have still been made without the snide remarks) as we are entitled to our opinion.Made it seem like there was some kind of beef she has against the person of Adichie.

That said I also do not believe feminism is the solution to the issues we have in Africa.

damiso: I really would prefer not to get involved in all this feminism/submission debates, but i read the article and I feel the personal attacks on Adichie were not necessary.

While she made some points that could be valid why did she have to tie most of them to vacuums in Adichie's life? The way she kept on and on about Adichie not having 'class' just kinda spoiled it for me (her points could have still been made without the snide remarks) as we are entitled to our opinion.Made it seem like there was some kind of beef she has against the person of Adichie.

That said I also do not believe feminism is the solution to the issues we have in Africa.

I think the reference to adiche is because she has no clue of what a truly equal society will look like

As she was looking for people to lift her bags

Also she feels adiche just wants to sell books by any means necessary

Olekumaster:
of course. I have mine, and mine is in contrast with hers

And since I don't know the standard we are fighting for/on I think everybody is right .... But according to my understanding, if anything does not preach equality, then it's wrong .... Western this, culture that, we shouldn't have embraced technology when we knew it's not our thing now abi ? We should have sticked to our long trekking and other sorts of underdevelopment since it's our culture.... Hahahahahah no mind me o but I dey feel you guyz

All chimamanda needs is a very nice bleeping. She lacks probly cos shes ugly.

she's a beautiful woman

cococandy: First the wirter says the problem of female suppression doesn't exist in Nigeria.
That almost renders the whole write up invalid.
I'm sorry it's difficult to take some who says that seriously.

Please name one right that men have in Nigeria that women don't have.

A country where we have to count the high profile women off the fingers of both hands and feet still has a long way to go in women's emancipation.

Or perhaps the majority of women aren't putting in enough effort to be high profile

He wanted her to be specific about the part of Nigeria still in the dark?
I guess we should title the next topic 'emancipation of women in the North' or
'Emancipation of women in urhobo land'
Aren't we all Nigerians?

He responded to women in Igbo land specifically because she focused on women in Igbo land mostly.

Second,one would have expected him/her to put their points accross without throwing insults and jabs at the person of chimamanda.
I don't know what this write up is all about,but it is glaring that at the heart of it is a deep dislike for adichie. And hate is one thing I don't do.if I quote all the sentences where she/he said nasty things about the writer, it'll be very obvious this topic is about chimamanda and nothing else.
And frankly I've a life so colorful I don't sit and discuss celebrities.

I agree with you here, the authors dislike for Adichie's person showed through and tainted his argument quite a bit.

I think the author of this post should try get such a life too.

Let's ignore both the author of this post and Chimamanda and focus on the real issue. Are women suppressed in Nigeria? If so how?

Friedfred: All chimamanda needs is a very nice bleeping. She lacks probly cos shes ugly.

This is an example of a stupid comment.

pickabeau1:


I think the reference to adiche is because she has no clue of what a truly equal society will look like

As she was looking for people to lift her bags

Also she feels adiche just wants to sell books by any means necessary

I think that Adichie comment was taken out of context a bit . Obviously I find feminists who believe in Chivalry hypocritical but I want to give her the benefit of the doubt that she felt no one (men and women) alike offered to help.

Maybe the writer assumed she felt men would swoon in to help but I think Adichie's point was more about an unfriendly environment.People say London is an unfriendly place too (in a largely equal society as well) but people (men and women) would offer to help you if they see you struggling.


I remember my pram carrying days in stations without step free access in cental London esp (everyone is in a hurry in central London )Someone would ALWAYS volunteer to help as they felt it might be a struggle up a long flight of stairs.This seems more to do with milk of human kindness as oppossed to chivalry.

Una no dey tire?

I can never read an Adishei novel again. It's all filled with her feminist views and enlightenment on the Ibo culture. Both of which I am quite uninterested in.

MrAnony1:
This is an example of a stupid comment.

carry am for head. Ki ur sef.

Yes.. some may so for London... but for those used to European way and style.. I think it is highly friendly with all the i stands, maps, booths etc

As time goes on, we will know more of this woman who obviously loves controversy

Did u see the list of characteristics of the finnish society.. what do you think

damiso:

I think that Adichie comment was taken out of context a bit . Obviously I find feminists who believe in Chivalry hypocritical but I want to give her the benefit of the doubt that she felt no one (men and women) alike offered to help.

Maybe the writer assumed she felt men would swoon in to help but I think Adichie's point was more about an unfriendly environment.People say London is an unfriendly place too (in a largely equal society as well) but people (men and women) would offer to help you if they see you struggling.


I remember my pram carrying days in stations without step free access in cental London esp (everyone is in a hurry in central London )Someone would ALWAYS volunteer to help as they felt it might be a struggle up a long flight of stairs.This seems more to do with milk of human kindness as oppossed to chivalry.

Adichie's brand of feminism is exactly what feminism shouldn't be about. Feminism calls for a level playing ground for both genders and not the unwarranted 'upliftment' of females above the male folk. Females are entitled to everything a man is entitled to in nigeria. The apparent disparity in the distribution of genders socially, politically, academically etc that seems to favour males is a function of the innate complexes of the female gender. A female that intends to succeed must beat down these complexes not the male folk as Adichie supposes. Adichie is very eurocentric, she writes not for Africa, but for Europe. She thinks she is a tour guide laden with the responsibility to explain African "(un)civilisation" to Westerners. She appeals to the West to garner international recognition. She tells them everything is wrong with the way we raise our girls because she knows it will please Western civilisation to hear that. But her views are jaundiced and misleading to those who see Africa through her eyesight. She endorses African women not to take on their husband's surname while in the same breath tells them to eschew artificial hairdo. This highlights her confusion. She is a selective feminist. Adopting the side of the coin that advances her pseudo-intellectual ideology and avoiding the other. But there are always two sides to a coin. She wants to westernise Africans, but she is undecided. She is caught in-between...

pickabeau1: Yes.. some may so for London... but for those used to European way and style.. I think it is highly friendly with all the i stands, maps, booths etc
As time goes on, we will know more of this woman who obviously loves controversy
Did u see the list of characteristics of the finnish society.. what do you think

I saw them and I know alot of people who have lived there say its a cold (not weather) place.I have never been so can't really say much about it as some others studies say Scandinavian countries are the best places to live in the world.


I guess there are pros and cons to everything with all societies best seeking what model will make their society an habitable place for all its citizens.

The feminist movement in the west is now redudant in my opinion as all the causes they are fighting now are just odd.

As for Nigeria what the feminist movement fought as a group or cause (like the civil rights movement) have more or less been achieved e.g. I keep saying it that I grew up in Lagos and grew up surrounded by achieving women. My mum inherited from her father, she made decisions as the first child of the family and her brothers never told her to go and sit down as a woman. I had headgirl and headboy in my secondary school and it was never implied that the headboy wss superior to the headgirl.No exagerration here most of the girls I finished with got even better jobs than the guys.

So I don't think the issue is generally one that can be fought by touting 'I am a feminist' as the issues we have are multifaceted which needs to be dealt with by reorientation and education.

Britain is a largely equal society as I said and still women make up less than 10% of the CEO's of FTSE 100 companies.Its a level playing field as top graduates from Top Universities are often 50% of each gender.What happens at middle management is biology. Does not mean the men are better but women are the ones who give birth and unlike in Nigeria where stay at home mums are demonised , alot of middle class women do take career breaks (also they can afford it sha ) during their child bearing/rearing years (by choice not cos they were coerced or bullied into by their husbands I must add) and as such that kinda has an impact by the time they get back into the workforce.New legislation is helping to balance it out a bit as parental leave can now be split by both partners.

So in otherwords I don't think feminism or lack of equal opportunity is the reason why we don't have an equal no of both genders at the top (again this is not only in Nigeria) its just trying to find a balance between motherhood and professional life.Sometimes I see why highly ambitious career women decide not to have kids till later(if they even do at all).

All I know is that there should be no mid-way in this feminism shit,if you are a feminist pay for your half of the dinner(don't call me stingy),maybe you can also propose to your man$pay his "groomprice",and a whole lot of things.naija feminists are pathetic,selfish,unreasonable @ their best.

biafransoul: Can't still fathom out what the so called feminists really want. How possible is one to eat her cake and have it at the same time?

it sucks more when they say"don't you know I A̶̲̥̅♏ a lady?"

chukwuma101: Adichie's brand of feminism is exactly what feminism shouldn't be about. Feminism calls for a level playing ground for both genders and not the unwarranted 'upliftment' of females above the male folk. Females are entitled to everything a man is entitled to in nigeria. The apparent disparity in the distribution of genders socially, politically, academically etc that seems to favour males is a function of the innate complexes of the female gender. A female that intends to succeed must beat down these complexes not the male folk as Adichie supposes.

I didn't think adichie was trying to lift the female over the male, according to what I heard from her, I actually think she was trying to fight for equality for women, i don't even know how to explain it but she was trying to give us this orientation of ' a boy's child is not better than a girl child' not in that precise words but in meaning .... But since we all have different imagination, I guess everyone here is talking about how they perceive her world, that's why opinions are divided ... This same woman has won many awards and u guyz claim she doesn't know what she is saying

In April 2014 she was named as one of 39 writers aged under 40[13] in the Hay Festival and Rainbow Book Club project celebrating Port Harcourt UNESCO World Book Capital 2014.[14]

Adichie says on feminism and writing, "I think of myself as a storyteller, but I would not mind at all if someone were to think of me as a feminist writer... I'm very feminist in the way I look at the world, and that worldview must somehow be part of my work."

The silly thing about feminists and their silly ideology is that they are fighting a one-sided war against men which men are not even aware of. A feminist to me is a woman who is weak, bitter and HATES HERSELF FOR BEING A WOMAN.

Davidbanky:


I didn't think adichie was trying to lift the female over the male, according to what I heard from her, I actually think she was trying to fight for equality for women, i don't even know how to explain it but she was trying to give us this orientation of ' a boy's child is not better than a girl child' not in that precise words but in meaning .... But since we all have different imagination, I guess everyone here is talking about how they perceive her world, that's why opinions are divided ... This same woman has won many awards and u guyz claim she doesn't know what she is saying

In April 2014 she was named as one of 39 writers aged under 40[13] in the Hay Festival and Rainbow Book Club project celebrating Port Harcourt UNESCO World Book Capital 2014.[14]

Adichie says on feminism and writing, "I think of myself as a storyteller, but I would not mind at all if someone were to think of me as a feminist writer... I'm very feminist in the way I look at the world, and that worldview must somehow be part of my work."

"who is the audience of the African writer?" The west or Africans? Who does Adichie write for?

Superlative post!

And this is the sense of balance and realism i will like to see in this debate

Just last week.. i was discussing the 6 months maternal leave and i said endorse it but the issue is economic and not tied to gender

How many companies can afford topay an additional 3 months

Some dont even pay..

Nice points

damiso:

I saw them and I know alot of people who have lived there say its a cold (not weather) place.I have never been so can't really say much about it as some others studies say Scandinavian countries are the best places to live in the world.


I guess there are pros and cons to everything with all societies best seeking what model will make their society an habitable place for all its citizens.

The feminist movement in the west is now redudant in my opinion as all the causes they are fighting now are just odd.

As for Nigeria what the feminist movement fought as a group or cause (like the civil rights movement) have more or less been achieved e.g. I keep saying it that I grew up in Lagos and grew up surrounded by achieving women. My mum inherited from her father, she made decisions as the first child of the family and her brothers never told her to go and sit down as a woman. I had headgirl and headboy in my secondary school and it was never implied that the headboy wss superior to the headgirl.No exagerration here most of the girls I finished with got even better jobs than the guys.

So I don't think the issue is generally one that can be fought by touting 'I am a feminist' as the issues we have are multifaceted which needs to be dealt with by reorientation and education.

Britain is a largely equal society as I said and still women make up less than 10% of the CEO's of FTSE 100 companies.Its a level playing field as top graduates from Top Universities are often 50% of each gender.What happens at middle management is biology. Does not mean the men are better but women are the ones who give birth and unlike in Nigeria where stay at home mums are demonised , alot of middle class women do take career breaks (also they can afford it sha ) during their child bearing/rearing years (by choice not cos they were coerced or bullied into by their husbands I must add) and as such that kinda has an impact by the time they get back into the workforce.New legislation is helping to balance it out a bit as parental leave can now be split by both partners.

So in otherwords I don't think feminism or lack of equal opportunity is the reason why we don't have an equal no of both genders at the top (again this is not only in Nigeria) its just trying to find a balance between motherhood and professional life.Sometimes I see why highly ambitious career women decide not to have kids till later(if they even do at all).

chukwuma101: Adichie's brand of feminism is exactly what feminism shouldn't be about. Feminism calls for a level playing ground for both genders and not the unwarranted 'upliftment' of females above the male folk. Females are entitled to everything a man is entitled to in nigeria. The apparent disparity in the distribution of genders socially, politically, academically etc that seems to favour males is a function of the innate complexes of the female gender. A female that intends to succeed must beat down these complexes not the male folk as Adichie supposes. Adichie is very eurocentric, she writes not for Africa, but for Europe. She thinks she is a tour guide laden with the responsibility to explain African "(un)civilisation" to Westerners. She appeals to the West to garner international recognition. She tells them everything is wrong with the way we raise our girls because she knows it will please Western civilisation to hear that. But her views are jaundiced and misleading to those who see Africa through her eyesight. She endorses African women not to take on their husband's surname while in the same breath tells them to eschew artificial hairdo. This highlights her confusion. She is a selective feminist. Adopting the side of the coin that advances her pseudo-intellectual ideology and avoiding the other. But there are always two sides to a coin. She wants to westernise Africans, but she is undecided. She is caught in-between...

Damn... youre good
Unfortunately some of our ladies are just sheep who cant see she is out to make a buck and maybe get a pulitzer

I've always advised us to speak on what we truly know, and not on things we have read or what we havn been told. There is always the danger of propagating lies by so doing. I can speak on the culture of my people. By the standards of my culture and the environment in which I grew up, women enjoy equal rights with men. The image we give of oppressed women is fake. It is the woman more than the man that is responsible for her predicament.

unmask: the op just took out time to attack adichie.....it is quite obvious from the write up that the op is one that has not observed the Nigerian situation at length......
.
Yes we have the likes of prominent women mentioned in the post, but at what price did they get to their positions?
.
What is being enjoyed today as a perceived acceptance of women is more an influence of pop culture and not a concerted effort by the Nigerian society to liberate women.......you just need to take a sampling of views of what marriage is to get a clear picture of how far behind Nigeria is.
.
Finally the op killed the credibility in his/her story by comparing adichie with another writer.......this goes to show the op had a preconceived idea about the person of adichie and had formed a not too palatable opinion about her.......and in my opinion the op is biased to anything that attacks the Nigerian society

The writer was not primarily stating her opinions about all of Nigeria. She was more interested in refuting Adichie's claims about the igbo culture. She even admitted in the post that northern girls are disadvantaged.

story story.....
am a feminist and nothing can change DAT not even your epistle