Chimamanda Adichie Ngozi visits Nairobi

Chimamanda delivers a lecture at the
University of Nairobi

On 29 November 2013 all roads led to the University of Nairobi where Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was giving a lecture as part of the launch of her latest novel, Americanah. Chimamanda's novels have clearly captured the hearts of Kenyan readers, judging by the rock star reception she received. The lecture venue was packed when I arrived. My friend and I counted ourselves lucky to be able to sit on the floor as we looked at the people standing against the walls and outside the hall. The university's faculty jostled to welcome the late Chinua Achebe's literary protege. The queue for autographs at the end of the lecture was impressive. Students elbowed each other to take selfies with Chimamanda. The huge gathering at Marshall's warehouse in Nairobi's city centre later that evening for the official book launch easily rivaled the crowd at the annual Ten Cities concert that is held at the same venue. All the copies of Americanah on sale that evening sold out. Chimamanda fielded endless questions not just about Americanah, but also about her earlier works, Purple Hibiscus and Half of A Yellow Sun from enthusiasts, many of whom prefaced their questions and remarks with "I love your books!" There were questions about the plots of the novels, the characters, the subject matter of each novel, the movie adaptation of Half of A Yellow Sun. One student warmed everyone's heart when she told Chimananda that she had spent the very last of her money on one of her novels. Such enthusiasm signals to me that it is truly a new day for African fiction in Kenya. 

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Yvonne Owuor at their book
launch, hosted by Binyavanga Wainaina

Chimamanda's lecture was humorous and engaging. She said the university lecture hall reminded her very much of a hall at the Nsukka campus of the University of Nigeria, where she grew up, the daughter of two university professors. She traced her writing career, explained how she met Binyavanga Wainaina, founding editor of literary magazine Kwani?, on a writer's site and how they went on to become each other's literary mentors. She responded to questions graciously, even when one person questioned her motives for writing about the past instead of engaging with more pressing issues in the present (referring to the Biafra war featured in Half of A Yellow Sun). Visibly upset, she explained that she wrote about the Biafra war because the scars from that war are still visible in Nigeria. She said members of her own family were killed in the war and that her family continues to be affected by those deaths and the manner in which they came about. "What happened to Kainene?" someone called out, referring to a character in Half of a Yellow Sun. "I don't know," she responded, to the frustration of the audience. She explained that families in Nigeria tell stories of kin who travelled during the war to carry out trade or for some other reason and were never seen or heard from again and Kainene's disappearance was a portrayal of that. One brave person asked the question that everyone who has read Americanah wonders: is the story of Ifemelu autobiographical? "No," she responded simply, smiling enigmatically at her notes on the podium. She did offer, however in her remarks on Americanah that she wanted to break free of the portrayal of the African woman as asexual beings. In Ifemelu, Chimamanda set out to create a character who, among other things, owned her sexuality and expected to be satisfied sexually. 

I appreciated that Chimamanda addressed the theme of hair, so important in the plot of Americanah and so a propos given the black natural hair trend sweeping through Nairobi and the world, really. Every colour, size, texture and colour of afro was on display at the evening launch. Chimamanda spoke about her natural hair journey, about chemically straightening her hair for many years before deciding that she had enough and resolving to wear her hair "the way it grows from my scalp". She said one of the things she liked about Nairobi is that natural hair is as much an acceptable choice as relaxed hair, which, she said was definitely not the case in  Nigeria. I was charmed by Chimamanda's easy, fluent and personable manner, by her passion and her clever insights.  

I would be remiss if I failed to mention that Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor's debut novel, Dust was also launched on 29 November 2013 alongside Americanah. Ms Owuor, winner of the Caine Prize for her short story Weight of Whispers, deserves and will get a separate post on this blog, so stay tuned.