Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Keynote Speech at the Nordic Africa Institute

I am happy to present you one of the latest speeches of my great mentor and literary model, Chimamanda Adiche. Just in her normal way of passing information, she has just done it, in this her speech presented in Nordic African Institute. I would not want to bore you with many words since any time you take in reading them will be a delay. Enjoy the company of this great Nigerian literary guru, Chimamanda.

Video: “Why Are We Surprised?” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Keynote Speech at the Nordic Africa Institute by Luso on Oct 24th, 2012

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the acclaimed Nigerian author of Purple Hibiscus, The Thing Around Your Neck and the Orange Prize-winning Half of a Yellow Sun, recently gave the keynote speech at the Nordic Africa Institute, in Uppsala, Sweden, as part of the institute’s 50th anniversary celebrations. Entitled “Why Are We Surprised? Thoughts on Nigeria’s Past, Present and Future”, her speech included a personal account of her homeland, and how she loves a place that also frustrates her more than any other.

Adichie recounts that she was born seven years after the Biafran war ended, and that her parents had been greatly affected by the war, in which some of their family members had died. Her father never recovered his father’s body, only a handful of dust he gathered at the site of what must have been a mass grave. In the speech she noted that it was in Uppsala that Nigerian and Biafran delegates met to discuss the aftermath of a war in which millions had died, mostly from starvation – a meeting that must have carried the fates and hopes of the remaining millions of people.

Adichie’s speech was intended to point out that post-colonial experiences in Africa often have a basis in the colonial experience itself. She says her father’s generation was “unprepared” for what came next. She asks, “Why are we surprised that countries emerging from colonialism did not develop perfect democracies?”

Adichie’s speech, Part 1:

• Click to play video on Uppsala University’s website

• Watch Part 2, the Q &A session, on Uppsala University’s website 

• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s fourth book, Americanah, is due to be released by Knopf in May, 2013.

Book details

• Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9780007189885
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• Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9780007200283
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• The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  EAN: 9780007306213
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Source: Books Live