“I learned a lot about systems of oppression and how they can be blind to one another by talking to black men. I was once talking about gender and a man said to me, "Why does it have to be you as a woman? Why not you as a human being?" This type of question is a way of silencing a person's specific experiences. Of course I am a human being, but there are particular things that happen to me in the world because I am a woman. This same man, by the way, would often talk about his experience as a black man. (To which I should probably have responded, "Why not your experiences as a man or as a human being? Why a black man?")” WorldTalkingBlindGenderOppressionWomanQuestionExperiencesHuman BeingSystemsSilencingBlack Men Book:We Should All Be Feminists Source: We Should All Be Feminists
“All over the world, there are so many magazine articles and books telling women what to do, how to be and not to be, in order to attract or please men. There are far fewer guides for men about pleasing women.” MenWorldBookOrderPleaseGuidesMagazinesArticlesFewer Author:Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“For centuries, the world divided human beings into two groups and then proceeded to exclude and oppress one group. It is only fair that the solution to the problem acknowledge that.” WorldHumansTwoProblemHuman BeingsGroupsCenturySolutionsFairsAcknowledgeDivided Book:We Should All Be Feminists Source: We Should All Be Feminists
“All over the world, girls are raised to be make themselves likeable, to twist themselves into shapes that suit other people. Please do not twist yourself into shapes to please. Don't do it. If someone likes that version of you, that version of you that is false and holds back, then they actually just like that twisted shape, and not you. And the world is such a gloriously multifaceted, diverse place that there are people in the world who will like you, the real you, as you are.” PeopleIfsWorldRealGirlLike YouPleaseShapesRaisedLikesVersionsSuitsDiverseTwistsTwistedReal YouLikeable Author:Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“I am a person who believes in asking questions, in not conforming for the sake of conforming. I am deeply dissatisfied - about so many things, about injustice, about the way the world works - and in some ways, my dissatisfaction drives my storytelling.” WorldWayBelievePersonsAskingInjusticeSakeStorytellingConformDissatisfactionAsking QuestionsDissatisfied Author:Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“I live half the year in Nigeria, the other half in the U.S. But home is Nigeria - it always will be. I consider myself a Nigerian who is comfortable in the world. I look at it through Nigerian eyes.” WorldYearsLooksHomeEyeHalfComfortableOther HalfNigeria Author:Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“I think human beings exist in a social world. I write realistic fiction, and so it isn't that surprising that the social realities of their existence would be part of the story.” ThinkingWorldWritingHumansStoriesRealityWould BeSocialHuman BeingsExistenceFictionRealisticSurprisingRealistic Fiction Author:Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“I am drawn, as a reader, to detail-drenched stories about human lives affected as much by the internal as by the external, the kind of fiction that Jane Smiley nicely describes as 'first and foremost about how individuals fit, or don't fit, into their social worlds.'” WorldFirstsHumansKindStoriesIndividualSocialFictionReaderFitDetailsHuman LifeInternalsAffectedJaneSmiley Author:Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“The real tragedy of our postcolonial world is not that the majority of people had no say in whether or not they wanted this new world; rather, it is that the majority have not been given the tools to negotiate this new world.” PeopleWorldRealWantedGivenToolsTragedyMajorityNew WorldYellow Sun Author:Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“This is our world, although the people who drew this map decided to put their own land on top of ours. There is no top or bottom, you see.” PeopleWorldLandDecidedBottomMapsOur World Book:Half of a Yellow Sun Source: Half of a Yellow Sun
“There were people thrice her size on the Trenton platform and she looked admiringly at one of them, a woman in a very short skirt. She thought nothing of slender legs shown off in miniskirts--it was safe and easy, after all, to display legs of which the world approved--but the fat woman's act was about the quiet conviction that one shared only with oneself, a sense of rightness that others failed to see.” PeopleWorldEasyQuietSafeSizeOneselfConvictionLegsFatsDisplayPlatformsSkirtsApprovedSlenderThriceShort SkirtsFat Women Book:Americanah Source: Americanah
“There are many different ways to be poor in the world but increasingly there seems to be one single way to be rich.” WorldWayDifferentSeemsWealthPoorRichDifferent Ways Author:Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“About 52% of the world's population is female. But most of the positions of power and prestige are occupied by men. The late Kenyan Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai put it simply and well when she said 'The higher you go, the fewer women there are.'” MenWorldWellsSaidPositionHigherLateFemalePopulationFewerNobelPrestigePosition Of Power Author:Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“I’m very feminist in the way I look at the world, and that worldview must somehow be part of my work.” WorldWayLooksFeministWorldview Author:Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“I am a bit of a fundamentalist when it comes to black women's hair. Hair is hair - yet also about larger questions: self-acceptance, insecurity and what the world tells you is beautiful. For many black women, the idea of wearing their hair naturally is unbearable.” WorldIdeasSelfBeautifulBitsBlackAcceptanceHairInsecuritySelf AcceptanceBlack WomenUnbearableFundamentalistYou Are Beautiful Author:Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
