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| Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
By Yahaya Balogun
When a Muse is within my reach or vicinity, my literary antenna captures the precinct or perceives the Muse. When you have an insatiable quest for knowledge acquisition, the muse in talented and good people around infatuates your literary urge. I am an ardent adherent of the muse any day!
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie makes us proud! She is one of our cultural icons and literary moguls in Africa! Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Yale University during the university’s 2019 commencement ceremony.
She got this deserving award one day after delivering the Class Day address. 2019 marked the first time in Yale’s history that the Class Day speaker would receive an honorary degree in the same year. Chimamanda is one of the muses and Nigerian cultural ambassadors to the world. Chimamanda represents one of the best in us in Nigeria and Africa.
When a Muse is within my reach or vicinity, my literary antenna captures the precinct or perceives the Muse. When you have an insatiable quest for knowledge acquisition, the muse in talented and good people around infatuates your literary urge. I am an ardent adherent of the muse any day!
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie makes us proud! She is one of our cultural icons and literary moguls in Africa! Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Yale University during the university’s 2019 commencement ceremony.
She got this deserving award one day after delivering the Class Day address. 2019 marked the first time in Yale’s history that the Class Day speaker would receive an honorary degree in the same year. Chimamanda is one of the muses and Nigerian cultural ambassadors to the world. Chimamanda represents one of the best in us in Nigeria and Africa.
On November 16, 2019, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie received the Bookcity Milano prize during the Bookcity Literary Festival in Milan, Italy. She also appeared in an onstage conversation. Adichie's beautiful story in the United States and around the globe is being told beautifully in different forms by the world. And these effervescent forms transcend a single story being told by some Nigerians. But the deafening silence on her achievements by Nigerians is also very obvious.
Nauseatingly, why do we not celebrate the good ones among us? Why do the brown-envelope Newspapers in Nigeria, and social media hogwash us with naughty and noxious things? Why don't people rejoice with our collective achievements domestically and on the world stage? These are damning questions begging for honest answers! Chimamanda Adichie is not the Gucci-COZA, ELISHA ABBO, SYNAGOGUE, HERDMEN or RUGA.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of the representations of Nigeria's intellectual glory. Her achievements are cocooned in a meritocracy. Unfortunately, Adichie comes from the clime where mediocrity holds sway. Mediocrity always takes precedent over meritorious service in the homeland: the reason why Adichie wouldn't make any headlines in our brown-enveloped and hate-monger Newspapers in Nigeria. Nigerian passion for mediocrity is damning and alarming!
Meanwhile, Chimamanda Adichie is flourishing exceptionally in America's exceptionalism, abundant opportunities, and prosperity! The most glowing part of her story is her referential of Nigeria in all her expositions. She is a true patriot and amazon daughter of the soil of Nigeria. Adichie has a compendium knowledge and unique style in preserving Professor Chinua Achebe's literary encyclopedia. Some of our people stereotype Adichie for her beliefs in feminism and controversial academic presentations. Some Nigerian professors frown at her feminist postures, and uniquely essentials, but their inability to understand her multicultural intelligence and literary-know-how is bewildering and damning.
Interestingly, Chimamanda Ngozi's books have been translated into more than 30 different international languages. Her book Americanah made it to the list of the top best Barack Obama's 2018. Adichie is engagingly following the path of our cultural and literary giant---Prof. Chinua Achebe whose book "Things Fall Apart" has been translated to more than 50 international languages.
Chimamanda Adichie beautifies one of the human capital endowments we have known in Nigeria. It is unfathomable to see how unwilling Nigeria exports her best human resources (brains) to a willing world that utilizes them for its benefits. Nigeria is a reservoir of raw and untapped knowledge. The processed brains and other knowledgeable people currently residing in Nigeria are being abused and bastardized daily by the hostile environment. Jealousy, selfish motives and deliberate ignorance signal the hard times ahead of the country.
Consequently, Time actually heals! I hope time heals our people's self-hate, self-destruct and deliberate ignorance. There should be no burden in being critical about something or someone. But when you morph low to hate someone who is making progress because of his or her opinions on germane issues, you will need to make a critical visit to a psychologist for moral therapy.
While Chimamada's spiral self-made and talent are soaring high among the global academia, and in the international arena, her resenters are soaring deep in low-life of jealousy and confusion. Nigeria is a nation with abundant human capital. We are the number one exporter of human resources in the global world. Anytime I see Nigerians achieving a great feat in a competitive global community, my adrenaline-rush for our greatness always go beyond imagination and satisfaction.
Congratulations to Amazon Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. She is one of our cultural icons and ambassador extraordinaire! Let's celebrate her brilliance, candor, confidence, grace, and resourcefulness. We are very pleased with Adichie, and also very proud of her great literary talent and achievements.
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