₦airaland Forum

Before advancing, I should pose this question: Is this Adichie that the people get on the media the real one, or is it the professional one? I should also like to add that my presentation is targeted purely at the professional Adichie—the one that thinks herself a goddess and mocks novelist Pa Chinua Achebe’s philosophy while so tactlessly looking down on Nigerians as lesser beings—for I’ve no way of knowing who she is in her private existence.

To make sense of this oh-so-messy phenomenon—I reckon I need to go a little deeper. Certainly not the deepest I could delve, just deep enough for the occasion. I mentioned the lack of a full integration into her American society as a contributing factor in Adichie’s lack of class, and I think so for the simple truth that nothing teaches the immigrant about class better than a full integration. By ‘class’ I mean ‘elegance, polish, refinement, sophistication’. And of course with ‘class’ comes ‘tact’. It’s no secret that Nigerians can spend years and even decades in the UK and the US and still end up never mixing with white people and the mix of cultures present in those societies. The superficial reason is the presence of large immigrant communities in those two nations—and among which the newcomers could comfortably hide and exist, avoiding the hassle of a full integration and cherry picking on the question of how they should interact with their new society. In addition to this unfortunate reality, unlike here in Scandinavia, the black and white divide in the US is major! And that’s to say that by remaining culturally and mentally on the peripheries of the American society, Adichie—as not I but her work substantiates—is torn unevenly between the Nigerian and American worlds. This dilemma is a major source of influence as far as her opinions go.

Does Adichie really need to tell Nigerians and the world that ‘We should all be feminists’? Does she really have to state so aggressively and needlessly in the public space that ‘Nobody can force her to change her last name’? Is it necessary to tell the world of her relationship with cooking, and is she supposed to be so unenviably troubled by what other persons would make of her relationship with the kitchen? These deeds all point to the existence of a vacuum—a vacuum that only class and good advisers could rightly fill.

Obviously, Adichie has been making more enemies than friends in recent years, and more people than she can imagine are asking if she’s OK. I’ve just mentioned one vacuum, but more are likely to be revealed as I progress. Ergo, let’s call this vacuum number one.

A brief return to the subject of a full integration. I present another Nigerian author of Adichie’s Generation X, one who now enjoys the full and priceless benefits of total integration: his name is Teju Cole, and he left Nigeria for the US at the age of 17. In my opinion he’s a refined human being, and the best writer Nigeria has produced since Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka, and his followers on social media, unlike Adichie’s, are mainly intellectuals and readers capable of higher thought and who follow Mr Cole because he offers that mental stimulation. To put it rather bluntly: where Mr Cole offers necessary mental stimulation, Adichie can only offer gossip.

This isn’t the same as saying that I do not respect Adichie’s enthusiasm. I think she has come a long way, and while I can’t say I admire her work, I certainly respect her professional energy.

***

But why, despite the Nigerian generosity toward her, does she continue down this unnecessarily controversial path with regard to her relationship with Nigerians and their beliefs? A person commenting under one of the articles about Adichie’s scorching opinions stated: ‘She comes across in all her interviews as if in a state of permanent intellectual rage.’

Nigerians have delivered more bitter counter-thoughts about Adichie’s professional ways than they have about any other foreign-based Nigerian artist. Only home-based movie actresses and actors with questionable characters have been condemned similarly.

Consider Adichie’s supposed penchant for invention. Tackling unworthiness is not quite the same as dealing with value. For unworthiness requires a stoop and value doesn’t. But unworthiness achieves the status of a discussion topic, and the question must arise: To stoop or not? Action or passivity? Sad has been the silence of those who today may call themselves Igbo or Nigerian intellectuals—all of whom have hitherto chosen to allow Adichie get away with her invented facts, fallacies, and absurd misrepresentations.

The Nigerian Internet space or social media being what it is, the risk of the critic being labelled ‘jealous’ or even ‘sexist’ can’t simply be ruled out. Quite a pathetic reality laughable in its backwardness—and self-destructive in its way of ensuring the absence of intellectual discourse while promoting sheer mediocrity.

Adichie is a writer of novels, with false cultural premises likely to influence surely not sensible adults but teenage women at the very least. But this is a world of men and women, when all’s said and done, and those teenage women will one day grow up to deal with both men and life. They will approach both with either good or bad heads, and then winning, or losing. And that, quite simply, is the chief danger of allowing Adichie to own this narrative with her false notions.

She self-identifies as a feminist whose idea of feminism concocts imaginary Igbo-society problems. She would like to smash men (her invented oppressors), and emancipate women (her co-victims). It’s a whimsical charade. And I refer once again—if in new words—to that major claim of hers, that the Nigerian society only teaches girls how to shrink themselves, limit their goals and learn not to threaten the male societal dominance.

Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Dora Akunyili, Oby Ezekwesili, Chinwe Obaji, Kema Chikwe, Stella Oduah, Arunmah Oteh—these are all accomplished women of Igbo descent, with professional biographies most women of other continents would envy. It bears noting that women of this echelon can equally be found among other ethnicities of Nigeria. Even within the younger generation there are household names like Tiwa Savage, Genevieve Nnaji, Linda Ikeji and many others—influential by virtue of the free expression of their talents and opinions. Nigerian women have always chased their dreams while enjoying their rightful societal place even before the trees became squirrels’ land, and surely in advance of Adichie learning how to read and write.

Given that this is the same Nigerian society that Adichie attempts, desperately, to lecture on the emancipation of women, one could state explicitly that: the need doesn’t exist because the problem doesn’t. Current divorce records in Nigeria prove that most of them were filed not by men but women. And if that alone doesn’t nullify Adichie’s claim of Nigeria being a land of emasculated women, then let this be food for thought: emasculated women have never been known in any society to initiate divorce; they instead put up with their partner’s hubris, conform to the whims and caprices of their husband, and in essence accept their subjugated lives.

Adichie continues to miss the fact—or so it seems—that if anything, in today’s Nigeria women are increasingly empowered at the expense of the male population. It’s more likely that women, not men, will be hired for a job, and that’s even if they are neck and neck with regard to skills and qualifications. The bank cashiers, managers at major retailers, office desks at insurance companies, at the Nigerian civil service—one easily detects a higher female ratio, often of six women to one man. Sure as shooting, this isn’t to clamour for an equal male-female representation but merely to point out how Adichie’s claims are sorry figments of her own imagination and therefore deserving of no serious attention.

There has been much backlash towards Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s ‘feminist’ views, as well as towards her tasteless style of performance. Chimamanda Adichie Photo Credit: Huffington Post I have, until now, wanted to stay out of the debate, mainly because of her arguments being pathetic as opposed to well-thought-out. But as the conversation has grown on social media—it seems to linger eternally, for Adichie keeps fuelling it with her well-timed, divisive remarks—I realise thoroughly the significance of the debate per se, and the need for me to partake in it. I should mention here that because of certain factors I consider myself well-positioned to examine and to present opinions on the matters in question.

1) The first is that the Igbo culture of south-eastern Nigeria, which Adichie constantly attempts to exploit to support her positions, is equally mine.

2) I left Nigeria to study and settle overseas at about the same age as Adichie. I left Nigeria for Finland at the age of 20, in 2005, and she left Nigeria for the US at the age of 19, eight years before. She’s currently 36. I’m 29. Indeed, one might wonder why leaving Nigeria as a young person is pertinent, and I’ll explain as we proceed.

3) I have since been an integrated member of a society, country and region where the goal of feminism was first realised, and where it has thrived the most—in short and in fact: where it originated and has achieved its ultimate goal. I’m talking of Finland and the larger Scandinavia. (I should state clearly that I live in Finland, visit Nigeria often, and now write to you from Finland.)

I intend to tackle this issue supporting my points with ‘the age factor’ and ‘the fact that I can claim a better practical knowledge of feminism than Adichie can.’ I’ll make references where necessary, however, to the first factor of ‘the Igbo culture being equally mine’.

Adichie said we should all be feminists, backing that call with a series of shallow points—the most controversial of which was her argument that ‘Nigerians raise girls wrongly and in ways that make them feel guilty for being born girls’.

I heard this and it troubled me. I had to wonder which societies she speaks of: were they the southern Nigerian ones of the Igbo and Yoruba, or the northern ones? For, as most Igbo adults know, women are today better educated in Igboland than the men. And even when it comes to employment after graduation—there isn’t much to be had in the country in the way of career opportunities, irrespective of one’s gender. Folks are being trained for economic areas that do not exist in Nigeria. But even so, the few employment opportunities in Nigeria today favour women—I speak from experience, and can safely argue that I know more employed females than males of my generation, despite their attending the same schools.

And so one wonders which Nigeria Adichie speaks of with regard to girls being suppressed and raised wrongly. Unless she’s referring to the Muslim north, in which case she should know to be specific with her accusations.

The general tendency of Adichie spitting out her half-baked opinions on just about every subject is worrying for reasons much more serious than their mere shallowness. It’s always a shameful thing to see Internet users—who don’t pretend to be intellectuals—submitting in the comment sections of publications counter-opinions that make mincemeat of those presented and promoted by the ‘intellectual’. This has been my experience with Adichie’s proposals, and I now wonder whether she has any friends at all who are smart and kind enough to help her find balance?

Unquestionably, Adichie has been everywhere with her opinions in recent years—ill-conceived as they are doomed to be—plus ever-willing to present them in manners that confirm a thorough lack of tact and class.

Yes indeed, it’s OK to have strong opinions, but nothing confirms Adichie’s lack of a full integration into her American society—despite having spent many years there—than her consistently unashamed display of words betraying a lack of class.

GentleMimi: As soon as u've uploaded yours,i'll consider.

softsparkyy: These are the things I miss about him.

GentleMimi: i hate it when NL males check the profiles of every female member

softsparkyy: okay naaaa


I hate it when I ask for sharwama and he gets me fish.

I hate it when I am still awake and he is sleeping peacefully.

I hate it when he offers me meat and I declined, He will finish it without petting or asking me a second time.

I hate it when he sleeps without holding me.

I hate it when he holds me while sleeping.

I hate it when he avoids fighting with me even though he know say na trouble I dey look for.

I hate it when I'm crying thinking he will hold me and pet me he will be busy checking out his muscles in the mirror.







Still loading.....shey na complain thread be this.

247community: I pay house rent in including food, only tinz she does is to buy her make-ups and her wears. dat is all

ayobase: why the song?

Nihilist: Getting Chambers in for 16 million is fantastic news...

This is the guy who wasn't quite good enough to displace Nathaniel Clyne as a right back or Fonte/Yoshida in the middle.

This is the guy that has appeared only 21 times for Southampton

Yet he cost more than Vermaelen who had champions league experience and was a Belgium international, more than Koscielny, more than Debuchy who he will not bench, and more than Mertersacker

Good to see that Arsene still doesn't know

alutacontinua: The above is English. He understood my point perfectly.
and my point still stands: the plan laid down tends towards being female, simple!
if you have any question for me, shoot!
you might not get an answer soon though, gotta start my day.

alutacontinua: now, you understand what I was saying
have a good day

next time, don't attack people the way you did. It ain't cool
most especially, when you ain't a genius at what you're tryna argue about

alutacontinua: I didn't say otherwise
that someone ain't fvxkable doesn't mean they ain't loveable
since when did sekx and love become the same thing

alutacontinua: Pray tell me, how does somebody fvck a woman with this kinda face anyways?

14: Mmmhhh, but they love money, not nigerian men

MRbrownJAY: yes that's true, and this may bite him in the aasss in the future, but there was no way he could have let him through, none! that is the only driver standing in the way of Ham's 2nd championship. 3 points taken from the Berg's advantage is A LOT, and what may make the difference between champion and vice champion.

MRbrownJAY: bro, last week Ham finished 3rd, NOT second (Bottas was up there in between them)... so yes, this Merc cars are the fastest out there but it is NOT a done deal, especially not with their reliability issues. if you really think that these cars are the best and can go from pit start to podium finish, like a simple walk in the park, then why did the Berg stayed 19 fukcing laps behind Vergne (with the supposedly fastest cars out there)?! or better yet, why the Berg isnt on the podium?!

last week, these guys were almost equal on point (4 points difference), yet today's race we had a possible 39points advantage for the Berg, if Ham's car continued to fall apart.....and it looked this way when he lost control at the beginning due to breaks. Ham needed to reduce the point deficit, and from the start of the race, it certainly looked bleak.

if the Berg was let through (when Ham was asked to step aside) then the Berg would have easily won this race (he was lapping faster than Ricciardo), BUT he would now have a 27points advantage on Ham.

omar22: He came from 20 to 3rd

MRbrownJAY: bwaaaaaah! this is the same thing that happened on and on this year, isnt it?



you are looking at this race with the wrong perspective.....at the beginning of the race, Ham had NO CHANCE whatsoever of reducing the 14points advantage from the Berg. before the race, the Berg was well positioned to add more points to his advantage on Ham. in the 1st lap, the Ham even drove off with break failure..... and let us not forget the radio message that wanted Ham to let the Berg through, which he ignored. the gods were not on Ham's side this weekend but he fought back and won!

all4naija: Are you a South African? If not, please, shut it!

all4naija: I said I have visited the country before not live there. To be exact, I have been there like thrice or thereabout spending a week as the longest time.

You keep shipping in irrelevant things on what I have explained to you in my previous posts. I am not seeing you as a very intelligent person though. Not for the reason you want to be South Africans a s s-wipe but for the reason you refused to understand what I have been saying.

Africans in their warrior sh*ts. I am not a proponent of primitive legends, most especially, Zulus in their peanuts-and-bosoms-exposing culture in the 21st century, while the developed world is aiming for outer space or finding other planets habitable for humans.

MRbrownJAY: you mean damage limitation for HAMILTON, who started from the pit while his teammate (who was 14 points ahead in the championship) was on pole...... the only true winner here today is Ham.

all4naija: You first. Bring your views in and I am ready to entertain them to the best of my ability.