Feminist Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said she has regrets over not becoming a citizen of the United States.
“I made the choice years ago not to become a U.S. citizen, a choice I’m now regretting, because I said to myself, ‘I really need to be … I have to be an authentic Nigerian,’” she told Ebuka Obi-Uchendu on Bounce Radio in a recent interview, noting that she was “waiting for Trump to leave” to apply to become a citizen.
Adichie is known for her novel Purple Hibiscus and essay We Should All Be Feminists, and she garnered attention after being featured in Beyonce’s song Flawless.
She was also asked during the interview if she was “proud to be a Nigerian,” saying that answering either “yes” or “no” would be a “lie.”
“If I said yes, it would be a lie. If I said no, it would be a lie. I’m Nigerian. That’s the hand I got dealt,” she said.
“Nigeria deeply frustrates me — deeply frustrates me. And a few years ago, I realized I don’t have to love Nigeria. And it was a very freeing realization for me,” she added, explaining that she doesn’t need to be a “dutiful daughter” of the country.
Adichie has repeatedly slammed former President Donald Trump’s administration.
She said last year that she “watched America become ordinary. It felt almost like a personal loss. Suddenly, the thing that I thought was shiny no longer was. Suddenly, America was a place that we could laugh about and mock.”
Her feminism and writings have earned her international lauding, with her being credited with helping redefine 21st-century feminism and winning the Women’s Prize for Fiction “Winner of Winners” award in 2020 for her book Half of a Yellow Sun.
“One of the things that’s so fantastic about Chimamanda being the winner of winners is that a lot of younger readers are now coming to that novel who probably didn’t read it when it came out. It’s felt like a really celebratory thing to be doing over this very strange year,” said Kate Mosse, the founder of the Women’s Prize for Fiction.
