11.13.2020

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Discusses “Half of a Yellow Sun”

Novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who is reviewing President Obama’s upcoming memoir for the New York Times, is perhaps best known for her novels “Americanah” and “Half of a Yellow Sun.” The latter book was just crowned the “winner of winners” of the Women’s Prize for Fiction. She joins the program from Lagos, Nigeria to reflect on Obama, her own literary success, and a year of racial reckoning.

Read Transcript EXPAND

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: I just wanted to ask you how you feel about this announcement that “Half of a Yellow Sun” has won the winner of all winners prize?

CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE, NOVELIST: It’s wonderful news. I felt really happy, and particularly because this is actually the prize that first brought a large audience to my work. And it’s been 13 years. And so to be crowned winner of winners, it just makes it doubly meaningful.

AMANPOUR: And tell us a little bit, because it is about Nigeria itself, I mean, obviously the Biafran War, but you sort of brought the story of your country to a massive audience. And we know that there’s been a whole eruption of protests on the streets recently, especially by young people. What is happening there right now? And how do you assess these protests by the young people to sort of have freedom and an uncorrupted system?

ADICHIE: I think what the anti-SARS protests showed is that a generation of Nigerians are no longer willing to accept the status quo and are very eager to use their voices.

About This Episode EXPAND

Christiane speaks with French Minister of the Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire about the anniversary of the Paris terrorist attacks. She also speaks with novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Hari Sreenivasan speaks with Renee DiResta, technical research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory, about the dangers of false narratives on the internet.

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