Some people idolize rock stars, feel faint at the sight of famous actors and even fetishize politicians. My crush is a little more low key but no less awe inducing in my humble opinion, and that's the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie. Every speech or interview Adichie gives strikes a deep chord and every book speaks to me on a visceral level. Our journeys as west Africans living between three continents - Europe, America, Africa, or Afropolitans, have many similarities and inform our opinions on so much. She has the ability to express what I'm feeling in the most intellectual, articulate yet deceptively simple way.
A in-depth New Yorker piece on Adichie kept me up way past my bedtime last night as I devoured every word and nodded and smiled in appreciation and agreement. As an African abroad, navigating race and identity on a daily basis is no small feat. A highly recommended read.
Photograph by Pari Dukovic for The New Yorker
