Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie shared her childhood experiences, relationships, recreational interests, favorite Nigerian artists, and thoughts on the creative scene in Nigeria.
She revealed that her name was not her parents’ name at birth, but she invented it to suit her.
Chimamanda spoke with reality TV host Ebuka Obi-Uchendu about her experiences and her thoughts on the creative scene in Nigeria.
In Chimamanda Adichie words:
“It happened shortly before my first novel was published. I was born Ngozi Grace.
Growing up, I generally felt I wasn’t a Beauty – Elegance was my mother’s name – and Ngozi felt to me normal.
Being catholic, one of the delights of Catholicism is that you get to pick a name when you are affirmed. So I thought, what name will I pick? The minister said it must be a holy person. Individuals were picking crazy names like Bernadette. I was like, no. I had perused a novel and there was a person called Amanda. So I thought, I go by Amanda.
I was Amanda from auxiliary school till the principal year of college where I was concentrating on medication. Then, at that point, I went to the US. It was about a month into my time there; I was an undergrad and there were around five individuals in class with the name Amanda. It wasn’t that it wasn’t so special any longer, it was the manner in which they articulated it. Furthermore, I thought, this is so not me. I began considering how to change it. For some time, I would combine both [names], I would call myself Amanda Ngozi. It was an opportunity for growth for me. I thought, this is rubbish; needing an English name.
Not long before my novel was distributed, I thought, and I recollect precisely where I was the point at which it came to me. I`m not an individual who is given to this sort of Pentecostal talk, yet it seemed like a disclosure.
ah I was in my brother’s house in England, in the tiny guest room, lying on the narrow bed. My novel was going to be published and I did not want to be introduced to the world as Amanda. I wanted an Igbo name but I didn’t want Ngozi. I didn’t feel like Ngozi – Ngozi is a lovely name, but it is too common and it didn’t feel like me. I remember just lying there and it came to me. “Chimamamda”. Obviously, I could have just picked any Igbo name, but I wanted a name that had Amanda in it, so that I wouldn’t have to change my passport because I already had the identity. I had a passport, a driver’s license and bank accounts with that name.
So it was simply me thinking, how might I hold unto this name, however at that point make it Igbo?
The reason I didn’t want to talk about it – because I have actually decided to write about it – is because I wanted to give it time to have its own legitimacy. Had I started talking about it earlier, it would have been so easy to dismiss. In some ways, it feels legitimate now because half of the kids born in Igboland are being named Chimamanda.”
Watch Chimamanda speak below:
