Novelist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is opening up about why she refused US citizenship for a very long time. The speaker and feminist who divides her t
Novelist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is opening up about why she refused US citizenship for a very long time. The speaker and feminist who divides her time between Nigeria and the United States, while traveling the globe, said,
“For a long time, I didn’t want to become a US citizen because I believed that part of the experience of being Nigerian is experiencing the humiliations of traveling on a Nigerian passport,” she added.
“But I changed my mind about US citizenship after my father was kidnapped in 2015 and it was the American embassy in Lagos and not the Nigerian government who helped my family. They even sent a therapist to my father after he was released. I now plan to become an American citizen at some point, but I guess I’m still delaying it.”
On her convictions about colonialism, politics, pop culture and if her global brand stands in as an ambassador for Nigeria, the 42 year old said she doesn’t think herself an ambassador of Nigeria, adding that she detests certain things about Nigeria.
“No. I am an ambassador for myself. I don’t represent Nigeria; there are things about Nigeria I don’t like. But, at the same time, I am very very proud of my Nigerian identity. I was born and raised in Nigeria, which I didn’t leave until I was 19. I’m proud to be Nigerian, I’m proud to be African, I’m proud to be Igbo. I won’t who I am today if I wasn’t all of those things.”
Chimamanda has earned huge recognition for her works, which have been translated into several languages, receiving the United Nations Foundation’s Global Leadership Award in 2019.
