Away from the heartwarming things renowned writer, Chimamanda Adichie, shared about becoming a mother (read here), the very outspoken feminist shared thoughts which have been drawing controversy online about the eagerness to get married, gender equality and more, during her speech at the Royal Festival Hall in London recently in celebration of the 10th anniversary of her novel, Half of A Yellow Sun.
She said,
“A feminist is who and what I am. It’s not a cloak I put on on certain days and take off on certain days. I just did not get the memo that men and women are not equal. I did not get that memo.
I’m a daughter, I’m a sister, mother now, wife. All of those things, and being a good feminist, are not mutually exclusive at all.
I think for people who have a hostility to the idea of gender equality, they will say things like, ‘You cannot be feminist and have a husband, actually,’ (laughs])‘If you want to be a feminist, be a feminist in your husband’s house,’ (laughs) and it’s nonsense really.
I feel like younger Nigerian women are actually less progressive than even my mother’s generation. It’s not a question of blaming them, I think it’s a product of the society we live in and the messages they’re getting. And so people who are 23 are just obsessed with marriage, as the end-all and be-all. It’s very interesting to me.
I also think there’s a kind of viciousness that underlies that obsession, and a kind of misogyny. I find that there’s actually a strong strain of misogyny in the young generation of Nigerian women. It’s very worrying. It’s the young women who police women, even more than men. It’s part of the same thing. In the end, for me, it’s ‘who does the system benefit?’ and it benefits men. Even if women are participating in it, it benefits men.”
Spot on Chimamanda.
Ride on
I so much like ur speech
Word
Gbam
I didn’t get the memo as well, the last time i checked, we are all equal in God’s sight.