At a time when it has become a trend for celebrities to flaunt their
pregnancies online, award-winning writer, Chimamanda Ngozi-Adichie, has
said that pregnancy is a sacred state that a woman ought to be discreet
about.
racism in America and the UK, among other matters, Chimamanda said, “I
wanted my pregnancy to be something I shared with the people I love,
with the people who know me. There is a kind of pregnancy as a trendy
thing that I find very uncomfortable with and I deeply dislike
expressions like ‘baby bump’.
“I find it very irritating. It was a very deeply introspective time,
thinking about (how) my life is going to change forever and the
enormousness of bringing a baby into the world. It was a sacred time for
me and I wanted to share it with the people I love.”
Such approach to family matters also affects the way she has been
keeping her child who, she, for instance, would want to lead an ordinary
but meaningful life.
“I don’t want her to think it is normal to have her picture in
newspapers, because it is not. Just because your mother happens to write
and sometimes have her pictures in the newspapers, doesn’t mean you get
to,” Chimamanda adds.
Although Chimamanda has lived in the US where she has phenomenally
flourished as a writer, she is one new-generation Nigerian novelist who
has not lost a sense of home.
From one book to the other, she edifies the Igbo spirit and seeks to get
answers to socio-political questions that Nigeria still battle with.
Based on the stories she passionately tells in her works, such as Half
of a Yellow Sun and Amerikana, she seems to have redefined phenomena
such as westernisation, colonisation and globalisation – as she has
proved that you can be at home even when you live away from home.
