The recent chieftaincy title bagged by award-winning author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, in her hometown, spurred fusillade of reactions.
Unarguably, Adichie, is one of the world’s most visible writers. The celebrated author has received global recognition for her works including — Purple Hibiscus, Half of a Yellow Sun, Americanah, and the non-fiction volume titled ‘We Should All Be Feminists’. — which has won numerous awards and prizes.
Last year, she received the highest honour of Harvard University, the W. E. B. Du Bois Medal. In all, Adichie’s self-made spiral and talent are soaring high in academia and the international arena.
She is almost as well known for her activism, especially her strong stance on feminism, as she is for her fiction. She occupies a unique position combining several attributes.
Born in Enugu, she grew up in the academic ambience of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where her father was a professor and her mother the University’s first female Registrar.
Adichie, who hails from Abba (family ancestral village), Anambra, recently received the title of ‘Odeluwa Abba’ which loosely translates to ‘The one who writes for the world’ from the traditional ruler of Abba, Igwe L.N. Ezeh.
In the now-viral pictures, the 45-year-old author and public speaker could be seen dressed in Igbo traditional attire while holding a traditional fan with the inscription “Odeluwa Abba”.
For Adichie, becoming the first woman in her hometown to be conferred a chieftaincy title will be a source of inspiration for other young girls and women to follow suit.
Accepting the title, unexpectedly, Adichie stirred the hornet’s nest in some quarters.
For many observers it was ironic for Adichie to have accepted a traditional chieftaincy title and turned down a national honour from the Federal Government.
Also, so many other issues, ranging from the positive, to the ridiculous and the absurd dominated the discourse. But prominently, the visceral reaction of Ọlawale Ọlọfọrọ popularly known as Brymo sparked a row on Twitter. He criticised Adichie for rejecting President Buhari’s National Honor and then accepting a chieftaincy title in her birthplace.
Brymo’s reaction ignited another sensitive conversation on ethnicity and bigotry with respect to national patriotism. The crux of the matter hinges on why Adichie would reject a national honor which contains worthy winners.
It would be recalled that in October 2022, she rejected a national award offered to her. Over the years, the Nigerian National Honours Award has remained an instrument for rewarding citizens working hard in different fields of endeavour.
But Adichie who was to receive the Order of Federal Republic (OFR) award at the ceremony that took place last year, neither attended the event nor accepted the award, conveying her non-acceptance privately.
She may have towed the line of popular novelist, Chinua Achebe who had in 2004, in a letter to President Obasanjo, turned down an offer to receive a ‘Commander of the Federal Republic.’
Achebe drew specific attention to his native Anambra State, where “a small clique of renegades, openly boasting its connections in high places, seems determined to turn my homeland into a bankrupt and lawless fiefdom”.
For Adiche, she appears not too comfortable with the double standard, surrounding the so called national honours. But to observers, her acceptance of her hometown award smells of hypocrisy.
In 2020, Adichie stirred mixed reactions after she said she didn’t consider herself an ambassador of Nigeria.
She had argued in an interview saying: “I am an ambassador for myself. I don’t represent Nigeria. There are things about Nigeria I don’t like. But, at the same time, I am very very proud of my Nigerian identity”
The chieftaincy title bagged by Adichie, may have offered her the opportunity to showcase the rich Igbo culture to the world, but the conversation surrounding her sense of patriotism may not go away soon. (The Nation)
